Stephen Kenny has brushed off Roy Keane's criticism of the Ireland camp's "way over the top" celebrations of Troy Parrott's late winner in the recent friendly against Lithuania.
Instead, Ireland boss Kenny believes the reaction to Parrott's goal on the pitch, on the sidelines and in the stands illustrates a closer bond between the players and the supporters, while admitting: "We did not always feel that all the players were appreciated or loved when I took over."
Kenny greeted the classy 97th minute strike with unbridled joy, as did Parrott and his team-mates, and afterwards ITV pundit Keane remarked: "It was an important win, better late than never, but they made hard work of it.
"I think the celebrations at the end are way over the top.
"But an important goal, even for Parrott, he’s a young player. His career has probably stalled a little bit. But they kept going, showed a bit of spirit and fight.
"You take that win. The feel-good factor, keep that going, a bit of momentum.
"Honestly, that’s way over the top (the celebrations). For managers, staff and players to react that way to a friendly win. Come on. Get over it."
But Kenny is not interested in a war of words with the former Ireland captain who was also Martin O'Neill's assistant manager with Ireland between 2013 and 2018.
Instead, he looked to put the celebrations in context and insisted that the celebrations Parrott's goal sparked on underlined the bond that exists between players, management and supporters.
"If any of the other four goals that we scored had been allowed we probably would not have celebrated like that," Kenny explained.
"I know that the four goals were legitimately offside but they were marginal decisions. Some of them were very marginal and you're not sure.
"So it was a culmination of one goal being disallowed, two, three, four. Then Troy's goal was so good - and to get it in the 97th minute...
"To be fair, I don't think that he has been too critical overall. I have no problem with Roy Keane, really. It's just a comment and we have not made much of it.
"We want our players to feel the affection of the crowd. That's one thing that is important to us. We want them to feel that.
"We did not always feel that all the players were appreciated or loved when I took over.
"We felt that some players were regarded more than others. Some players were revered and some players were not revered.
"That's only natural. But we have the feeling now that players who were not always revered are now feeling appreciated.
"The power and the energy from the crowd and their affection can be very strong and can have a positive effect."
Ireland's next match will be the Nations League opener in Armenia on June 4, after UEFA changed the fixture list to accommodate Ukraine's World Cup play-off semi-final with Scotland on June 1.
Ireland will host Ukraine on June 8 before playing at home against Scotland on June 11 and then at a neutral venue against Ukraine on June 14.
