David Sneyd reports from Aviva Stadium

NATHAN COLLINS COULD AFFORD to be sanguine about some of the top class saves pulled off by Armenia goalkeeper Henri Avagyan.

One of them was a header from the Republic of Ireland captain that was pushed onto the crossbar, and another saw him superbly parry Dara O’Shea’s glancing effort through the legs of Collins who was following up for a tap in just a couple of yards out.

“It happens,” the centre back said.

It was a very different scenario late on in a Euro 2024 qualifier at home to France when Collins powered a header towards the top corner that looked certain to salvage a 1-1 draw late on.

Instead, the iron glove of Mike Maignan denied Ireland and Collins was left beating the turf with his fists in frustration.

While it looked to be shaping up for a similar night of agony here, until Tigran Barseghyan’s straight red card for violent contact on 52 minutes, Collins insisted that the gameplan from Ireland was working.

He stressed that manager Heimir Hallgrímsson was calm at half-time and that other than dropping too deep into a low block the aim was to remain as defensively solid as possible and not give away any cheap opportunities.

Collins felt Ireland “were in control of it”, that the defensive block “worked well” and “we got what we deserved,” although accepted the approach was dictated by circumstance.

“That was probably a rollover of Portugal, maybe. But in the second half, we wanted to get a bit higher. We wanted to press higher. I thought we did that at the start. And then with 10 men, it’s always an awkward one in football, you’re thinking you should be battering them,” Collins said.

“You probably think it should be easy to press and then you probably get a bit ragged and someone loses position and space opens up. At the end of the day, they’re good players, they’re top players. They’re playing at a good level, so it’s never easy with 10 men.”

Boos rang around Aviva Stadium because of the manner of the first-half performance and it was pointed that seconds after the re-start Seamus Coleman was booked for doing his best Nat Lofthouse impression on Avagyan in goal to try and stir a reaction.

“I thought the press worked out alright. I thought we put them into areas sometimes where we nicked it. We just didn’t have that going forward. Then the counter-attack, Seamus lit it up a bit. He got us going and then he had a big tackle. It changes everything when the fans get behind you,” Collins said.

“They get riled up. It puts more pressure on them and maybe the emotions got the better of the Armenians and that can happen. Listen, it’s not really us that changes, it’s the fans that can change. Something little like Seamus doing it can change everything.”

Regarding that crowd reaction at half-time, Collins said: “I understand the fans want us to be front foot and on it all the time but sometimes the best thing is just to be solid. I thought we’d done that first half. We were solid. We didn’t create anything from when they had the ball. We were probably a bit passive.”

A major plus for Ireland was being able to capitalse on the advantage once it came. Just like against Hungary when they were 2-0 down and fought back against 10 men to earn a draw last month.

Collins also hailed Jayson Molumby’s contribution after coming in from the cold this month. “He’s been unbelievable in the last few games. I know we missed him before, but I think he’s been top. He’s been unreal. Ryan [Manning] as well defensively, going forward and his balls in the box. He’s very good. We will miss him, but we’ll have players to come in instead.”

Collins was referencing the yellow cards for the duo that means they will miss the visit of Portugal next month.

“We need to win. I’m comfortable enough with big teams coming here. I think we can perform against them. I think the fans get excited for it. I think it’s a great challenge.”