Martin O’Neill took exception to certain questions after the Republic of Ireland’s 5-1 loss to Denmark and stormed out of a TV interview.
The former Villa boss was left hurting and frustrated after Christian Eriksen inspired the Danes to a comfortable win after bagging a hat-trick in Dublin.
O’Neill addressed the media after the game but was in no mood to discuss the match with RTE following a question regarding his side not winning games after taking the lead.
Ireland, who started with Albion ace James McLean and had Villa trio Glenn Whelan, Conor Hourihane and Scott Hogan on the bench, took an early lead but quickly surrendered their advantage and were eventually trounced in front of their home fans.
A clearly emotional O’Neill defended his side’s record and backed his players and reckons his team can ‘fight back’ following the drubbing and missing out on the World Cup.
He said: “We’ve won some games away from home. We might not have won at the Aviva here but we’ve won matches away from home and that’s hard work.
“We scored in the first minute against Serbia. Real Madrid and Barcelona can concede in the first minute and come back or they can score in the first minute and come back and lose the game. This is international football, this is big,big football. You’ve got to realise that.
“Remarkably we drew 2-2 with Serbia. Serbia won the group. We went to Wales and won. We took the lead against Wales and didn’t concede after that! Your argument is back and forth.
“It’s very important for you to know this. This is tough, this is really tough. We find it tough. We’re playing against sides of superior quality usually. We’ve got a great spirit here, we were well beaten tonight, we could have been 2-0 up and it could have been a different story. Goals change games. That’s the thing. We can fight back.”
Meanwhile, one current Villa man is all smiles
Mile Jedinak bagged a hat-trick to fire Australia to the World Cup at the expense of Honduras.
The Socceroos qualified for their fourth consecutive finals thanks to Jedinak’s treble in the 3-1 win.
Aston Villa’s midfield enforcer fired the hosts ahead after his first-half free-kick was deflected in.
And he stepped up in the second-half to coolly convert a penalty that doubled his side’s lead.
Plucky Honduras tried to fight back but Jedinak was on hand to slam in a third from the spot before Maynor Figueroa scored a stoppage time consolation.
Australia drew 0-0 with Honduras in the away leg but used home advantage to see off their plucky opponents and secure the win that sends them to Russia.
