MATT DOHERTY ADMITTED Ireland were not good enough following a 3-0 friendly loss to England at Wembley tonight.

The Tottenham defender, who was named the Irish man of the match, told RTE afterwards: “It was quite tough. They’ve got world-class players everywhere or potential world-class players. Obviously, we’re still disappointed with the goals that we conceded.

“It’s never nice to lose 3-0 and have the ball knocked around you a little bit towards the end.

“Obviously, we’re finding it tough at the moment.”

Following this evening’s setback, the focus now turns to Nations League clashes against Bulgaria and Wales.

“We have to switch on straight away. We’ll recover well tonight, tomorrow and the next day.

“If I could say anything to the lads, it’d probably just be keep the heads up and stay confident, keep trying to do the right things, get in the right positions and hopefully, it will turn for us.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re focused defensively and still solid and keep clean sheets. If we keep trying to do the right things going forward and be brave on the ball and not get the head down whenever we misplace a pass, or something doesn’t work out, hopefully things turn around for us.”

With no natural left-backs available, Doherty was required to play in the role, and has now played across the backline for the national side, having also slotted in at centre-back against Wales recently.

“I don’t mind playing [at left back]. I played there quite a bit when I was at Wolves. It is a little bit different defensively, but when you have the ball, you cut inside and do whatever.”

On the disappointing outcome, Jeff Hendrick added: “We kept hold of it and got a few passages of play. That’s what you need to do when you’re playing a really good side. They got the two quick goals, which gave them a lot of confidence and put us on the backfoot a little bit.”