‘It hurts, it hurts badly’ – Nathan Collins reflects on Dutch defeat and gives 100% backing to Stephen Kenny

Ireland defender Nathan Collins admits their Euro 2024 qualifying defeat to the Netherlands “hurts badly” but insists he still backs under-fire manager Stephen Kenny.

After four defeats in their opening five qualifiers, Ireland’s hopes of automatic qualification for Germany 2024 are now dead and buried as the Dutch left Dublin with three points, courtesy of Wout Weghorst’s second-half strike.

Ireland started well with Adam Idah putting the hosts ahead early on but failed to test the Dutch goal after falling behind on 56 minutes. With just three points on the board after five games, the Brentford centre-half cut a frustrated figure after the game, admitting that the entire Irish dressing room felt flat after back-to-back defeats.

“It’s frustrating. The whole dressing room is flat. You put so much into it. It’s frustrating but that’s football. It takes it out of you. It hurts, it hurts badly,” said Collins after the 2-1 defeat, with Ireland’s only hope of qualification now depending on getting a potential play-off next March.

After such a dismal start to the group, the noise around Stephen Kenny’s future will only grow louder in the following days. The Ireland boss insisted after the defeat that he will remain in charge for the final three games of the campaign, and Collins gave the manager his backing.

“100pc,” replied the centre-half, when asked about his thoughts on Kenny’s future and whether he’d like him to remain in his post until the end of the group.

“I can’t put into words how much work they put in, every day and every hour. How many hours they watch other teams. Their whole lives have revolved around this week. He (Kenny) has given me my chance. He has put me in and had belief in me. He is putting confidence in me and all of them. I can’t speak highly enough.”

After such a bright start to the game, Ireland squandered several chances to add to their lead as Collins reflected on his side’s overall display against the seventh-highest ranked team in the world.

“You are against one of the best teams in the world, there is no messing about,” said the 22-year-old Leixlip native.

“It’s just decision making, I think we need to learn from that. The chances, we created so many from set plays. We created a lot from the high press. It’s a tough one.

“I think everyone knows we were close with that performance. Putting in a performance against a top side like that, it’s very frustrating.

“The lads put everything into it, we made them very uncomfortable but they showed their quality and that’s how they got their (second) goal. We should have taken a few more chances in the first half, it would have been a different game.

“But honestly, I am proud of that performance. We were good, we were strong, we were set-up well but we didn’t put our chances away.

With Ireland’s hopes of automatic qualification now dead and buried, Collins feels his side must stand up and finish the group strongly.

“Obviously the table speaks for itself,” said Collins.

“We need to be proud of ourselves and go into the next game with a bit of pride and make amends for it. We can’t just let this now be it. We can’t just let it fade away. We put in so much work. We have gotten so close.

“We might as well carry it on, take that next step to get better and beat teams at home, finish teams off home and away, take our chances, learn from it and build a team who can beat anyone.”