THAT was pretty bad. The crowd knew it, everybody knew it and, most of all, the players knew it. Damn it.

The Republic of Ireland players emerged from the dressing room underneath the West Stand decked in their dress suits for last night's banquet and seemingly in a bit of daze, which is how the pitch seemed to go by. Even explaining it all was a puzzle.

Some of them, such as Jason McAteer (still, apparently, in a bad mood) Phil Babb and Tony Cascarino - atypically it has to be said, declined to air their thoughts to the Irish public via the media.

Those thoughts that were aired invariably drifted back to the apparently surprising resoluteness of the unfancied visitors. Almost every utterance kept harping back to that theme, the inability to prise open the men from the land of the midnight sun reflected in an ability to analyse the match beyond that.

Roy Keane, if not exactly bearing the demeanour of some one thinking "yippee, it's press conference time" stopped for a few words and was submerged in a forest of tape recorders.

"When you play at home you're always looking to win, and pick up a few points away from home.

We're disappointed but that's the way it goes. You got to give them credit. They defended very well."

An overly physical game?

Hardly, not for Roy, "it's a man's game; there's always going to be a few tackles. They were big strong lads and they were getting into the tackles. They always made it difficult for us.

Of his long awaited return to the team Keane, typically, played it down and made no reference to the few jeers and boos which greeted his early touches. "It's been a long time, my last match was against Russia, and it's nice to be back. I enjoyed the match, except for the result."

The abiding memory of Keane's return, well though he played at the back, was that there could have been an awful lot more of him had he been used in midfield. "I'm not really bothered as long as I'm in the team. Again, it would have been nice had we got the win, but that's the way it goes.

"I think there's a long way to go. Again, a disappointing result, but that's football. You don't get everything you want, and we'll just have to go and pick up an away win where we probably thought we mightn't have to.

David Kelly gave the front line plenty of mobility - arguably more than John Aldridge would, have done yet will no doubt be bracing himself for a less than complimentary inquest. Chances tend to go a darn sight quicker than they come for the likeable Sunderland striker.

"From a personal point of view it was very disappointing. You get your chance and unfortunately there wasn't that much goalmouth action and as a centre forward you want to score.

"As a team we're very disappointed. We were looking for a better result and, as I say, credit to them. They worked their socks off and defended very, very deep. We found it very difficult to break them down.

The ball, the most stubborn of foes on the day, never seemed to break kindly. "We were closing people down, and we were winning tackles, and it wasn't breaking for us. Physically they were strong, I thought their back three played very, very well very strong in the air."

Kelly, understandably, laughed off one suggestion that this was a major setback to qualification hopes. "Nab, of course it's not a major setback. We've still got seven points. It's not a major setback. It's a major setback when you have a game like that which you have to win to qualify and you don't. There's loads of games left. Loads of games.

Alan Kelly expressed the feeling of the 33,870 crowd. "Frustrating. They were a very physical side, and got their two full backs behind the ball and we found it hard to break them down."

The Irish keeper added: "Every time we went for a ball, to be fair to Iceland they had one if not two players attacking that same ball. They competed very well, and you've got to give them credit for that, and that added to the tension. But we haven't conceded any. We've got seven points out of nine so we've got to go away somewhere and win."

Alan McLoughlin's celebratory pints will not have tasted quite so sweet last night, and prior to his award the Irish midfielder merely augmented teammates' thoughts. "Between the 18 yard line and the six yard box they defended very well. No matter what we tried, slinging it wide, they just defended and stood men back. You couldn't really pass it around in midfield. As soon as you turned the inevitable wall was there in front of you.

"I think we ran out of ideas a little bit. There was 20 minutes to go and I think we got past the stage of just passing it round, it wasn't really working, and then you start looking for the other option, which was to hit Big Cas. One bobbed back to me, but the lad did really well to close me down; I managed to get my left foot forward and screwed it wide. Frustrating, very frustrating," McLoughlin concluded.

The articulate Gary Breen was scarcely able to utter a few words of explanation immediately afterwards on TV, and seemed just as bitterly disappointed subsequently. "We were looking for nine points before Christmas and as I said before the seven points just seems like failure for the boys. It's very disappointing but we're confident we can make the two points up on our travels. We could easily go there and get three points, which now we have to do.

"I think we allowed them to frustrate us a little bit. We needed a little bit of creativity and we didn't seem to have it today, for some reason. We seemed to start lumping the ball, which is not our game plan at all."

The most damning, verdict on the Irish display came from Siggi Jonsson, the visitors' impressive sweeper and captain who seemed to attract the ball like a magnet.

"We were reading the papers before the game and they were talking about 4-0 or 5-0, especially after we lost our last home game to Romania. That's what spurred us on. They were too comfortable before the game; they under estimated us.

"They couldn't break us down and after the first 15 or 20 minutes we knew exactly where their passes were going to come from. It was so predictable. We knew before it was going to be physical but that is part of the game. That's how we decided to match them. When it didn't go their way, they got frustrated and they made it easier for us.

"Having played both teams I would have to say Romania are the better side but I wouldn't write Ireland off. They always come back strong, that's their character, but I would say Romania have a better chance of qualifying. They [Ireland] didn't create any sitters, it was all half chances and we were happy to limit them to that. We expected them to be far more direct.