O’Neill devastated after horror tackle on Coleman

Ireland 0

Wales 0

Neil Taylor’s horror tackle that saw Seamus Coleman stretched off and sent to hospital dominated tonight’s after match comments following the Republic of Ireland and Wales’ scoreless draw, writes Ger McCarthy.

“It is a bad break and he (Seamus) has gone to hospital now this minute,” said Martin O’Neill shortly after full time.

“It is a real, real shame for the lad. Brilliant payer, brilliant character, I we are all devastated for him. We could easily have won that game though but it is every bit as difficult to play against ten players. I think Wales, at that stage, would have settled for the draw.

“The crowd were absolutely fantastic for us tonight. We were a bit sloppy in the first half and came in without too many proper attacks in the game. The momentum continued in the second half after Seamus went off but all in all it is a point on the board but tonight it is more about Seamus.”

RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue pressed the Irish manager on another reckless tackle, Gareth Bale’s lunging challenge on John O’Shea and was taken aback on hearing the national broadcaster had decided not to show a repay of the incident.

“John O’Shea’s got a nasty shin injury and our doctors are treating him at the moment,” said O’Neill.

“He didn’t complain about it but it wasn’t great. I haven’t seen a replay of Seamus’ injury yet but it does not look good. Aiden McGeady came on and for that 15 minute spell was absolutely brilliant for us. He was taking players on and that’s the Aiden McGeady I know.

“Home matches don’t automatically mean three points but the crowd, I felt, were absolutely fantastic, particularly in the last 20 minutes. What happened to Seamus roused the crowd and the players and I couldn’t have asked for much more.

“It is really difficult to say where we are at, half way through the group but beforehand, I would definitely have taken our current points total at this stage. It is a point on the board, Wales haven’t made any ground on us and teams will take points off one another.”

JOHN O’SHEA

“We all have our fingers crossed for Seamus, it looked a bad one but we’ll have to wait and see,” commented John O’Shea to RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue.

“Our thoughts are with him but we know the type of boy he is. He’ll come back bigger and stronger as always does because he has a fantastic attitude. We are just a little bit disappointed but we are still top of the group, it was a clean sheet but if we had gotten that goal in the last 10 minutes I think we would have deserved it as we were trying our best.

“That encouraged Wales to sit back and get extra men in the box. We were close but we probably didn’t have enough good chances to really deserve the three points.

“It’s a derby game, it’s Wales, they are always close games with them and we always knew we had to be careful because they have a certain player that isn’t bad on the counter-attack and he the nearly punished there at one stage.

“For me, it’s amazing every time I put on this green shirt as I’m not getting any younger. The more often I put it on the better it and as always, I’m willing to help out whenever I’m needed.”