Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill insists that his side remain in the hunt for Euro 2016 qualification despite their disappointing draw at home to Scotland.
Ireland were held 1-1 by the Scots after a game in which they dominated for large periods but were unable to fashion a second goal.
After Jonathan Walters had put Ireland ahead from close range in the first half, Scotland equalised a minute into the second half courtesy of a John O’Shea own goal thanks to some poor defending.
The result leaves O’Neill's side with a mountain to climb if they are to make it to France 2016 and they currently sit fourth in the Group D table with the first two teams qualifying automatically with a play-off spot going to third place.
Group leaders Poland along with Germany are favourites for automatic qualification while today’s result leaves Scotland two points ahead of Ireland with a better head-to-head record, meaning that Ireland need to make up three points on the Scots.
"We’re still in it. We’re still in the competition," O’Neill told RTÉ Sport. "I know that Scotland have some difficult games coming up. We have to try and make use of our matches in September.
"[The result] keeps the status quo with Scotland. I think you would have expected Poland to win today anyway but we’re still in contention."
"It’s going miles wide, it’s come of John O’Shea’s shoulder and gone into the net"
O’Neill admitted that he was disappointed by the goal which Ireland conceded, coming as it did, just after half-time and on the back of poor defending.
"I think the goal we conceded was a desperately poor goal. It’s going miles wide, it’s come of John O’Shea’s shoulder and gone into the net," he said.
"Half-time took a little steam out of us but even still we should defend that better than we do. They had three or four passes and we dropped onto the back foot and even though Maloney’s shot was going wide we should have closed it down."
"We lost a bit of composure then for about ten minutes in the game and Scotland came into it. I think we were obviously sat back immediately after half-time. We finished pretty strongly considering we were quite tired before the end.
"For the last 15 minutes of the game they were taking a lot of time over things and I wasn't completely sure that the referee was helpful in that aspect but overall let’s forget about blaming anyone.
"We had a chance there and we spurned the chance eventually because we couldn't get enough goals but we’re still in the competition," he reiterated.
Scotland manager Gordon Strachan was understandably far happier with the result of a game he described as "ridiculous".
He said: "What an intense game of football, what a great occasion. To get that intensity in June is ridiculous after players playing that amount of games. It's quite phenomenal.
"I think the intensity came with both teams desperate to win, and desperate when they didn't have the ball to not lose. We have seen something you don't normally see in June, so you have to give respect to all the players who played out there today.
"But I have not analysed the group. You never know - I keep saying this - you never know what the points are going to be that are going to get you to qualify."
