Few positives but we still won

Fair enough, there were few positives tonight. But I don’t think people should get bogged down by negativity.

I’ve been home now for a couple of days and have been watching all the news and reading the papers and there does seem to be a lot of negativity around the team and around the manager.

I would say, though, that people should be careful what they wish for.

In that respect, some of the debate over whether the manager should be sacked does disappoint me, I must say.

It is to be expected given the Euros and given the industry that we’re in but, as a nation, we’re not generally like that. We always get behind our teams. You see it with the Olympics, with the rugby, so it does surprise me when these instances happen.

As an example, we could go back to the Mick McCarthy era. He brought great times to the team and the way that ended was very, very sour.

I just think we need to be careful because, after Mick McCarthy left, there wasn’t a lot to sing and dance about for a long time until Giovanni Trapattoni came along.

I’ve seen a lot of debate over the last few days but the way he sets his team up is in a manner that he genuinely believes will get results. And, to date, that has proven to be the case. We didn’t qualify for a tournament for 10 years and then he came along, we were ever so close in 2010 and then got there in 2012.

People will say that, because I’m directly involved in it and because I’ve got a lot of time and respect for this man that I’d be biased but, again, I genuinely believe that people need to be careful what they wish for.

He’s got experience, he’s got success.

We didn’t play well last night and there are few positives. One of them, though, is the win.

The first thing I would say to that, though, is that the manager doesn’t preach to us that we play the long ball. If John O’Shea or Stephen Ward get the ball and the opportunity is on to play it to midfield, we will do that.

Tonight, maybe, we could have done that more than we did.

If things aren’t going your way as a team, if your game is off, then the one thing you can do against that level of opposition is to try and play on their weaknesses, to try and close them down quicker.

Because, with all due respect to the Kazakhstan players, they’re not going to have the skill of the Germans to just flick the ball to the side and get by you.

Against teams like that, you can afford to be that bit more aggressive and I thought that was something we could have done better last night, regardless of how we played individually or collectively. Instead, we were just flat.

Even though travelling nine hours for a European qualifier is ridiculous, I don’t think that is an excuse or an explanation for that. And the players won’t be using it as an excuse. After all, we got a result in Russia despite a long flight and similar plastic pitch.

I’ve always said as a player that, when you come off, you don’t look at anyone else. You look in the mirror and ask have you done enough yourself. Tonight, I think most of the lads will be thinking they could have done more.

We didn’t create that higher tempo last night and we could have done better there.

It was only really when Kevin Doyle and Shane Long came on that they gave us a bit of energy, they made a real difference. Aiden McGeady as well. I thought we could have tried to get the ball to him a bit more as he has proven very dangerous.

But I was pleased for Kevin as he had a massive impact.

Of course, the selection policy has been a bit of an issue this week.

I haven’t been privy to what’s gone on behind the scenes over the last few days but, from experience, selection can come down to something as simple as a player carrying an injury or a knock. There are things like this that go on behind the scenes that don’t come out in the general public.

Even as regards Simon Cox on the wing, he uses the ball very well when he gets it.

As a whole, I don’t think we can overlook the performance but we can try and learn from it. We can count ourselves lucky this evening and move on. In the end, we showed a bit of spirit and endeavour. You never know, it might end up making a difference.