Charlton blasts 'dreadful' penalties

Former Republic of Ireland boss Jack Charlton has no sympathy for players who took 'dreadful' penalties against Spain.

"It's frustrating. Once we equalised, Ireland should definitely have won the game," Charlton said in a column in Monday's Daily Mirror.

Spain won 3-2 in the shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in which the Irish missed another spot kick.

"There are no excuses. The penalties were just dreadful.

"I don't feel for the players who missed them at all.

"They are professional players and that's their job."

The former England World Cup winner says Ireland had not prepared well for penalties.

His own Irish side won a shoot-out at this stage against Romania in the 1990 tournament.

"Penalties are important. Once you get into the knockout stages of any competition, some games are going to end up in a shoot-out."

But current manager Mick McCarthy said he had no criticism for the players who missed.

"Matt Holland and Kevin Kilbane have had great tournaments but it's sad - their abiding memory will be missing a penalty," he told the BBC's Match of the Day programme this morning.

"Practising them in training means absolutely nothing. Those boys have been smashing them in during training."

McCarthy was disappointed by the defeat but looking forward to the team's reception when they return home.

"I'm very proud of what we've achieved, but we're going home now.

"We've played one of the potential winners but I think we've done them irreperable damage."

Charlton agreed that his former side should have beaten the Spanish - down to 10 men because of an injury - after they had equalised with a late penalty in normal time.

Holland, Kilbane and David Connolly all failed from the spot in the shoot-out.

Ian Harte had missed an earlier effort in normal time.

"We had the best of the game in the second half and we had the best of the game in extra time but we lost.

"For a small country like Ireland to get as far as they did in this World Cup is a real achievement."