Nathan Collins hurt by 'horrible' Wembley experience, but detects progress

HURT: Ireland's Nathan Collins at Wembley. Pic ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Hurtful and horrible. Two descriptions of a sobering evening don’t dim the view of Nathan Collins that Ireland are an improving side.

England put five past Ireland without reply, yet the fact they all arrived after Liam Scales was sent off supplies a sinew of mitigation.

Collins again led out the team as captain, only resuming his defensive role following the red card brandished to Scales. While the guarantee of third spot in the group removed any jeopardy, it’s a long time until the Uefa Nations League playoff in March.

“This is just a horrible one and so annoying,” said the 23-year-old. “The scoreline obviously hurts a lot. You take the first half that finishes scoreless and you think ‘bloody hell we’ve frustrated them a lot, created a few chances and look so defensively sound'. 

“We started the second doing the same thing and then it’s a tough one for Scalsey. Double jeopardy and it changed the game completely.” 

There was another potential turning point that didn’t go in Ireland’s favour when a tug on the shirt of Evan Ferguson by Marc Guehi inside the box midway through the first half went unpunished.

“It's my job to talk to the ref, I try to have a bit of craic and be mates with him,” Collins explained about his dealings with Belgian official Erik Lambrechts.

“Refereeing in a place like Wembley it's hard to side with us so that was also annoying.” 

Scales’ dismissal alone doesn’t account for the lapses during a barrage of five goals over a 30-minute spell. Conceding straight after the interval is a plague this team is struggling to cure.

“I think we are still sitting in our shape not too bad but we concede four set-pieces,” Collins noted. “We need to do better there.

“Against Greece away last month, we look defensively sound and then the first five or ten minutes, we concede a goal.” 

Nevertheless, the Brentford man is adamant Ireland under Heimir Hallgrímsson are progressing. Two wins, both against Finland, are the upside of a campaign that entailed defeats to Greece and England, home and away.

“Take away what happened for the goals and I think you see our overall performances are getting better,” he reasoned.

“I hope other people agree. I don’t know whether they do or not. But as a group, I think you can see it.”

Mark McGuinness profited from the deployment of Collins into midfield, the Luton Town defender parachuted in for his debut at a venue just 20 miles from his Slough base.

He reflected on a chastening bow, in direct combat with opening scorer, Harry Kane: “We’d talked about frustrating England and we felt the Wembley crowd was very flat. That was the gameplan we tried to execute.

“We were really positive coming in at half-time but the second was…the second half.

“Kane is smart, a player who drops short into spaces to allow others run in behind. He was kept quiet for a time but produced a moment of brilliance, the pass which led to the penalty. That’s why he’s at that level.

“It was nice to play against him to see the level I want to be at but overall it was a very frustrating evening.”