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| | Saturday, 7 September, 2002, 19:05 GMT 20:05 UK McCarthy stunned by defeat  McCarthy's team suffered the worst defeat of his reign Mick McCarthy appeared stunned after his Republic of Ireland side had crashed to the heaviest defeat of his 68 games in charge over the past six years. It was the first time a Republic team had conceded four goals since losing 4-1 to Denmark in a 1985 World Cup qualifier. And it got the Republic's Euro 2004 Group 10 qualifying campaign off to the worst possible start. "It's been a bad day at the office for us in terms of defending," admitted McCarthy. "That's not us. We don't start like that normally. We usually go forward and play at a high tempo to pen them in.
"I'm disappointed with the goals we've conceded. We don't normally concede goals like that. "We came here to try to win the game and we believed we could but we gave a poor goal away and suddenly found ourselves two down. "After that we were taking chances and chasing the game but we had to do that. "I would sooner sit here having lost 4-2 and given it a good go than not give it a go".
McCarthy said his men couldn't hope to get away with the bad defending that left them with a mountain to climb. "We've scored two goals and I wouldn't expect to do that away from home and get beaten under normal circumstances. "But there's nothing we can do about it now. We have to concentrate on our next game. "It's now about motivation for all of us and winning that game at home (against Switzerland in October)". Russian manager Valeri Gazzaev was delighted with his team's performance. "This is a very big win for us because in the last few years Ireland have lost only one or two matches," he said. Both managers singled out the Republic's Robbie Keane for praise. Gazzaev added: "Keane is a good player and caused us many problems". McCarthy said: "Robbie was excellent, he was first class all night." | |
See also:  07 Sep 02 | Republic of Ireland 03 Sep 02 | Sports Talk 07 Sep 02 | Scotland Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Republic of Ireland stories now: Links to more Republic of Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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