Stephen Kenny insists the sky's the limit for Ireland even though they coughed up a lead in a thriller with Ukraine.
Centre-back Nathan Collins scored one of the great Irish goals and said: “I just took it in the moment, I took it in my stride, saw what was open and I took it.”
But Ukraine denied Ireland three points by hitting back through striker Artem Dovbyk, two minutes into the second half.
Despite building on the rout over Scotland with another impressive display, Kenny cut a frustrated figure after banking four points from four games.
The Ireland boss said: “We played well but I want us to be even better and we’re capable of getting even better. The capacity for improvement is high.
“Were we perfect? No, we weren’t. But a lot of players are emerging and you can see the team is getting better and our expectations are that we want to get better again.
“I’m not saying we should have won and that we deserved to win, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t win.”
Kenny continued: “I would have preferred a higher points total as it was very harsh to have lost the opening two games.
“To have no points from those games against Armenia and Ukraine is very difficult to take as we hardly conceded a change in either game.
“That was a real kick in the teeth, but to respond in the manner we did against Scotland was amazing.
“And then we played tonight without experienced defenders in Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy and John Egan but the back three were exceptional.
“They gave us a great platform and having taken the lead we really wanted to go and win it.”
But Kenny hailed man-of-the-match Collins for his wonder solo goal that has catapulted the defender onto the radar of every Premier League club.
Leixlip lad Collins, 21, was Ireland’s most impressive player over the four games having started in all of them.
Kenny said: “Nathan has established himself in the team and has been really exceptional over the four matches.
“His decision making is remarkable for someone so young and it’s a special goal and he deserves special credit for it.
“I had him with the Under-21s and the one thing we know about him is that he loves dribbling with the ball - and at pace.
“And if you play him in the middle of a back three, rather than on the right, you can lose that.
“But he dispelled that myth tonight from the middle of defence and it was just a sublime finish.”
But the Ireland boss refused to be drawn on whether Collins should be snapped up by another Premier League side after Burnley’s relegation.
But Kenny was disappointed at how Ireland were carved wide open for Ukraine’s equalising goal two minutes into the second half.
He continued: “We know Ukraine are a quality team. They have exceptional, technical footballers and I’ve enjoyed watching them in preparation for these games.
“But I’m leaving the stadium disappointed as we took the lead.
“I need to see their goal again but we seemed to be wide open and it looks like a goal we could have prevented.
“They attacked us down the left but had no real clear cut chances and we defended our box quite well, but we looked too open for the goal.”
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