Former Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton saw plenty of reasons to take encouragement from last night's match in Belgrade, despite Ireland's 1-0 defeat.

"I thought we handled them very well," said Charlton. "Certainly up to the goal we could have taken more than a point.

"I've seen teams play a lot worse than Ireland played tonight and win games but it's a harder road ahead in that we have to get a result out of the next match." That comes in Macedonia next March.

Charlton bemoaned the error of concentration that cost Ireland the match: "For one minute, there is the chance of a cross and everybody can see it but Gary Breen jumps a little bit too early and he's coming down when he heads the ball and (Steve) Staunton had the ball bounce and go away from him. Had he given half a second to (Shay) Given he might have saved it but, before he had a chance, it was in the corner of the net.

"You make a mistake like that at international level and of course you are going to pay. There were a couple of chances in the second half when the ball could have gone in but Yugoslavia were very strong in defence and it was going to take something special really."

Apart from that blemish, however, the former manager seemed to think that Ireland had done themselves proud. "Overall, I think it proved that we're not frightened of teams like Yugoslavia. We managed the pace of the game for the first half, running between players and getting as close to players as possible, but before the break I would have wanted more from the front men like Damien Duff and Jason McAteer.

"Niall Quinn was wasted a bit as well and you can't support a man when he's coming in feeding the ball. You want him at the back post and in the first half he was working too hard for what he was getting."