Josh Cullen: Long wait to put things right after England defeat was tough

Josh Cullen has admitted the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League drubbing by England has fuelled their determination to remain in League B.

Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side had shown green shoots of improvement before travelling to Wembley in November, when a 5-0 defeat took some of the gloss off home and away victories over Finland.

Having avoided automatic relegation from the second tier, Ireland found themselves pitched into battle with Bulgaria in the play-offs.

And they will run out at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday defending the 2-1 lead they secured in Plovdiv on Thursday, a third win in five games.

Asked if winning can become a habit – one which has largely eluded the Republic in recent seasons – Burnley midfielder Cullen said: “Yes, definitely.

“If you can make winning a habit, it’s positive for everyone, it gets a positive feeling around the camp for sure when you are winning games and it breeds confidence.

“It was a tough break after the England game, going away and having to wait for a long time to put it right.

“But I think we did that the other night and now we are looking to get another result tomorrow and push forward and keep that winning confidence going.”

Two of Ireland’s three wins in the seven games they have played under new boss Hallgrimsson has seen them come from behind, something they had not done in a competitive match since they beat Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifier in October 2013.

The Icelander does not want his team to make a habit of conceding first, but he senses that something is starting to change within his squad and that resilience is evidence of it.

Hallgrimsson said: “I think they now believe more and more in each other and what they are doing. We obviously try to feed them with positive clips from those moments.

“They need to come here, the Bulgarians, and attack us and be on the front foot and take risks. We know they might succeed – that’s international football. If you are two steps from your right position, you get punished at this level. That’s how this game is.

“I think we are improving in certain areas, and we are focusing more on some things than others. I think we are improving. I smell there is a little change coming.

“Now everyone is wanting to play and pushing for their place in the team. That’s a good sign, a really good sign. We have a really healthy competition.”

Hallgrimsson has a clean bill of health going into a game in which Wolves defender Matt Doherty, whose goal in Bulgaria proved decisive, in line to win a 50th senior cap.

The head coach said: “The doc came into the coaches’ room this morning and said everyone was fit and ready to play so that’s the first time he has said that. I think it’s a good sign for us, that everyone wants to be part of this game.”

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-72310761-1’, ‘auto’, {‘name’: ‘pacontentapi’});
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘referrer’, location.origin);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension1’, ‘By Damian Spellman, PA’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension2′, ’03e79cc5-48b3-4bc2-8e59-e8a1e3dd2a02’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension3’, ‘paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension6’, ‘story’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension7’, ‘composite’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension8’, null);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension9’, ‘sport:football’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘anonymizeIp’, true);
ga(‘pacontentapi.send’, ‘pageview’, { ‘location’: location.href, ‘page’: (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), ‘title’: ‘Josh Cullen: Long wait to put things right after England defeat was tough’});