Kocian: Inexperience cost us

Slovakia coach Jan Kocian believes his side’s lack of international experience was key to their 1-0 defeat to Ireland at Croke Park on Wednesday.

Kocian’s men went down to a Kevin Doyle goal early in the first half which enabled Ireland to leapfrog them into third place in Group D.

“Their goalkeeper (Shay) Given was playing his 80th game for the national team - I am not sure if my whole team has played 80 games,” said Kocian.

“We knew what was waiting for us here and we knew about the power of Ireland. We prepared well, but we knew we had to be ready for individual battles.

“We wanted to be better and we wanted to avoid giving away free-kicks. I think we saw an equal game decided by one free-kick. We controlled the game at the end but did not score.”

Former Blackburn defender Vratislav Gresko added: “We are very disappointed after a game like this as we knew we had a chance to win but did not get any luck.

“We were the better team. Our pressure grew as the game went on and we got into some good positions, but we could not score.”

Striker Robert Vittek concluded on www.profutbal.sk: “We had chances to score in the opening minutes and looked dangerous, but we made a couple of mistakes as well which helped Ireland.”