James McClean says he was honoured to captain his country for the first time as the Republic of Ireland drew with Ukraine on Tuesday night in Poland.
The sides played out a 1-1 draw in Lodz after Nathan Collins gave the Boys in Green the lead with a sensational solo goal.
Collins’ first senior international goal was ultimately only enough to claim a draw against the Euro 2020 quarter-finalists, to whom they lost 1-0 at the Aviva Stadium last week, after Artem Dovbyk levelled to ensure his side will sit at the top of League B Group One when they return to action in September.
But McClean is delighted with the character shown by Ireland in their past two games after two disappointing defeats at the start of the international window.
He posted on Instagram after Tuesday's game: "Absolute honour to captain my country tonight and lead this brilliant group of lads out to battle, character we have shown after the first two games has been top class.
"@_nathancollins delighted for you bud, outstanding, top player and a top lad.
"We go again in September."
Replying to the post, Collins wrote: "What a guy, my skipper."
Looking back on the international window as a whole, manager Stephen Kenny said: “I’d have preferred a higher points total. If we’d have won today… I definitely would have.
“But I thought it was very harsh to lose the opening two games, to be honest. To have no points from that was very difficult to take because we hardly conceded a chance in either game.
“Today was a good platform to go and play and we played well – but I want us to be even better than that, I want us to improve again. I think we’re capable of even getting better and the capacity there for improvement is high. I think we can even get better.
“I can’t fault the players, they were really excellent. Their attitude was brilliant and I can’t really fault the players, they were tremendous.”
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