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James Collins refuses to give up his World Cup dream despite a disastrous start to the Republic of Ireland’s qualifying campaign.
Ireland came off a 3-2 loss to Serbia in the opener of Group A on Wednesday night with some credit, but in Dublin on Saturday night they were beaten 1-0 by Luxembourg.
With Portugal and Azerbaijan waiting when the campaign resumes in September, Stephen Kenny’s men are already facing elimination, although the Luton Collins forward insists no one throws in the towel as they focus their attention on Tuesday’s friendly against the host. of the Qatar World Cup.
When asked if his hopes were gone, he said: “Certainly not, and it doesn’t make sense for any of us to think that way because that will get you nowhere. First of all, we must prepare for Tuesday and get a positive result there. Hopefully that will give us a boost and we go to the games in September full of confidence again, renewed and it is a new challenge.
“I would never say that the World Cup qualifiers are over because that is not an attitude that we, as players, staff and country, should have.”
That said, Collins and his teammates know that the defeat of a team ranked 98th in the world in their own field is not enough, as the captain, Séamus Coleman, called it “embarrassing” and Kenny, the coach, ” not acceptable”.
The 30-year-old forward said: “I completely agree with both the coach and Séamus. It was not acceptable and it was embarrassing. We as players have to take that on the chin and be better next time. There is no use thinking about tonight. You have to accept it, we have to digest it, and we have to be men.
“We have to move on. I can totally understand the point of view of the fans and everyone watching, it’s not good enough. But we will do our best to rectify that. “
The loss left Kenny without a single victory in his first 10 games and provided fresh ammo for those who believe he is not the right man for the job. But Collins insisted that it is the players who bear the brunt of the criticism.
“It is not the coach’s fault, that performance tonight, the responsibility lies with the players. We’re out there and we were the ones on the field doing that performance, so I fully support the coach and all the staff. We should look at ourselves as players and try to do better and I’m sure that will be the case. “
