Kenny: 'We are absolutely gutted that we haven’t won'
Stephen Kenny certainly wasn’t admitting his time as Republic of Ireland senior manager could be coming to and end in the immediate aftermath of his team’s 2-1 loss to the Netherlands on Sunday night.
When pressed on his disappointment with the result and the possible end of qualification Stephen Kenny was unable to offer a positive response.
“Within the group it is, we will have to see if we can qualify for a play-off in March and that has to be decided over the next couple of months,” Kenny replied.
“I thought our level of pressing was exceptional in that first half. We were prepared to go man to man against one of the top seeds and a team Argentina beat on penalties at the World Cup quarter-finals.
“We were prepared to go man to man right across the pitch. We got our reward (with Adam Idah’s penalty). To be honest with out, we probably should have capitalised on some attacking situations after that goal and create better opportunities than we did. We won brilliant tackles and recovered them and had chances to go again but just didn’t capitalise.”
The Republic of Ireland manager was then asked if he felt Holland were there for the taking, especially during a frenetic opening half. That was until the concession of a Dutch equaliser, something Kenny was not happy with.
“I was just disappointed with the goal that we conceded, I was very disappointed with that,” Stephen Kenny added.
“They pushed Gapko high on the left as their wing-back which tied Matt Doherty in. It gave them an extra resource to recycle the ball.
“For whatever reasons, our energy levels couldn’t quite sustain that level of intensity. I am not trying to make excuses but the 90 minutes in Paris, where we put in a phenomenal effort three days ago, was an
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