Speed unperturbed by slow start

New Wales boss Gary Speed chose to focus on the positives after his side’s 3-0 loss to Ireland in his first match at the helm.

The Welsh were comprehensively outplayed by Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland team, with second-half goals from Darron Gibson, Damien Duff and Keith Fahey sealing a resounding win at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

The fixture was the first of the 2011 Nations Cup, a friendly tournament involving Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Heading into next month’s key Euro 2012 qualifier against England anchored to the bottom of Group G and yet to claim a point from their three matches, Speed said his side will need to rectify simple mistakes.

“It’s disappointing, obviously,” Speed told Sky Sports.

“There’s things in there we can look at and improve, and there’s things we can take heart from.”

“If we look to the game it’s pretty easy to work out where we went wrong and how to fix it.”

Trapattoni, meanwhile, was pleased by the displays of some of the squad’s fresher faces, including debutant Seamus Coleman and Manchester United midfielder Gibson.

“It’s a good result. In the first half the game was in the balance, but in the second half we deserved to win it because I saw a very interesting situation with our new, young players,” Trapattoni said.

“Coleman and Gibson, they played very well, but they can do even better – I’m prepared to wait to see them develop and do that,” he said.

“It was very important because this tournament provides players like that with some great experience.”