St Ledger trying to look on the bright side

Republic of Ireland goalscorer Sean St Ledger admitted his side's frustration despite holding world champions Italy to a draw for the second time in World Cup Qualifying Group Eight.

The Middlesbrough defender's header three minutes from time appeared to have won the match for the hosts after Glenn Whelan's early strike had been cancelled out by Mauro Camoranesi at Croke Park.

But Alberto Gilardino levelled the scores in the last minute to seal Italy's qualification for the finals in South Africa and leave Giovanni Trapattoni's men facing a play-off in November.

St Ledger told Sky Sports 2: "Everyone's majorly disappointed in the changing room. It just feels like a loss, having scored so late in the game and then conceding like that.

"Emotions are probably setting in, we're probably not thinking logically, but if there is a positive we gave the world champions a run for their money and we're undefeated in the group."

St Ledger met substitute Stephen Hunt's free-kick with a diving header, but there was some dispute as to whether he should have been in the box in the first place.

"I'm back for corners and free-kicks usually," he said. "But we needed to win this game if we had any chance of getting an automatic qualification and my goalscoring record's not been too bad from those in the last couple of games.

"Shay (Given) told me to go up and fortunately I got my head on it and thought it might have won it so late into the game.

"But I suppose that's why the Italians are champions, a never-die attitude, and they've come up with the goal late in the game.

"We got caught on the counter-attack, I thought the lad (Vincenzo) Iaquinto was going to shoot and then he (Gilardino) shot and it squirmed past Shay slowly - it's one of those things."