As the September international window came to a close and the Ireland squad started to make their way back to their respective clubs, Heimir Hallgrimsson was left to pick up the pieces following a double defeat to begin his tenure.
And already, the new head coach's mind was on next month as he offered his thoughts on the October window, which will come around in a matter of weeks as Ireland hit the road for Helsinki first, before a return trip to Athens for the reverse fixture with the Greeks.
The disappointment of the defeat being reconstituted into a positive narrative of the improvements his side have made since the England performance where he said the team lacked initiative, made poor decisions and struggled with their confidence.
Not a complete fix, however, as Hallgrimsson spoke about the positive play and the improved structure of the team, he still emphasised that the team were lacking confidence.
And following a strong performance, which ended in defeat, there is no doubt in the manager’s mind that the confidence took another hit and it will be the key attribute to work on when the squad meet again next month.
"Goals change games," said Hallgrimsson, as he pondered what might have been had Chiedozie Ogbene just waited a split second longer to make that run behind the defence and handed Ireland the lead with his spectacular strike, which nestled in the top corner before being cruelly, but rightly, wiped out thanks to the linesman’s flag.
"How we played, how we were playing at that moment of the game, and then scoring as a reward of how we had done, would have changed the game and probably changed the confidence as well because we were doing good and we got the reward for it."
"That was a good one, we took that chance.
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