Player reaction: One of the Republic of Ireland's greatest servants retired from international football last night. But before captain Kenny Cunningham stepped down he firmly backed Brian Kerr to stay on as manager for the European championships qualifiers.

"He's very low, obviously. He's very passionate man and loves his job. He had a real ambition to lead this team into next year's World Cup. It hasn't happened, but hopefully for him the players will come around again.

"I hope he gets the opportunity to carry on. Sometimes a change can freshen things up, but sometimes continuity is a good thing as well. Is there a better man out there to do the job? I think there's not too many. But that's out of our hands, but I hope he gets an extension.

"He's got the players behind him, and they are all appreciate the effort he's put in over the last two to three years.

"We had high hopes going into this game, but we can't have too many complaints about tonight's performance. But we can put our hands on our heart and say we lost this group earlier in the campaign. The points dropped against Israel were crucial."

Having developed into an international footballer this year, Stephen Elliott will certainly be one player to carry this experience into the future.

So does he think Kerr should be at the helm? "The players think he has done a good job and we all respect him but whatever happens, happens."

Matt Holland was sidelined for much of the campaign due to the emergence of the Roy Keane-Kevin Kilbane partnership. The Charlton midfielder came in last week against Cyprus to plug a sizeable hole.

Holland admitted it is very unlikely we will ever see him bailing Ireland out of trouble again in a major tournament, like he did against Cameroon three years ago.

"I played in one World Cup and it was a wonderful experience. I was desperate, as much as anyone else, to try and play in another one. It is probably my last chance to play in a World Cup."

So is it official?

"I haven't really considered it or thought about it at the moment. At the start of the next campaign I'll be 32 and 34 by the time the European championships come around. It is a little bit premature but I will sit down and think about it.

"It's very quiet in there. No one really knows what to say to each other," he said nodding towards the dressingroom door. "Very disappointed. I don't think we could have given any more effort and commitment. It just wasn't meant to be but I think if you look back at the campaign, we didn't lose out tonight. We lost out throughout the campaign when we haven't really been where we want to be. Overall we probably haven't deserved to be in those top two places."

He was asked what was said at half-time to produce the improved urgency.

"Don't panic. Keep trying to get in and trying to force the pressure. We huffed and puffed and had lots of set-pieces and a lot of pressure but overall no clear-cut chances.

"We gave our all but it wasn't enough tonight."

The Israeli experiences and last night's first half was far from the required standard but Steven Reid refused to let the positives over the 10 matches be forgotten.

"It is devastating at the moment. We knew we had to come here and get off to a good start and win the game. There is not one happy person in that dressingroom. We are all hurting.

"We were unlucky in a couple of games but we did show we can compete against the likes of France so we will not have anything to fear in the next qualifying campaign."