Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has said that support for him from within Merrion Square started slipping away from as early as last March, the month in which his team drew 1-1 in Tel Aviv and John Delaney was confirmed as the association's long-term chief executive, writes Emmet MaloneSoccer Correspondent

In an interview for a documentary, Brian Kerr's World Cup Story, to be broadcast next Tuesday night on RTÉ 1 at 10.15, the Dubliner, who lost his job in the wake of the national team's failure to qualify for Germany next summer, says that he sensed a change in attitude towards him from that point and that he feels he lacked support from certain quarters within the organisation.

"I'd already noticed there was a change in the atmosphere within the FAI towards me even though it was only March," he says. "I sensed a change in the general approach to me and in the preparation to the games. After the game (Israel away) I had no doubt that there was something there, a change in attitude around the place, inside Merrion Square, towards me. I wasn't distracted, I was determined that we were going to try to finish the group in first place."

Although pointedly avoiding the naming of names it would appear that he is referring to Delaney as he claims, "I didn't always have the backing that I should have had from everybody who should have had a responsibility for giving me that backing."

Leading FAI officials have repeatedly insisted in recent months that Kerr received everything he requested for the senior team.

Kerr once again expresses disappointment over the way the decision not to renew his contract at the end of the campaign was handled. "There was a meeting," he observes, "a fairly rushed meeting I think, six days after the game. I had no contact from anybody at the top of the FAI in the intervening period until the time my representative called me to tell me I was no longer working for them. At the end, not to get the opportunity to even explain your stewardship or to put a case for yourself to stay in the job was a bit odd. My employers have to deal with that in their own consciences."

The former St Patrick's Athletic and Irish Youth team boss goes on to question whether either the people who voted on his future within the organisation or the journalists who covered the national team at the time had the necessary expertise to properly assess how he had performed in the job. "Were they informed?" he asks. "Did they know enough about it? Had they looked at my record? Were they influenced by the media? Are the media very informed?" he continues. "Do they know an awful lot about it? About football?"

Asked about that record - Ireland failed to win a competitive game against a side currently ranked in the top 100 during his time in charge - he makes almost no concession of having fallen short of what was needed himself although he does acknowledge the possibility that he did not achieve all that he had intended. "No regrets," he says. "Only the results of course. But no regrets in how I did it, no regrets. I enjoyed working with the players. I enjoyed the challenge of moulding them into a team, playing and behaving the way I would have liked them to."

Kerr suggests that he was in part the victim of the success his side enjoyed against the likes of Brazil, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. "By times our squad was over-rated," he remarks. "We did so well in some of the intervening periods, in the friendly games, that we raised expectations. (Then) we started quite well in the group but at the end of it all we weren't quite good enough."

Recalling the crucial home game with Israel in which Ireland squandered a 2-0 lead Kerr declines to take any portion of the blame for the result, staunchly defending his decision to bring on Graham Kavanagh for the injured Robbie Keane early on and then citing individual errors rather than tactical mistakes as the cause of the defeat.

Stephen Elliot, he says, showed extremely poor form in training during the days leading up to the game while there was little he (Kerr) could do about the Israeli goals late in the first half.

"Of course I was disappointed that John (O'Shea) gave away a penalty immediately before half-time. Of course I was disappointed that Robbie came off injured after he'd started really well and was causing them trouble.

"(But) I wasn't in the position to head the ball away when the ball came into the box from a free kick but I'd have liked somebody else to have headed it away. We had prepared for dealing with those situations. We were in the best position to beat them but you can't legislate for individual mistakes."