Shane Long looking to take positives from Serbia defeat

Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long has vowed to learn lessons from his side's defeat against Poland in last night's friendly.

Long, who scored the opening goal in the 2-1 home loss, failed to convert a couple of chances after being played in by Wes Hoolahan to seal the victory.

"Nine out of 10 times in training you'd take [those chances] and sadly they didn't go in for me today," the 27-year-old is quoted as saying by the Irish Times. "It's nice to get a goal, nice to play up front with Wes as well, I think he enjoyed setting me up and it's a striker's dream when you have someone like Wes behind you.

"I think the second chance I had the keeper gambled you know and read me like a book, and the third I just kind of dragged it a little bit but I'll learn from it and luckily it wasn't in a qualifying game.

"I should have finished them, there's no denying that. It's frustrating but I can take a lot of positives from it. It's a friendly tonight and the gaffer tried out a few things and hopefully I gave him a few things to think about."

A James McCarthy own goal and a close-range strike from Filip Djordjevic ensured that Serbia left the Aviva Stadium victorious.