Givens angry over 'dubious' penalty

Republic of Ireland caretaker boss Don Givens said the late penalty that denied them victory over Wales felt like "a kick in the teeth".

The Irish were 2-1 ahead thanks to goals from Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle, which had cancelled out Jason Koumas' early header, and seemingly on the way to their first Euro 2008 Group D victory since March.

But Paul McShane's foul on David Cotterill gave Koumas the opportunity to score the equalising penalty in the Millennium Stadium, and Givens said: "I felt the penalty was a bit dubious, I doubt we would have got it at the other end."

He added: "It is certainly a kick in the teeth, we deserved to win and had played well. What we didn't manage was the third goal that would have killed them off.

"I doubt that had Germany been 2-1 up here with two minutes to go, they would not have lost the lead. Particularly as the penalty came from a break from our own corner."

However, Wales boss John Toshack viewed it differently.

He said: "We should have had a penalty earlier on when Koumas was fouled. He was booked for that and now he is suspended for the game in Germany on Wednesday. It certainly was not worth a booking, there was contact.

"So when David Cotterill is being pulled back outside the box, and then it continues inside, maybe the referee felt we deserved something.

"In the end I felt we deserved something from the game."