No one needed to tell him there would be days like this. Mick McCarthy has seen it all before. Weary, a little battered and clearly upset, the Ireland manager cut a familiar figure at last night's post-match press conference at the Ataturk stadium in Bursa. The surroundings were less plush than in Brussels two years ago, but the Irish manager was instantly recognisable as the man who had to tell the media where it had gone wrong.

Just like then, the answer last night was in the home leg where a goal conceded had simply put the task of qualifying for a major finals beyond his brave but slightly limited squad of players.

There wasn't, he sighed, the strength in depth that would have enabled him to cope with the loss of key players in key games.

"The bottom line is that we missed key players in key games," he told a packed room of journalists, both Turkish and Irish, some 40 minutes after his side's hopes of making it to the Low Countries had ended.

"We didn't have Roy Keane in Macedonia, Niall Quinn last weekend or Robbie Keane this evening. Then, out there, the injury to Steve Carr upset the balance of the team. I'm thinking of changing my middle name by deed poll to lucky."

There were no tributes to individual players nor any hint of disappointment with the way any of his men had performed.

Instead there was emotional talk of his pride at the way they had performed last night as well as over the course of the qualification programme.

"What can I say? They're the best group of players that I've ever worked with and I'm proud of them. Of course I'm bitterly disappointed with the way that things have turned out tonight.

"But I couldn't fault any of the players, they were outstanding throughout the campaign." As regards the game itself McCarthy felt that it had been even enough with neither side looking decisively better than the other.

"I always thought that we'd score here and the fact that we didn't still surprises me. But I thought we were always in it.

"Early on there was some decent football played by both sides and later we had to go for it, so they had a couple of chances. But there was very little in it."

As with some of his players, the tension over the course of the closing stages clearly tested the Irish boss on a number of occasions. At one stage he was obliged to apologise to a ballboy whom he had berated he didn't feel the youngster was getting the ball into play again.

On the field there were a number of minor clashes, and a growing feeling on the part of the home side that the Irish were getting into a few too many tangles. When the final whistle sounded a few of the locals took their revenge, with Tony Cascarino bearing the brunt of at least two player's irritation.

"When the game is on," said McCarthy of the incidents, "it's supposed to be physical, I don't think that anyone would argue with that. But when the whistle goes then that should be that.

"Out there tonight my players had to fight their way off the pitch and that's something I hadn't seen before. I'm not used to them being punched either. Now, I don't know whether anyone can do anything about it, but I spoke to UEFA officials afterwards and told them what I thought of the situation. In the end, though, maybe this isn't the night to be talking about it."

That was certainly the view of FAI general secretary, Bernard O'Byrne, who said that while he had also spoken to the UEFA officials on duty, he or the association would not be taking the matter any further. But the FAI president, Pat Quigley, had a different view, saying that the association would be taking the matter up with UEFA.

"I think that Mick and I both agree that this isn't the time or the place to be making a big thing out of this," Quigley said. "As always, UEFA had an official observer on duty and it is his job to report on what he saw over the course of the whole night.

"Afterwards, he asked me if I had any comment to make and I said that an Irish player was treated roughly when the game had finished. Now it's up to him to decide how he deals with the matter."