Ireland U21 boss disappointed by sloppy concessions but still has ...

As honest as ever in his assessment, the 51-year-old tried to make sense of a draw that felt like a defeat.

"It is chalk and cheese comparing Friday to tonight," he said.

"That is international football. We said to the players that Latvia were no mugs. They drew with Italy. They beat Turkey and they came here and you could say they did a job on us in terms of how they slowed the game down and got bodies behind the ball.”

Ireland's young guns made a deserved breakthrough just after a quarter of an hour when Rocco Vata picked up a loose ball in the middle of the park and burst forward at the heart of the Latvian defence. The Watford man's initial pass was intercepted, but sat up nicely for Sinclair Armstrong who’s close range shot was brilliantly saved by Latvia skipper Janis Beks. O’Neill was sharp to pick up the rebound but again was denied but fell back to Armstrong to tap home.

Seemingly in cruise-control Ireland continued to spurn chances to put the game out of sight. Both Armstrong and Vata, missed two glorious chances in quick succession to double the lead. Skipper Jos Hodge cleverly picked out the unmarked Armstrong at the back post but took too long to shoot and was bravely blocked by Beks again. 

And seconds later both flying wingers combined as O’Neill picked out Vata, again unmarked but dragged his shot wide from 12-yards. Vata then saw his thunderous low strike came crashing off the inside of the post and away to safety much to his disbelief.

And against the run of play, the Irish side disappointingly conceded just before the break on the counter attack when Ralfs Maslovs went on a lung bursting run down the left wing before squaring to Kaspars Anmanis, just inside the area, and the midfielder side footed home giving the relatively untroubled Josh Keeley no chance.

The hosts found themselves behind when Melkis cross seemed to catch Keeley out, resulting in the keeper palming the ball straight onto the head of substitute Ivans Patrikejevs who headed home.

The sloppy concessions really seemed to irk the Irish boss. 

“Just before half time we did not defend the right hand side of the pitch very well; we did not track runners into the box and we paid the price. That goal made it 1-1. We thought it was a wake up call and then we gifted them another goal. That was disappointing.

“You probably heard Latvia in the dressing room, singing and laughing. It is a massive result for them and it is something we have got to learn pretty quick that when you are on top of the game, you have to be ruthless when you create chances but not just that, you have to be switched on for their counter attacks. We have to perform our roles and responsibilities.

“All it takes is for two players to switch off and say to themselves ‘this is an easy evening’ and then you are down players at certain moments in the game. For me that is what has happened. So it is about the players learning. Yes, it is not nice and it is a horrible feeling but we have to make sure it does not happen again."

To their credit Ireland responded immediately when Moran picked out Roughan on the left who drilled the ball past Beks to level but struggled to find the winner as they pushed relentlessly. Crawford looked for the positives amidst the frustration, as they look forward to a massive October.

“But the positive is that it is still in our hands. We have Norway in Cork and we have Italy. When the draw was made all those months back, had you said, you would be two points ahead of Norway, and you could qualify with two games to go, you would have taken it.

“I believe in that group of players. That was just one of those performances. When we had that spell creating chances, we had to take those moments. We have to learn that we cannot switch off.

“Do I think we can win the group? I certainly do. We will have to produce a better showing against Norway.

“How often does it happen that after a good performance in the first game, that the second game is like that. At times in the first half we could have moved the ball a lot quicker but when you gift teams goals, you will get punished.” 

Rep. of Ireland: J Keeley; S Curtis, J Abankwah, A Garcia MacNulty; S Roughan, R Vata (A Oko-Flex, 79’), J Hodge, M Healy; O O’Neill (A Emakhu, 64’), S Armstrong (J Kenny, 79’), A Moran 

Latvia: J Beks; O Rascevskis (D Druzinins, 58’), O Vientiess, R Reingolcs, R Maslovs; K Kauselis (K Rekis, 67’), K Anmanis, K Penkevics, R Melkis; G Patika, B Melnis (I Patrikejevs, 45’) 

Referee: S Ebner (Austria)