Dunne, but not dusted, says Richard

There were any number of moments on Sunday night that indicated an Irish team playing below its best but perhaps none were more alarming than the sight of Richard Dunne being hounded out of possession in that fraught opening half.

The Aston Villa defender was the rock on which Ireland’s qualification for these European Championships was founded and to see him twist and turn with unusual hesitancy was, in retrospect, all too symbolic of an ultimately forgettable experience in Poznan.

Dunne and Ireland survived those mistakes but others were far more costly and all concerned will find themselves wrestling with the thoughts of just how untimely and untypical it all was of a team that has come to pride itself on its parsimoniousness.

“It wasn’t great,” said Dunne. “Such a build-up to a big tournament and it just didn’t go for us. We didn’t play to the 100% of our capabilities and that’s what we need in every game to be competitive. For different reasons we just ... I don’t what it was, but they got the goals at good times for them and that really killed us off.”

You have to feel for the man. Ten years ago, he was a cornerstone of an Irish defence that helped orchestrate a berth at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea but his input come the tournament itself was restricted to training sessions.

A repeat was never remotely possible this time around and one of the few memories of Monday’s 90-plus minutes was the roar which greeted his first touch against Croatia – a trademark clearing header that launched the ball into the stratosphere.

It was a moment that screamed defiance, a reiteration of that refrain that you would never beat the Irish. The reaction from the vociferous Irish support was confirmation of their trust in, and love of, a man whose resilience was, in the end, outdone in part by misfortune.

In years to come, eyes will roll and heads shake at the cruel manner in which Ireland were undone. We will tut-tut at cruel deflections and moan about ricochets and the dominance of Slaven Bilic’s side will fade from the narrative but the fact remains that the victors earned their cosy cuddle with Lady Luck.

Dunne’s take was different.

“They weren’t outstanding either. It was just lucky breaks on the night. Maybe we had a bit of luck in games on the way here and then on Sunday everything that could have went against us — did go against us. They had lucky decisions throughout the game. But we’ve no excuses, we prepared well, we were ready to go and it just didn’t happen for us on the night.”

In a way, the support they received at the Municipal Stadium only made everything worse. Sportspeople can sometimes trot out any number of half-hearted platitudes about supporters who spend their hard-earned following their fortunes but not in this instance where every word of appreciation for the supporters was heartfelt.

Dunne spoke of being “blown away” by the atmosphere generated in the ground and around the team hotel in Central Poznan over the course of Sunday and Monday and all concerned have no option but to look forward to Gdansk onThursday with an air of belief, no matter how improbable that may be.

“It’s still a massive occasion for everyone back home, the people who come over here and spend all their money to come and watch us, so we’ve got to make sure when we get there on Thursday that our heads will be right and we’ll go there to win the game.

“We came to win all three games. This is a setback, without a doubt, and we’ve got two really tough games coming up but this is what we came for, we want to play against the best teams, we want to see where we are.

“This is the opportunity that we’ve craved for a long, long time.”

“We understand that we’ll be written off and not given a chance. But we’ve got 180 minutes of football. Why not? We’ve done it before. We’ve beaten bigger teams than Croatia. We still believe we can win our group.”