Adam Idah believes that the Ireland performance against France has shown how far this Ireland side have come since the early days of Stephen Kenny's tenure.
The Norwich City striker, who was a second-half substitute during Ireland’s opening Euro 2024 qualifier, said there was real belief now in the squad, and it was very much in evidence in the performance against the World Cup finalists.
And while the game against their esteemed opponents should convince many of the doubters of the quality that exists within the team, Idah admitted that it will also help convince the squad that they are capable of competing with any team in international football.
"We are all disappointed; it was a tough result to take," said Idah, speaking to RTE Sport’s Damien O’Meara after the game.
"I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game. I thought the lads were excellent against one of the best teams in the world.
"We knew that going into the game, and I thought we were fantastic and proved to everyone and proved to ourselves how far we have come, and there is lots of great things coming and we just have to stick to that and hopefully get some points in the next couple of games."
Idah believes that there is the perfect blend of youth and experience in what is now a well-balanced Ireland squad, and he lauded the management, who gave the team the tactics to compete and the self-belief to go up against the best in the world.
"It’s a young team and there are some experienced and senior players, and there is a lot of belief in the changing room amongst the players and the staff. We all know how good we are, so we have to just carry on fighting and be the best that we can.
"We know what standards we have to set and we know when we are playing against a team like France what we need to do.
"Go out and be ourselves, we are all good players and we are at this stage for a reason," was what Stephen Kenny said to his players, according to the striker, who has been on this journey with the manager since before making his senior debut, having worked together with the Ireland Under-21s.
"We did our homework on France, but mainly we did our homework on the (training) pitch to do what we wanted to do, to express ourselves, go out and be confident and not to be afraid of the team that we are playing."
Idah was an injury concern during the build-up to the game, and while he was not risked for the midweek friendly against Latvia, he was confident that he would make the France match, while waiting on the results of a scan.
And the Cork native showed no signs of struggle as he was asked to lead the line for the final 30 minutes, which should now boost confidence returning to his club to help their Premier League promotion push, coming up against John Egan and Sheffield United on Saturday.
"I got the scan back on Friday," said Idah. "I knew myself where my fitness was, but obviously the outside people didn’t know what was going on.
"But I’m delighted to be back amongst the team so for me now, I just need to keep the head down and carry on working hard."
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