Half-time ´rollicking´ behind Ireland improvement – Walters

Jonathan Walters has pinned the Republic of Ireland’s second-half improvement in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat of Georgia on a half-time “rollicking”.

Ireland were far from their best in the first half and were lucky to go into the break level, as Georgia hit the frame of the goal twice through Levan Mchedlidze and Guram Kashia.

Seamus Coleman’s scrappy tap-in early in the second half ultimately proved to be the decisive moment as Ireland improved after the interval, but Walters revealed that things got heated in the changing room at the break.

He told reporters: “It’s a win so we will take that all day long. Three points was the target ahead of a tough match against Moldova on Sunday. We’ve got four points so it’s a great start to qualifying.

“We did struggle in the first half, but we got back into it and limited their chances. We had a bit of a rollicking amongst the lads at half-time and things were much better after that.”