Staunton learns from touchline ban

The Republic of Ireland manager, Steve Staunton, admits that he regrets landing a one-game touchline ban but does not expect his absence to hamper chances of victory in Cyprus on 7 October.

The 37-year-old was dismissed from the dug-out in the Euro 2008 qualifying defeat to Germany on 2 September. He kicked a bottle of water in anger with 15 minutes of the game remaining and was admonished by the referee, Luis Medina Cantalejo.

Staunton will now be forced to watch from the stands when the Republic head to Nicosia next month.

"Of course I regret it," Staunton said at the Fifa World Cup Symposium in Berlin. "It was a silly thing to do. It was just my frustration on the night. I felt my players had done enough to get a point for us. The lads put in a strong, a good performance. [But] I learned from it. It has happened. It is gone. It's history and there is nothing I can do about it. I got the one-match ban and I just have to get on with it."

Staunton remains confident his troops can cope with his absence. "It is not a nice thing to happen but I don't think it is going to affect us in any way," he added.

"I'll be there to train them for the three or four days that we've got them and in the end there is not a lot I can do anyway once they cross that white line. So I am expecting another positive performance."

Staunton's Spanish counterpart, Luis Aragones, has said he changed his mind about resigning because the Spanish Federation and his coaching assistants convinced him he had no reason to throw in the towel.

The 68-year-old offered his resignation after the Spanish media called for his head following last week's 3-2 defeat by Northern Ireland in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

"I originally thought that I should resign because of the bad result, but they wouldn't accept my decision," Aragones said on Monday evening. "I still thought I would resign up until five in the afternoon, but when I met with my assistants they persuaded me to change my mind.

"I decided that I should continue because they all said we weren't in a desperate situation and that we could still qualify."

Aragones denied his change of heart had been influenced by the fact that he would not receive any financial compensation if he resigned. "It wasn't down to money. It was more to do with the people around me."