John Giles feels Ireland manager Martin O'Neill deserves full praise for getting the Boys in Green to Euro 2016.
But he feels that factors such as squad selection throughout the campaign as a whole were not necessarily perfect.
"Martin is a hero and quite rightly so because we got through. But I couldn't say in all honesty that during the campaign that I agreed with everything he did. There wasn't a consistency of selection," John said on Off The Ball, adding that "I don't think it should have taken as long as it did to to pick the best players".
"You have to go back on the campaign overall and all's well that ends well but I must say, I didn't always agree with Martin's selection. It took a long time to get Wes Hoolahan into the team, for example," he said.
Ireland players celebrate at the end of the game ©INPHO/Donall Farmer
"I think towards the end we had a more consistent selection of the team. If I was critical of Martin, which I was, we had about a nine-game build up to the first game and with the first game we played against Georgia, the team had never played together before.
"You have to balance it up. All's well that ends well, it's great. I'm delighted that the Irish team had qualified. I think what happens in football, when you do well, the praise is too much and when you lose, the criticism is far too much."
John also spoke about the impact that qualification will have on soccer in this country.
"I think the soccer community needed that. I think had we lost on Monday or not got through, I think it would have been a total disaster for the game here. There would be no real interest," he said, adding that playing at the highest level will inspire the next generation.
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