BARNSLEY striker Jon Macken believes the Republic of Ireland deserve to be at next summer's World Cup in South Africa as the fall out from Wednesday's controversial game in France continues.

Jon told www.barnsleyfc.co.uk: "I watched the game; it was very disappointing and upsetting to see and you have to feel for the lads involved in the game when they were cheated out of it like that. Those things happen all the time in football in a lot of different ways.

"Decisions like that are always going to be hard to accept. It could be a handball in a vital area that stops a goal or a bad decision by a linesman but these things happen although it never makes it any easier when you feel that you have been hard done by.

"The rules are there and they say that it has been dealt with and the game cannot be replayed. That is heartbreaking".

Jon added: "At the end of the day and in an ideal world you would like to see the game replayed. When you look back throughout the history of the game it is littered by incidents like that. The first one that obviously springs to mind is Diego Maradona's handball in Mexico in 1986 and they went on to win the World Cup after that.

"It is just one of those things but it has taken away from what was an outstanding performance by Ireland over two legs and they showed that they deserve to be at the World Cup. They more than held their own against France in both legs and it is a heartbreaking way to go out.

"Decisions like that are happening all the time and we have been on end of some critical ones here in recent weeks as well. It does demoralise you a little but you have to take it in your stride and move on".

Jon's cap for the Republic of Ireland came in an international friendly against Bulgaria in August 2004.

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