Troy Parrott wanted to shoulder some of the blame for the Republic of Ireland's drab goalless draw with North Macedonia in Tuesday's friendly.

The pair were somewhat brought crashing back down to earth after they each lost their World Cup play-off semi-finals last week, with this fixture taking place at the same time as the finals for the FIFA event.

But Parrott could twice have brought the game to life early on, first heading tamely at Stole Dimitrievski before miscuing wide when pouncing on Darko Velkovsk's mistake.

The AZ striker then had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside on the stroke of half-time, before being denied by the woodwork soon after the restart.

"To be honest, I probably put some of the blame on myself. I had a lot of chances to score and I didn't," Parrott told RTE when asked how his side did not score.

"It wasn't good enough in front of goal."

As for his disallowed goal, Parrott added: "I think it wasn't offside, that is the way it goes. No VAR and the one I actually do score is onside. It is a shame and tonight wasn't to be."

Johnny Kenny and Adam Idah both spurned late chances as the game finished goalless, with the second half a much more subdued clash impacted by a plethora of substitutions.

"I think we grew as the game went on, they wanted to lower the tempo as much as they could," head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson added on RTE.

"First half, they dropped really deep and it was difficult to press. Second half, we just decided to go a little bit higher and that caused them problems, maybe we should have done that earlier.

"Second half was good, we should have scored and we had chances."

Much was also made of Seamus Coleman's appearance, with questions over whether the 37-year-old could have played his last international after failing to reach this year's World Cup.

Hallgrimsson insists Coleman is yet to make a decision on his future, despite his family joining him on the pitch pre-match at the Aviva Stadium.

"We had a good talk, all of us, we want him to be here as long as he can," Hallgrimsson responded when queried about the Everton full-back.

"Obviously, it is always going to be his decision and connected to what he does with his club. Our desire is to keep him, he is really important for this squad and for the young players and anyone to play next to him, will help them grow.

"He is a good player and shows a good performance game after game at an international level, so why should he retire?"