Republic will prove critics wrong - St Ledger

15 October 2009 14:56
Middlesbrough defender Sean St Ledger is confident the Republic of Ireland can deliver the perfect response to their critics by booking a trip to the World Cup finals. Giovanni Trapattoni's side ended their Group Eight qualifying campaign in disappointing style when they could only draw 0-0 with Montenegro at Croke Park. The result was largely immaterial with Ireland having already secured their place in next month's play-offs and with the manager having made six changes to the side which fell just short of a famous victory over reigning champions Italy on Saturday, there was a sense of anti-climax about the whole affair. However, the point at least saw the Irish end the group stage unbeaten in their 10 games at the end of a week when Trapattoni's detractors were at their most vociferous. Television pundit Eamon Dunphy withdrew his earlier description of the performance against the Italians as "shameful" but the manager's pragmatism is not universally celebrated. However, St Ledger insists that he and his team-mates can answer all the criticism when they meet up again next month for two crucial games against either France, Russia, Portugal or Greece. He said: "I would say we are in the play-offs - that's the best way to answer it. When we were seeded for this group, we were not seeded second, so we have over-achieved really. Everyone has an opinion - football is a game of opinions. Pundits can express their opinions and every fans who comes and pays their money maybe has a different opinion to you or I. But that's life, it's the sort of thing you just have to put up with."

Source: Eurosport