Republic of Ireland defender Andrew Omobamidele insisted the side could take positives from their first-half display against Greece and appealed for Irish supporters to stay with the team, stressing "we were all fans once".
Last night's 2-0 loss to Greece was Ireland's eighth defeat in the last 10 competitive games, the two exceptions coming in games against Gibraltar.
The hosts did enjoy the better of the play in an encouraging first half performance, but continued the longstanding pattern of conceding shortly after the re-start, Fotis Ioannidis being given too much space on the edge of the box.
As Ireland chased an equaliser in vain, they were caught on the counter, Christos Tzolis slipping home to second to seal the win and spark a stampede for the exits among the 37,000-strong home crowd.
RTÉ soccer analyst Stephen Kelly was highly critical of Matt Doherty's defending for the second Greek goal in Ireland's 2-0 defeat at the Aviva Stadium. #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/ZrqMNYdtGn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 10, 2024
"We lost the game so it's disappointing but if you compare the two games, the England game to this game, there's a couple of positives you can take out of it," Omobamidele told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"You can see when we actually do play in a structure, how well we can play. I think the first half showed that.
"With the extra midfielder, it gets our press higher up and it releases more lads to go and press. But each game might require a different formation.
"It's just now getting over that barrier in the second half and coming out as good as we finished the first half."
With losing becoming a habit for Ireland, new manager Heimir Hallgrimsson suggested that the jersey was weighing a little heavy on the players, implying that their confidence had been sapped by the recent run.
Omobamidele, who missed the game against England but started at right back last night, says the players are desperate to turn the situation around.
"For us, as players, none of us are accepting that we lost two games at home, especially. We know we need to turn this place into a fortress.
"All the players know we need to do better. We're all proud to wear the jersey. We all grew up watching Ireland as kids and we want to come here at home and put on a performance for the fans.
"We've done it the hard way. Now we just need to come together. We just need to take the confidence from the first half and now just try to replicate it for the whole 90 minutes."
And the Nottingham Forest defender appealed to the fans, who showed their disenchantment at several periods during the second half, and a chorus of boos from those that remained until full-time, reminding them that the players were all fans once.
"Something else I just want to reiterate is that every single player here knows what it means to wear the jersey. None of us are taking it for granted.
"We were all fans once when we were growing up, watching Ireland and we're going to try our best to turn this around."
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