Eileen Gleeson pulls no punches but insists lessons will be learned

Republic of Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson didn't flinch when it came to assessing her team's performance in a 2-0 defeat to Wales at Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday night.

"Look, there is no excuse," she said after what was comfortably the worst performance of her seven-game tenure.

"It wasn't where it should have been and we didn't do the simple things well enough.

"The girls have been brilliant. There were no levels of complacency. When you are on the pitch you have to find the ability to change the game and calm it down and not make one mistake, a second mistake, a third mistake. If you lose a player, don't lose her again. It is being accountable for that.

"We were able to affect it a bit better in the second half but we gave ourselves too much to do."

In a disastrous opening half, Ireland looked stunned both by their own shortfalls and Wales' superiority. After a fine display against Italy in Florence last Friday, nobody saw such a disjointed showing coming.

It was compounded by injuries to Niamh Fahey [she felt her quad, in the warm-up], and Katie McCabe, who came off in the 73rd minute with a similar injury.

"I think their formation caught us off guard," admitted Jess Ziu, Ireland's brightest spark on the night.

"With a new manager we kind of went into the game not knowing whether they'd play with a five or a four - they ended up playing with a five. I do think that caught us off guard, where with Italy we just matched up. Four at the back, four at the back, vice versa. We just didn't adapt to it quick enough."

It was a downbeat end to what had been another positive camp. Perhaps Gleeson asked a tad too much of her players, who looked confused and uncomfortable trying to execute a 4-2-3-1 system that never clicked. Wales