Seán St Ledger last night admitted he should have done better in the lead-up to Frank Lampard’s equaliser, but above all he felt that there were far more positive than negatives to take from their share of the spoils at Wembley.

The defender mis-hit his clearance, allowing Daniel Sturridge’s cross to fizz into the path of Lampard who finished from six yards, cancelling out Shane Long’s 13th-minute opener.

But after a torrid season, pockmarked by injury problems, St Ledger was overall happy to get a full 90 minutes under his belt in his favoured centre-half position.

“I should have cleared it, I sliced it a little bit,” he said of the goal. “I could probably have done a bit better.

“But from my own personal point of view, it was good for me to get 90 minutes. It’s always great to play next to John O’Shea and after my injury problems it was good to get the green shirt back on.

“It’s the first time I’ve played at centre-half too since I got fit again.”

St Ledger also admitted it meant a ‘huge amount’ for the Irish players to play in a ‘local derby’.

“We’re very fortunate to be in this position. I was glad there was no trouble and that both sets of fans respected each other during the anthems. Our fans were brilliant, it was a good spectacle.

“It was a huge experience to play at Wembley. It was a local derby kinda game and it meant a huge amount to the players.”

Ireland have been notoriously unable to claw out results against the top sides and St Ledger added that a draw against a top-10 side is certainly not something to turn the nose up at.

“They’re ranked a lot higher than us in the rankings and I think everybody saw how good we can be against top players. Who knows, we could maybe even have nicked it at the end. We went into it trying to win and this was no different, it was just a pity we couldn’t close it out.”

John O’Shea, meanwhile, hailed the travelling support and called for Ireland to face England every two years.

“I think the games should happen every couple of years because we’re neighbours. The atmosphere between the fans was fantastic. There are fantastic memories growing up from watching Ireland/England games, and now young lads around the country will get inspiration from watching that.

“It wasn’t a celebration at the end. We just wanted to show that we appreciate them travelling over to support us.”

However, the Waterford man admitted that he felt Ireland could have come away with a win.

In addition, he believes there’s still plenty of room for improvement ahead of Sunday’s game against Georgia and Friday week’s qualifier at home to the Faroe Islands.

“We’re very pleased but we had a few chances to counter-attack better than we did and we need to improve on that. England dominated possession and they were pushing high up the pitch,” O’Shea said.

“With Shane Long in behind, we could have taken advantage of that a bit better. We had one or two chances especially when England were pushed up to the half-way line and we won the ball back. We had a few nice passes but the final pass let us down. That was a bit disappointing but, overall, we were very pleased.”

Séamus Coleman also praised the fans, adding the Irish team didn’t want to leave them down on such a momentous evening. He said: “Yeah, it was something I was looking forward to since the fixture was announced. Walking out there in front of 80,000 people was great, and the fans as always are brilliant and you don’t want to let them down.

“I thought we played some good football at times. I feel like I’m on trial every time I go out to play, I just want to give 100 per cent because I want to play well. And if I don’t play well, I won’t stay in the team.”

As for facing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: “Yeah, you’re going to be up against top players when you play against England.

“You’ve got to be on your guard but when I play for my club you’re up against these players week in, week out so you know what their strengths and weaknesses are.”