Givens angry over 'dubious' penalty

Republic of Ireland caretaker boss Don Givens said the late penalty that denied them victory over Wales felt like “a kick in the teeth”.

The Republic were 2-1 ahead thanks to goals from Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle, which had cancelled out Jason Koumas’ early header, and seemingly on the way to their first Euro 2008 Group D victory since March.

But Paul McShane’s foul on David Cotterill gave Koumas the opportunity to score the equalising penalty in the Millennium Stadium.

Givens said: “I felt the penalty was a bit dubious, I doubt we would have got it at the other end.

“It is certainly a kick in the teeth, we deserved to win and had played well. What we didn’t manage was the third goal that would have killed them off.

“I doubt that had Germany been 2-1 up here with two minutes to go, they would not have lost the lead. Particularly as the penalty came from a break from our own corner.”

But Givens conceded that Wales deserved something from a spirited performance.

He said: “They gave everything and Jason Koumas gave us plenty of problems.”

However, Wales boss John Toshack viewed it differently.

He said: “We should have had a penalty earlier on when Koumas was fouled. He was booked for that and now he is suspended for the game in Germany on Wednesday. It certainly was not worth a booking, there was contact.

“So when David Cotterill is being pulled back outside the box, and then it continues inside, maybe the referee felt we deserved something.

“In the end I felt we deserved something from the game. We had two teenagers, Gunter and Eardley, at full-back, and they were excellent.

“We lost two more players injured or sick before the game and our team was very young indeed. Under those circumstances, we are more than happy with the draw.

“I can understand that the Irish felt they should have won. But we had only four lads from the Premier League and they had all but two.

“Players of that experience will be very annoyed with themselves for not holding on to the victory with just two minutes left.”

Wales also lost Carl Robinson with ankle ligament problems. He was taken to hospital for a scan after the match, and the experienced Toronto man will not be travelling to Frankfurt.

Wales also have worries about Robert Earnshaw (sickness) and Lewin Nyatanga (groin) who both pulled before the match.