Coleman: We’re going in right direction

A fifth defeat in nine games wasn’t quite what was hoped for at the end of a year that was well below what was expected at the outset, but at the end of it all there was optimism amongst the players on an evening where the performance showed plenty of promise despite the scoreline.

Seamus Coleman was the leading light on a night where the experimental side perhaps failed to gel fully, but with a performance that further cemented his place as first choice right-back, the Donegal man was keen to look forward.

“The result is disappointing but I thought we played some nice football at times and all we were missing was a goal,” he said.

“I’m happy with my own performance but there’s no point in being happy when the team don’t win. Still, I can take positives. We’re going into the next set of games in March positive, I think we’re going in the right direction.”

On being first choice right-back, he added: “When you get in, you need to stay in and I’ve waited a long time to get into the team. It’s up to me now to do everything I can so the manager will find it hard to leave me out.

“There was a lot of space in front of me at times tonight when Robbie [Brady] cut in to give me space going forward, get on to my stronger foot and overlap.”

By the end of the game Coleman was one of seven players who formerly plied their trade in the League of Ireland, with Shane Long making it eight in total to have featured over the course of the evening.

Long, who was subbed off at theinterval, was also in optimistic mood at the end.

“The result was disappointing but I think we can take a lot of positives from the game. I think the result doesn’t show how good the performance was,” he said.

“We could have easily had three or four penalties in the first half. We passed the ball well, had plenty of possession in the first 25 minutes and did well overall.

“I don’t think they really tested us up until that point apart from one save from [David] Forde.”

The West Brom man was taken off for Kevin Doyle but confirmed the change was down to a niggling hamstring strain.

“I have that hamstring strain for the last few weeks so I could feel it a little bit when I was sprinting and the manager wanted to give Kevin and Andy [Keogh] a run from the bench as well,” he said.

As for whether his performance was enough to earn a starting place in the team come the spring fixtures, he added: “I hope so. I feel like I’m playing well at club level and I think they were happy with my performance tonight.

“The manager has a few different options to choose from, there are a lot of strikers in the squad. I’ll just go back to West Brom and hopefully I’ll put in some good performances there over the next two or three months.”

Greece’s goal came when skipper Georgios Samaras turned Konstantinos Mitroglou’s pass into the path of Holebas, who span John O’Shea and thumped the ball into the bottom corner.

O’Shea admitted he should have done better.

“For the goal I should have done better, I let him come off just too easy but I think we should have been a couple of goals up by then.

“We had the penalty shout early on and the way we started the game we probably deserved to be ahead.

“They haven’t been beaten in a few games and they’ve put in a determined, defensive performance.’’