Coleman: Losing to Scotland a “horrible feeling”

Seamus Coleman dejected after the game. Picture: INPHO/Donall Farmer

By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin

Seamus Coleman said the Republic of Ireland squad were hugely disappointed by last night’s defeat to Scotland, but were now focused on getting maximum points from their home games.

He echoed the thoughts of

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“It was important not to lose it,” he said after the match. “We would have been happy to come out of here with a point in the end, with the way the game was going.”

“Unfortunately we switched off a bit for the corner and they scored.”

The player wouldn’t be drawn on who was responsible for the lapse.

“That’ll be staying the changing room, we’re a tight group in there,” he said.

“We know what we’ve done right and done wrong and we know what we’ve to get right.”

When asked how he felt Coleman was open about the disappointment of the loss.

“Horrible, horrible feeling. I know we pushed them back a bit toward the end, but no, not good enough. We’re all disappointed.”

It was suggested that seven points from the first four games was a reasonable tally and one that would have been seen as respectable before the start of the campaign, but Coleman said that was cold comfort so soon after a defeat.

“I know you can say all that, but you take each game as it comes - we wanted to beat Scotland tonight and we failed to do that,” he said.

However he said the squad would now focus on the next stages of the campaign and getting maximum points from their home games.

“Look, we’re disappointed, but we can’t keep our heads down for too long,” said Coleman.

“As footballers, you hurt bad when you lose, but you gotta get back on the horse, there’s four games at home coming up and we’ll be aiming to do well in all of them.”