“We must all stand up and be counted”

A LESSON should be learned. Before Ireland’s biggest game in two years, there was a real mood of optimism in the air. The Russians, we were assured, were in turmoil and also didn’t travel well.

It's difficult to know if this mood seeped into the players' minds but judging by some of their reaction, perhaps it did. When neither Damien Duff nor Clinton Morrison stop to chat about a football match, something is terribly amiss. As Shay Given accepted qualification has been taken out of Ireland's hands again.

"It was a strange kind of game," Given felt. "They didn't create many chances, we didn't create many. When they got the goal back, they sat very deep and we couldn't break them down, but a lot of teams are going to come here and do that and we are going to have to look at a way to deal with that." At the moment, there are few options. Ireland now depend on Duff as much as they depended on Roy Keane two years ago. It is a massive weight for any player to carry, especially a 24-year-old winger with a languid style. But on Saturday at any rate, there was no other spark, no other player created a buzz in the crowd, not even Matt Holland with his manful efforts to lift the crowd with 10 minutes remaining.

Kenny Cunningham arrives on this disappointing day to mark his half-century with Ireland. His mistimed 68th minute tackle means we go to Switzerland without our skipper, and more significantly, our most solid defender. "That's football. These things happen. We have got excellent cover in that position, we have both Richard Dunne and Andy O'Brien to come in, who are both excellent defenders."

However, Cunningham's absence should cause us all to fret. Gary Breen never looks comfortable beside any other central defender and Cunningham brings another quality this Irish team have in short supply: leadership. As for his 50th game for Ireland, how did he see it? "We went into this game looking for all three points. It hasn't worked out. And there are possibly a number of reasons for that. Our effort and commitment can't be faulted. We tried as hard as we could. But the most disappointing aspect was we didn't pass the ball as crisply as we could and weren't as imaginative in our play as we have been before in Lansdowne Road. That frustrated us a little bit and you could sense the frustration around the ground." Of course, John O'Shea could and should replace Cunningham for the match in Basle, if he is fit. Early in the first-half, O'Shea stood on the ball straining his tendon, an injury aggravated by Rolan Gusev's lunge moments later. Given the dearth of fit defenders around Old Trafford, it's not hard to imagine a watching Alex Ferguson putting his foot through the telly.

O'Shea believes he will be fit, however. "It's more bruising and swelling. The initial report says between a week and ten days. I will know a bit more when the swelling comes down," said O'Shea. In a game of such magnitude, he didn't want to be called ashore. "I thought I could run it off after I fell. But with the other knock, I had no option but to come off. When it is such an important game, you do everything you can to stay on."

Apart from Duff, the only other spark came in the shape of Kevin Kilbane. The winger had his best game in Lansdowne Road, although as the second-half wore on, the Russians grew wise to him.

Still, if his work-rate was replicated across the field, perhaps Ireland would have found a winner from somewhere. Kilbane toils like few others, but on Saturday, he was genuinely creative, although he didn't think so afterwards. "We didn't create too many chances for Damien and Clinton and perhaps, I am to blame for that. We couldn't get the supply into them. You have to give credit to them, they sat very deep and didn't give us any chance to get in behind them." The shapeless first-half display Kilbane felt was nerves. "We were nervous. We didn't go at them the way we would have liked because there was nerves through the whole team. This was a massive game for us and it is disappointing that we couldn't stand up and be counted when it mattered."

The goal, coming so soon after Duff's sublime effort, winded the Irish. "That's not like us," said Kilbane. Their equaliser was a real comedy of errors. Given didn't punch the ball far enough when he came for the cross, and Breen's diving hand deflected past the Newcastle keeper. Good thing, too, as Breen would have been sent off.

"It was a scrappy goal to give away," said Given. "The corner came in, we had a challenge, it dropped down on the edge of the box and the bloke has hit it. It was coming straight at me and Breeny just stuck out a hand and it deflected past me. I suppose if he left it, I would have picked it up, but he didn't know what was behind him so he was trying to stop it."

Conceding a goal from a set-piece. Just another thing for Brian Kerr to ponder. And there is plenty of other things. Kerr is a fantastic manager, but even fantastic managers can't manufacture creative midfielders from thin air. We should all be watching Liam Miller's development in Glasgow with a keen eye. Similarly, Stephen McPhail's efforts to resurrect his career in Nottingham.

Robbie Keane will be back for the do-or-die game in Switzerland, which frees Duff up to create. However, we can't depend on him to do everything. Time for others to step up.