Givens 'ashamed' of U21s

Don Givens told his Under-21 team they should be ashamed of themselves after they lost 1-0 to Albania, whom he described as the “poorest” team he had seen at that level.

The Republic of Ireland slumped to their third defeat in four Under-21 qualifying matches, but this was by far the most embarrassing.

“I told them we should be ashamed of ourselves,” said Givens.

“When you lose to a team like that, who are probably the poorest team I’ve seen at Under-21 level, it sums us up, it really does.

“A team of our stature shouldn’t lose to that team. We might have got a goalless draw because we found it hard to score, but we don’t lose the them.

“I am absolutely sick with that result. I said to them that the one thing we mustn’t do is concede a goal to them, and the fact we did is scandalous. It’s a killer.

“The state of the pitch was always going to make it hard for us, but you can’t keep making excuses, that was dreadful and there were very few positives from my point of view.”

The goal which sunk the U21s came in the 71st minutes when substitute Erion Rizyanolli beat skipper Jim Goodwin to a long through-ball and chipped it over the advancing Graham Stack and into an empty net.

“Jim got the wrong side of the defender, which was the first mistake, and Graham made a bad decision to come, so it was between the two of them,” added Given.

“They were a poor team who didn’t cause us too many problems and we gifted them a goal which we couldn’t get back.”

A further blow for the Irish was an injury to Sunderland midfielder Mark Rossiter, whose knee gave way after he landed awkwardly, having come off the bench for his first cap.

Givens added: “It looks a bit serious at the moment and I am hoping it is not cruciate ligament damage, but we’ll have to wait and see.”