Lawrie Sanchez revealed what he said to his players which led to that dramatic five minute recovery early in the second half against Wales.

"I said to the players it could be a damp squid here, you've punctured the balloon you sent up after the England game.

"I said let's get ourselves right, let's get ourselves out of this and, to be fair, you saw the response. It was fantastic."

Ultimately, however, a Ryan Giggs free-kick just after the hour led to Northern Ireland's downfall.

"We've given away too many free-kicks in and around our box and a Premiership player has shown Premiership class and put the ball in the back of the net."

Indeed, it was a general lack of defensive capability that Lawrie blamed for the defeat.

"I thought we certainly deserved something but we can't win football matches by conceding three goals.

"We've through to the other side now. We look as if we're going to score, we create the opportunities to score but we can't win football matches by conceding three times.

"We've lost a little bit of defensive strength, its something that needs to be addressed."

And he refused to pinpoint what many considered a poor refereeing performance.

"The standard of referring hasn't been that great in this competition but referees are what they are, they seem to see the game through different eyes from managers but that hasn't cost us the game, what cost us the game was letting three goals in basically.

"I've said all along England was a great night, a great experience but whether it'll be a foundation or just a one off only time will tell."

Looking ahead to the Austria game Sanchez said: "Its frustrating if you think of the points we could have had in this group but we haven't got them. We've got nine and a chance of 12 when we go to Austria and now we've got to do that.