Matt Holland: It's our fault boldness backfired, so don't shoot the gambler

Sometimes a gamble works and the decision maker is feted as a hero – shrewd, swashbuckling, a man who bends the odds in his favour. And sometimes, of course, a gamble fails and fails spectacularly.

The Republic of Ireland lost that European Championship qualifier against Switzerland on Wednesday evening because our manager, Mick McCarthy, stuck to his beliefs that we should be aggressive and go for the win. He was not to know when he made his big decision to substitute a defender, Ian Harte, with an attacker, that the very next Swiss attack would exploit the gap in the defence and that the ensuing goal in the final few minutes would snatch the game.

No one knew, that is why it was a gamble – and it is one that ultimately failed. McCarthy should not be castigated or ridiculed for this because that has been his method for years. And it has worked for years.

We must remember that under his managerial guidance the Republic have leapt from about 57th or 58th in the world rankings to 13th. That is a phenomenal achievement and before the carpers and critics assemble, one that we must all acknowledge owes a great deal to Roy Keane as well. However, Keane is currently unavailable and even if he were not ruled out for other reasons, he would probably have missed the last two matches because of the hip operation he underwent recently.

The facts are that the loss to Russia was bad but bearable because it was an away game and these are much more difficult to get points from. Wednes-day's defeat is much worse because it was at home at Lansdowne Road and it has made it really tough for us to qualify for Euro 2004 now.

Tough, not impossible. I know that words count for little in this situation but we still have a good chance of sneaking to Portugal via the play-offs. The two defeats need to be reversed. Russia at home should favour us and a win would match their victory over us, so that would leave us needing to gain a win over Switzerland in Switzerland. It will be very difficult but that is the task we are left with and the one we must concentrate on.

Just think. If we had snatched the late winner, McCarthy would be lauded as bold and brave, displaying the fine credentials that took us to the World Cup and that penalty shoot-out against Spain. It really is a fine line between success and failure.

I also think that the gap between the supposed bigger nations and the minnows is a lot smaller now. I watched the Slovakia against England match last weekend and thought that they were unlucky to lose. The bumpy and saturated pitch hampered both sides but they showed plenty of organisation and skill. And the snippets of the midweek draw against Macedonia in Southampton that I have seen suggest a similar thing. Lots of countries are more than capable of playing good football. Maybe it is because of cross-transference of players across national leagues, or indeed of coaches, but whatever the reason I believe that there really is little separating sides ranked 15th and 55th in the world.

This is not just in Europe either. Think back to the World Cup and the likes of Turkey and South Korea. The global order may not be shifting – after all, the final was between Brazil and Germany – but it is definitely being squeezed.

Now, I just hope that McCarthy is not hounded and harassed out of the job. The next five months could be very wearing, a witch-hunt that leaves him no option but to pursue his dream of club management. It is only natural that his name is linked to every vacancy that arises, and if football is true to recent form, there will be plenty of those in the coming months. He is a successful manager – a fact which may have been lost among the column inches of the last few days – and proven successes are always in demand.

And a lot of his success is based on a cussed stubbornness that suggests he will not bow to the sniping and heckling. It is that stubbornness that he inculcated in the players, the belief to never give up. He won't and we won't, and it really is the players who should get the majority of the blame. I felt that when George Burley was sacked at Ipswich and I feel the same about the Republic's two defeats. We accept the praise when we do well so we must accept the blame. They could be an arduous five months ahead, though, with only two friendlies to break the monotony.

He is not the only manager under fire. The guru of England, Sven Goran Eriksson, is being increasingly questioned about his tactics and systems. Twelve months ago he was Midas, four months ago he was mundane and now he is muddling.

The truth, as ever, probably lies somewhere in-between but he is enduring microscopic scrutiny of his leadership. At least he can be fairly confident that few of his detractors in the media are fuelled by personal malice. Both managers are big men, both deserve some slack for their significant successes thus far and, very importantly, both need their players to start performing.

Matt Holland, the Republic of Ireland international and Ipswich Town captain, was talking to Iain Fletcher