Long predicts dejected Hunt to bounce back after Czech out

STEPHEN HUNT may not be too popular with Greek referees or Czech supporters but the Reading midfielder can still count on the backing of Shane Long, his team-mate at both club and international level, following his sending off in Prague.

The second-half dismissal of Hunt, who had come on for the injured John O’Shea to inject some badly-needed urgency to a Republic side that trailed 1-0, was a blow from which Steve Staunton’s side was unable to recover and, Long admits, effectively ends their hopes of reaching the Euro 2008 finals.

Referee Kyros Vassaras, the man who sent off Andy O’Brien at Lansdowne Road two years earlier, viewed Hunt’s hour-mark lunge at Jan Polak as an offence meriting a straight red card, and the Republic now find themselves trailing the Czechs by six points in Group D, a barrier Long knows is likely to prove insurmountable.