King: I thought we acquitted ourselves well

Noel King’s first game in charge as Republic of Ireland caretaker manager saw the former Shamrock Rovers stalwart endure a baptism of fire at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne.

A questionable formation, playing Kevin Doyle and Glenn Whelan out of position and refusal to introduce any substitutes made for a disappointing first outing.

Only the brilliance of David Forde prevented a heavier defeat although King was anxious to concentrate on the positive aspects of Ireland’s display in his post match TV comments.

“That third goal was a killer, but in terms of ourselves I thought we acquitted ourselves well, we were tight and we were compact. They had a large amount of possession and we needed to counter-attack. We created five or six chances so you have to be happy with that“.

When asked about the team’s shape King responded: “I think there was only one player out of position to be honest with you. We worked hard for entire game and I thought we were solid enough.

“Look, the boys tried very hard. Maybe I could have made changes but I was happy and the boys can be proud of themselves tonight.

“I don’t want to make excuses as we had a smashing bunch of players out there and I think we were still in the game up until the 89th minute. There was no way we could out-pass Germany. We put in a good performance here in an intimidating atmosphere“.

Man of the match David Forde was happy with his display:

“Definitely one of those nights where it went well for me.

“It was always going to be very difficult here and with a new manager coming into work with the team but Noel (King) did fantastically well coming in, so on a personal level it was a good night but just very disappointing to lose“.