IT WAS A moment to forget for Colin Doyle.
There was nothing he could do about Olivier Giroud’s opener for France, but the Ireland goalkeeper was left red-faced when Nabil Fekir struck at goal four minutes.
Attempting to get two hands behind it, Doyle could only push the effort into the air before watching it drop over his shoulder and into the net.
“It came through a few bodies, I was unsighted,” the Bradford City stopper explained afterwards. “Look, I should have kept it out, I should have done better. I sort of got two hands on it. I didn’t know where it was, to be honest.
“I pushed it and it sort of went up. I thought I pushed it wide but when I looked up around me I saw it come down under the bar. I tried to get it up but it was too late.
“It’s frustrating, really,” he added. “Obviously, personally, making the error doesn’t help. Losing the game 2-0… it’s disappointing.
Errors are part and parcel of the game. It’s how you recover from them. Luckily enough, I recovered okay. I tried to get it out of my head, which I did. I’ll move on from it. I can’t dwell on it.”
Instead of letting his head drop, Doyle came out the second half and produced a number of solid saves to ensure the scoreline didn’t become embarrassing.
“You just have to try and forget it,” he went on. “Look, Roy [Keane] said to me after the game, ‘Well done because it’s how you recover from mistakes.’ He said I done well other than that. Obviously, it’s a blatant error.
“We had a good chance at the end to get one back. If I don’t make that error, it could have been 1-1 but it’s ifs and buts isn’t it?”
Goalkeeping can be a cruel business and just this past weekend Liverpool Loris Karius was vilified by a section of the Reds fans for two blunders in their Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid.
“Other than the obvious mistake, I was happy with my performance,” said Doyle. “However, nobody will look at how I did, people will probably just talk about the error. People won’t look at the saves I made but look its part and parcel of football.
“Look at the Liverpool lad on Saturday, he made a couple of errors to lose the Champions League and I felt sorry for him. I’m big and strong enough to take it, so I’ll move on.”
Heavy rainfall meant conditions on the pitch were bordering on unsafe during the closing minutes of the friendly.
“I don’t think I have ever played a game of football in that torrential rain,” Doyle explained. “It was strange, to be honest, especially the last five minutes… it was a proper downpour. The warm-up was similar. I was expecting the ref to blow it up after the 90 minutes but added a few on and we nearly nicked the goal.”
There was a vast gulf in the two sides, and it was clear to see why Ireland haven’t qualified for this summer’s World Cup while the French are viewed as one of the contenders to win the competition.
“You could probably say that it was France’s B team,” said Doyle. “We saw Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba coming off the bench for them.
They’ve a top quality squad and are one of the favourites for the World Cup. The way they move the ball – one and two-touch football – means you can’t get near them.
“They made it difficult for us tonight. I’m sure we’ll watch the video again over next few days and go from there.”
Next up for the Boys in Green is a home friendly with the US on Saturday, and they will be aiming to make significant improvements against a side who won’t be on the same level as the French.
“I don’t know, try to be better because we need to be,” replied Doyle, when asked what Ireland can learn from tonight. “That’s where we want to play, [we want to] be in World Cups and European Championships. They’re the teams we’ve to aspire to be.
“I know it’s a relatively new squad coming together, a few young lads, but we’ll have to learn fast.
“You can have your bread and butter from playing at your club every week but international football is a different level. Look at the performance of France tonight.”
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