Ireland wonder what might have been after late Suan song

REGRETS? You can bet there’s one or two.

If only Damien Duff's late effort had been deflected under, rather than onto, the bar. If only Stephen Carr hadn't coughed up possession in the corner in the run-up to the equaliser. If only Shay Given had seen Abbas Suan's shot come through the mass of bodies a split second earlier.

Secondary details that should not be allowed to obscure the bigger picture why Ireland opted to keep Israel at arm's length for 87 minutes and not go for the jugular.

France's deadlock with Switzerland later in the evening painted Ireland's draw in a far more flattering light, but Duff's reaction to the final whistle said everything about just how big an opportunity Ireland had let slip.

With the rest of the Irish players taking a moment to let the enormity of what had just happened sink in, the Chelsea player was already disappearing down the tunnel, eyes glued to the turf, his head shaking from side to side the whole way.

In a group that is beginning to become increasingly claustrophobic and tight at the top, Ireland had neglected the chance to truly grab the campaign by the collar.

"I hope it's not (too damaging)," said Kevin Kilbane as he put Duff's feelings into words. "We just have to look at it now as having come here and gotten a point. We play the Israeli's in Dublin, the French and the Swiss in Dublin and we've just gotta make the home games count now. We've always said that."

Almost as deflating as Abbas Suan's late contribution on Saturday was Ireland's lack of thrust in attack. More than once, promising attacking positions ended up with the ball finding it's way back to Shay Given's area than anywhere near Dudu Awat's.

As Given himself said, this one felt much more like a defeat than a share of the spoils and Kilbane held his hand up on behalf of the team as a whole, accepting that they lacked ambition with the ball, despite a start that managed to stun almost 40,000 fevered Israeli's into a shocked silence.

"After we scored early on we had a bit of a sticky spell for five or ten minutes. Other than that, we were in control of the game without doing that little bit extra. We just didn't do enough, I thought. We didn't do enough attacking wise. As a team and a group we came here expecting to create more chances than we did and that's the bottom line."

Robbie Keane however, brushed off suggestions that the visitors had sat on their lead. "Second halves away from home, you know the other team is always going to come out and give it a real go when they're down. That always happens in football, at international and club level.

"When you look at the whole game overall you would have to say that we were the better team and we deserved to win it. We should have got the three points but it's important to remember that we still have to play them at home."

Namesake Roy was another Irish player to peddle a note of optimism. "It's a disappointing end to the game but we'll be okay. When it's 1-0 there's always that danger that they're going to score. We probably could have done a bit more in the second half, kept possession a bit more.

"I wouldn't say we were under the cosh. It would have been nice to get the second goal but we didn't do enough in the second half to kill the game off. Football can be a cruel game and it's a pity the goal came so late."