THURSDAY’S HEARTBREAKING LOSS in Prague was a strange experience for Liam Scales, with the defender forced to watch on from the stands as he sat the game out due to suspension.

“I was nervous, I was nervous for the lads,” Scales said.

“It’s kind of hard …  it’s a different experience. You’re used to being nervous before the game, but then when you go out on the pitch, those nerves go and you just play your football, but I think the nerves carried on through the game for me and, you know, it’s just such a tight game. It’s just different and it was difficult, but the lads did so, so well. It’s just a tough one to take.”

Watching on, Scales felt the full swing of emotions as Ireland took a 2-0 first-half lead, only to see Czechia pull one back from the penalty spot before a tireless second-half effort ended with the hosts scoring a late equaliser, leading to a painful defeat after penalties.

“Like, scoring the goals early. Obviously, then, the late equaliser was a tough one to take as well. Even in the penalties again, you know, it was up and down. One minute you thought we had it, and then the next step it was gone, but we’ve such a good, good group of lads, and we’ve got a belief now from the last few games to take on now to the next campaign, because you got a brilliant core group of lads who are coming into the prime of their careers.

“Over the next few years it’s really what we have to look at.

The next couple of tournaments with these guys because we’ve shown that we can beat big teams and I think things are starting to come together for us.”

It was hard to focus on positives on Thursday night, but the 27-year-old is confident the group won’t be scarred by their experience at the Fortuna Arena.

“I don’t think so. As a whole, when you look where we were a few months ago. We were written off in that sense. There was a slim chance of us even getting to this point. The players know now it’s a tough defeat to take, but they do know that we did as much as we could right.

“We played well. It’s fine margins, little bits and pieces maybe we can tidy up on, but at the same time we played well. We took it right down to the wire.

“We were five minutes away from qualifying. We were one kick of a ball away from qualifying, you know, in the penalty shoot-out. It’s just really disappointing, but there’s just too many positives as well to just ignore, the way we turned things around, and I don’t think the players will struggle really to get over this. It hurts a lot, but long term, I think it will be good for us.”

Scales was suspended for the game in Prague. Nick Elliott / INPHO Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO

Some senior players may be nearing the end of their international careers, but there is stability with manager Heimir Hallgrimsson recently signing a new contract which will see him remain in charge of the Republic of Ireland through to Euro 2028.

“Over the last, say, four games, even the loss to Portugal, we’ve done well, we defended well,” the Celtic player continued.

“We’ve kind of shown in those last four or five games how we want to do things, and in turn have got good performances and a few good results out of it as well.

“We were five minutes away from a brilliant point out in Portugal and five minutes away from a win out here and then in between those games, we won three of them. We’re starting to play how Heimer wants us to play. We can still improve and become more solid and more dangerous. I think it’s going in the right direction. This is obviously a setback, but we won’t let it bring us back to square one.” 

The World Cup dream is over, but Ireland’s prospects of reaching Euro 2028 are bright, with a young squad now showing positive signs of growth under Hallgrimsson.

“The aim, obviously, is to qualify for the next tournament,” Scales said.

“And you know, we have a good chance of that because we’re a host nation. We’ve got a core of players between 23 and 28 and over the next few years, we’re hoping to get the best football that we can get out of all of us.

“I’d be one of the older lads now in the group, but I don’t have as many caps as some of the younger lads. I just try and bring what I can, but you have leaders all around. You look around the dressing room there are captains for different clubs in England. It’s such a tough night to take, but you have to try and take positives out of it. And I think there are positives.

“It’s clear to see over the last few games that we have turned the corner and hope we keep going in that direction. I think tonight was just fine margins and that can happen. That’s football.”

Ireland have one final outing in this international window, facing North Macedonia in a friendly at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday. It’s not the game Ireland fans wanted to be giving their supporters after the brilliant scenes in Budapest and the memorable build-up in Prague.

“We do have the best fans in the world. You see them after the game, the support they’re giving us. You can see the Ireland fans scattered around the stadium who managed to get tickets in the home end as well. It’s just incredible. They won the game and it felt like after the game all you could hear was our fans. So it just shows. And we really do feel them behind us.

“I feel like sort of the hope we’ve given them in the last couple of camps has really boosted the fans and in turn that’s boosted us. We’re really just bitterly disappointed that we couldn’t reward them with the game back in the Aviva because we really felt like if we could get it back to the Aviva we could go all the way. Again, it’s just such fine margins. It could have gone either way and it’s just unlucky that it didn’t go our way.”