Managers' reaction:Well, that's that. We came, we saw, we were conquered. But not without a fight. The valour yielded nothing in the end, we will, barring the Czechs imploding, be spectators once more at a major championship, already flimsy qualifying hopes now all but turned to dust. But it wasn't for the want of trying.

Maybe Steve Staunton has been too loyal to some of his players, as he was accused of after starting with 10 of the team that played against Slovakia, but he could have no cause to gripe about the returns he got on that fidelity from the 10 who attempted to rescue something from what looked nothing less than an unsalvageable situation after Stephen Hunt's dismissal.

There were, though, spells in the early stages of the first half when the viewing was as uncomfortable as it must have been for any members of the Green Army who dropped in to Prague's Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments during their stay in the Czech capital.

The locals had reassured us that this was an ordinary Czech team, by recent standards. Ordinary? God help us, the Christians among us muttered, when Marek Jankulovski danced through us to score in the 15th minute.

But it got better. Stephen Hunt's arrival, after John O'Shea limped off, added some thrust and energy down the left, and also woke the home crowd from their slumber: the Reading man was reminded that his clash with Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech last season was neither forgotten nor forgiven.

Inevitably, his red card in the 61st minute was greeted with unbridled ecstasy, grown Czech men nigh on wept with joy, and robbed Ireland of the main driving force behind its rally.

How did Staunton see it?

"I thought it was very harsh. He won the ball, his momentum took him through. The player who got injured was up running around the minute Stephen was off the pitch. There was a lot of play-acting. I wasn't happy with their centre-half, Kovac. He was looking for Stephen to be put off, until then it looked like the referee would give him a yellow. It's a bitter pill.

"But there were a lot of decisions, the yellow cards . . . What can we do about it, it's history. I'm sure the referee's assessor will have his own report, we'll just have to wait and see what's the outcome."

Can you say something about the match?

"What do you want me to say? I'm bitterly disappointed. We had enough chances to get something from the game, even with 10 men. We started badly but came in to it. By the time of the sending off we were well on top, it looked like we would go on and get an equaliser."

Is that the end of Euro 2008?

"Well, it's out of our hands, it's up to the Czechs, a lot of results would have to go our way. We know it's a tall order, but we'll give it a go. But we're building for the 2010 World Cup. We've done well so far, we've brought in a lot of young players, but we can do better."

In hindsight, bearing in mind the impact Hunt had when he came on, do you regret not starting him?

"No, because Kevin Kilbane did well on Saturday. Stephen's better performances have always been as a sub - when he's started he hasn't done as well, he's an impact player."

And that was it, there was a plane to be caught, Staunton bid farewell.

By then Czech coach Karel Bruckner, who looked two decades younger than he did in his pre-match conference, had the look of a contented man.

"It certainly wasn't easy, but we coped," he said. "Our performance was better in the first half, but the speed of the game was extremely high and it was impossible to maintain it.

"I wish to thank the Republic of Ireland team, they played very fair even though there was a red card, but I don't think that was necessary. So yes, I want to thank them, a very fair team."

With a six-point lead, how close are you to qualification, Mr Bruckner? "Yes, it is in our hands now completely. Full stop," he beamed.

The time will come, he will trust, that Staunton will be able to anticipate one of these post-match chats with all the eagerness of a Lotto winner en route to collecting their prize, much like Bruckner seemed to do last night.

That pesky old statistic had been rearing its head all week, the last time we had a competitive away victory of note Stephen Roche won the Tour de France, Johnny Logan won the Eurovision (again), and the Dusky Seaside Sparrow became extinct. And when Mark Lawrenson scored the winner against Scotland at Hampden Park Darron Gibson wasn't even born.

We dreamt of an end to 20 years of (away) hurt, Stan's Infants of Prague Bounce the Czechs, that class of thing, but it wasn't to be.

And we're still left wondering if this is actually a team of real potential, overseen by a manager simply not equipped to help them realise it, or whether we're just losing the run of ourselves, overestimating the ability of even our better players, so often in this group made to look ordinary, worse than that at times, by modest opposition. Whatever the truth, another championship will pass us by.