Ireland captain Katie McCabe was frustrated that her team spurned some decent chances in front of a big crowd at the Aviva Stadium as they went down 2-0 to England in the Euro 2025 qualifiers.
The attendance of 32,742 was only 2,500 off the record set in the win over Northern Ireland last September but the hosts were two down inside 19 minutes after goals from Lauren James and Alex Greenwood (a penalty).
"It was a fantastic occasion tonight," Player of the Match McCabe told RTÉ Sport.
"32,000 fans on a Tuesday night in Dublin, you can't get much better than that.
"It was frustrating. First half, we feel like we could have got at them more.
"In the second half, we’re 2-0 down and need to push and I feel like we pushed them towards the end then.
"But we'll take the positives. There are four more games to go and we’ll regroup in June."
Ireland seemed to get stronger as the game went on and created several opportunities, drawing saves from England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton; one to stop a header from Caitlin Hayes and another after McCabe had blocked down her attempted clearance.
"We tweaked a few things at half-time," said McCabe. Pushed some players up and put them under pressure a little bit more.
"Created chances from set-pieces, open play, we were just unlucky in the end. We’ve got strength at set-pieces.
"The girls at the back, Caitlin [Hayes], Lou [Quinn] pose a lot of threat so it’s about utilising them a little bit more."
Should she have squared the ball to Leanne Kiernan rather than shooting after picking Hampton's pocket?
"When you’re that high and you see the keeper coming out… the angle was tight but I’ll need to have a look back."
Centre-back Louise Quinn, harshly penalised for a second penalty that England missed, said she was "as proud as anything" after Ireland fell to a narrow defeat against the world No 2-ranked side, four days after being beaten 1-0 by world No 3 France.
"We’re in the Aviva, playing in front of 32,000 and gave a very good account of ourselves, especially in the second half," she said.
"We've just played two of the best teams in the world in a short space of time.
"We are disappointed with the results. We know what teams we’re up against and we know we’re not going to have as many chances as we would like and we’ve got to take them.
"But we’ve proven that we can create something, especially in that second half. We had chances to score, we had them rattled and now we see what the level is. We have to work, we have to graft.
"That was physically and mentally tough but that’s where I want to be. We want to push ourselves as a team and empty the tank.
"We do it as pride for the jersey, I’ll do whatever it takes and wreck my body in the meantime. That’s where you just go again, recover and get back into it."
