Heimir Hallgrímsson explains Troy Parrott decision as he makes honest admission

06:25, 02 Oct 2026Updated 06:27, 02 Oct 2026

Heimir Hallgrímsson has described Troy Parrott’s wondergoal as the best he has seen - but he admitted he was disappointed to drop two points against Austria.

Parrott scored a first-half brace to take his international tally to 14. His first goal will go down as one of the all-time best to be scored by an Irish player.

However, the Boys in Green conceded twice late in the second-half, while Parrott was withdrawn with 15 minutes still to play.

Asked about Parrott’s solo strike, Hallgrímsson said: “I haven’t seen my team score a goal like this. It was absolutely brilliant, individual brilliance, and I want to see it again.

“But yeah, he has been absolutely fantastic for us the last one or two years. He is flying at the moment.

“We felt he was getting tired at the end and we didn’t want him to get injured, he is an important player for us.

“We are going to the next game in two days and we need to recover, that's the only thing we are thinking about now.

“Yes, we are sulking, losing a two-goal advantage. But in the end I think it was deserved.

“They came strong in the second-half and put us under a lot of pressure, and we didn’t seem to cope with it well enough.”

Hallgrímsson spoke of mixed feelings at the outcome, and put a tired second-half display down to the controversy around the two games against Israel.

“Obviously happy to be 2-0 up at half-time,” he said. “We knew, and I told you before the game, this team is high-energy. And we knew we needed to do some rotation and changes.

“I felt like we just lost organisation due to tiredness and then you start to do mistakes. That was something that we are obviously not happy with.

“But the first-half was good, the organisation was good, we know we can do this.

“But I kind of expected us to get out of gas at some point. Maybe not so quickly. But this week has been not only physically difficult but it has been mentally difficult and that takes energy as well.”

Next up is Sunday’s ‘home’ game against Israel, which means a trek to Backa Topola in northern Serbia.

“Hopefully we can do another good performance in three days,” said Hallgrímsson.

“And yeah, if somebody would have invited me a point against Austria before this game in our environment, I probably would have taken it.

“But 2-0 up, you never want to lose that advantage. So there is a mix of disappointment and happiness.”

James Abankwah will miss Sunday’s game through suspension, after he picked up his second yellow card of the campaign in Thursday night’s game against Austria.

Hallgrímsson was asked if everyone else would make the flight and he replied: “Yeah, that’s the plan. Except for Gavin (Bazunu), who will stay here.

“Josh Keeley is in the squad and he has been with us for two days. Everybody is travelling and everybody will be ready for that match.”

The Boys in Green boss was also asked about the disruptions in the first-half - a tennis ball protest on 20 minutes and a pitch invader close to half-time.

“I think they actually helped us in a good moment. We could have a breather and some drinks. But you are never happy with this, but we understand it and respect it,” he replied.