Former Ireland centre back Gary Breen was on co-commentary duty alongside Nathan Murphy tonight and after watching the 4-1 defeat to Wales, he shared his thoughts on what he witnessed.
Positives from the UEFA Nations League match in Cardiff were thin on the ground and when asked if there were any to pluck from the chastening loss, he had this to say to our own Richie McCormack immediately after the full time whistle had blown:
"To be honest, I don't think there were very many positives even in terms of the players who've played well for us over the last 18 months," he said.
"Shane Duffy looked vulnerable, there's no getting away from it.
"Seamus Coleman, it's always great to see him back from his injury but at times he didn't look his normal high level."
At a stretch for a potential positive, the former 2002 World Cup squad member and goalscorer pointed to the fact that a couple of newcomers have been capped competitively.
Gary also chatted to Nathan pitchside which you can watch at the top of the article
"But I can't say there's been any shining light," he continued.
"I know [Shaun] Williams has come on and started well when he did come on in terms of getting his goal and being quite tenacious but then at times he went roaming from central midfield, trying to hunt the ball and Wales are just setting traps in doing so.
"He just vacated that midfield area and it allowed them to play through it - which I'm not exaggerating here, [Wales] literally should have had three more goals.
The result of course put scrutiny on the Ireland management team.
"I think he'll have some difficult questions," said Breen of Martin O'Neill.
"I think the press now will ask the questions that the supporters will want answered and I think it will be difficult to bat it away in terms of saying about his record.
"If you look at the results over his tenure, there's been some impressive results but it's the performances that there's always been question marks over."
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