SOCCER:ALL THE pre-match talk about wanting to win this Carling Nations Cup might have been taken as playing the game for the sake of the sponsors and ticket sales but Giovanni Trapattoni will be genuinely pleased his players have something, however notional, to aim for when the event resumes come May. The FAI, however, might be casting a quick eye over the bonus section of his contract lest the clause referring to tournament wins and bonuses is, in retrospect a little too loosely worded.

Both managers, though, will see last game’s game as providing concrete proof that each has a fair bit still to do to get their respective sides where they’d like to be.

After his first match in charge, Gary Speed, must have realised just how much longer his journey looks like being. The ease with which his players were overrun during the course of the second half must have provided the new Welsh boss with a fairly stark indication of just how weak his options are in a few departments.

But he seemed determined to look on the bright side. “I’m disappointed all right,” he conceded, “but there were things in the game that we could take positives from and hopefully there are things there that we can build on. In the first half we didn’t pass the ball as well as we could have but then, to be fair, I thought we defended very well.

“The problem was then that they scored a fairly special goal and after that the heads went down. That has been a big part of the problem for the lads over the last year or two. After that it was no great surprise that we conceded the others but however the good the first goal was, the last two were very disappointing ones for us to concede.”

His opposite number identified the brighter aspects from an Irish perspective. Three good goals and three debuts all of which went well. The Italian looked satisfied as he contemplated a return to competitive action off the back of Ireland’s best win in nearly four years.

“Yes, I’m happy with the performance,” said the Italian, “first with the result and second, it was important to see the two or three young players. Their performances were good, I’m happy with them, they played well, with a good personality and did what I asked of them.

“It was important to see them play tonight,” he continued when pressed further on the performance of the two debutant starters, Seamus Coleman and Ciaran Clark, “because all games and competitions are important but when we come to the qualification we must not forget that we also have players like Aiden McGeady and Liam Lawrence who can play these positions We will follow the young players back at their clubs but I like them, Clark and Coleman, they did well tonight.”

Damien Duff’s performance and goal, his first in an Ireland shirt since he scored against Sweden in 2006, also won praise.

“I was concerned about his performance,” said Trapattoni, “because I saw his last game for his club and he was fantastic. And I was worried that he would get an injury. God forbid he would get an injury. He did have one earlier in the season but now he is back to his best and we hope he can make a great contribution over the second half of the season.” Walters’ contribution was also readily acknowledged. “We need strikers like him,” he said. “He’s strong but it’s not just his strength; he played well, he understands football and he could easily have scored a goal. He played very well tonight and I gave him my congratulations.'