Ireland striker Kevin Doyle has told Setanta Sports that his on-field honesty has caused comment from his team-mates.
Doyle played 75 minutes of the international friendly with Brazil at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night, which Ireland lost 2-0, but Doyle could have had a first-half penalty if he had gone down initially from a challenge in the area by Juan.
The player has in the past bemoaned the fact that referees do not reward players for trying to stay on their feet in the area, and was a victim when playing for Wolves in October when referee Peter Walton failed to give a penalty when he was fouled by Aston Villa defender and compatriot Richard Dunne.
Doyle acknowledges that his failure to go to ground has been noted by team-mates.
“It is my natural reaction to stay on my feet. I was brought up on Gaelic games, and you do not get frees (for soft fouls),” he told Setanta Sports.
“It is only afterwards that I think ‘I should have gone down there.’”
“No manager has ever told me to fall down, but plenty of players have!”
Doyle was at the centre of a bizarre incident in the second-half of the Emirates friendly, where Juan stood on his boot, which then came off. In front of assistant referee Simon Beck, Juan then proceeded to kick the boot over the touchline as Doyle tried to retrieve it.
“It was very strange. First he stood on my boot, and pulled it off my foot, then he kicked it off the pitch right in front of the linesman! If that had been the other way round, a lot more would have been said about it, and the linesman would have been flag-happy.”