Martin O’Neill hailed his side’s resilience and strength of character following Ireland’s remarkable World Cup qualifying victory over Austria in Vienna.
James McClean grabbed the only goal of the game as O’Neill’s side went top of Group D with their hard-fought, yet deserved, victory against fellow qualification hopefuls, Austria.
O’Neill’s side remain unbeaten in Group D with three wins and a draw from their opening four games and puts them in great shape going into 2017 in their quest to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“There is a great resilience about the team and I know these are overused words but there is a great strength of character about the side, and they go right to the end,” said O’Neill, speaking at the post match press conference.
The Ireland manager was true to his word when he spoke before the game about not playing for a draw and hoping his side would start on the front foot, naming an attack-minded side, including Wes Hoolahan in the starting eleven.
But O’Neill was loath to take credit for the victory, saying that it is the players rather than the selection that won the game in front of a 48,500-capacity, vociferous crowd at the Ernst Happel Stadion.
“Naturally team selection is very, very important, of course it is, but players still have to go and perform and they certainly did that this evening,” said O’Neill.
“It puts some extra points on the board, but it's a long way away. But overall tonight, yes, I'm delighted.”
“A number of players there tonight, you could hardly differentiate in terms of their performance.
“It was really brilliant tonight, second half, McClean's goal, a great move and then really strong defensively, so I am very, very pleased, naturally.
“It puts some extra points on the board, but it's a long way away. But overall tonight, yes, I'm delighted.”
And while O’Neill commended every man on the pitch, the Ireland manager took a moment to pay great credit to Hull City midfielder David Meyler who was thrown into the action after just 23 minutes of the game due to Glenn Whelan’s injury.
“I thought Meyler was excellent, really, really excellent tonight. Sometimes when you come on as a substitute, it takes you a length of time to get into the game itself and maybe sometimes for 10, 15 minutes, it might pass you by.
“But Meyler made sure tonight that it wouldn't do that. I thought he was great, really great and he is taking it in his stride. He was terrific.”
Harry Arter finally got a chance to make his competitive debut for Ireland, finally putting to bed those unfounded rumours that the Bournemouth man was considering declaring for England.
“Well that was the great news tonight,” joked O’Neill, when reminded of Arter’s situation. “He is now our player. So that big story that developed and took flight a few weeks ago, thankfully we have put that to bed.
“Harry, I felt, came into the game, I thought it was a tough start for him, as it was for all of us.
“But he came into the game in the second half, I thought he did very well, and he can only improve.”
