Martin O'Neill pleased with performance despite defeat

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has claimed that he was pleased with his side's performance in the 2-1 defeat to Serbia.

Shane Long had handed Ireland an early lead and despite seeing his side concede two goals on their way to a loss, O'Neill refused to talk negatively about his players after the final whistle.

"I was pleased with a lot of aspects of the game," O'Neill told Sky Sports News. "We started off very, very brightly and we had a goal disallowed. Then we got a really good goal.

"We could have made it 2-0 and at this level, that would have been big for us.

"We probably started a little hesitantly in the second half but we had good moments in the game against very decent opposition. There was lots that I was very pleased with."

Ireland return to action on May 25 against Turkey.