Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill remains confident that his side can qualify for Euro 2016 despite suffering a disappointing defeat to Scotland at Celtic Park.
Shaun Maloney's second-half strike proved to be the difference between the sides on a night when Ireland were far from their best and struggled to create any meaningful chances of note.
However, O’Neill insisted that this result will not decide Ireland’s qualification fate and told RTÉ Sport: "Naturally, I’m disappointed. It was a frenetic affair really, it was called a derby game beforehand and that’s how it panned out.
"As the away side, I thought we were dealing with things reasonably well so the goal is naturally a disappointment to us, the result is a disappointment but it’s far from fatal."
Despite being second best for much of the game, Ireland could have snatched a draw at the death as Grant Hanley headed the ball against his own crossbar. It would have been a goal that O’Neill felt Ireland perhaps deserved.
"We had the chance and I honestly think that if we scored that goal we would have deserved it. I don't think that Scotland created a lot of chances in the game and as the home side the onus is on them to attack.
"I always felt that we were in the game and I thought that when the goal came it was a moment or two that we were under a little bit of pressure but nothing undue.
"We attempted to go as strong as we possibly could, we played two up and we tried to go for the game. It didn't work out that way but there are certain games that are considered derby games and it’s very difficult to get the ball down."
The Ireland manager sounded a note of optimism, adding: “We’re not out of this, we’ve got seven points on the board, the same as Scotland and Scotland still have to travel to us and we’ve got four out of five of the next matches at our place.
“I said before that regardless of the result tonight that everything will depend on 2015.”
