O’Neill, whose last club job was with Sunderland, and assistant Roy Keane took over in 2013 and led Ireland to this summer’s Euro 2016.
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The game was barely three minutes old at that stage but it still seemed to shake up a Serbia side who dominated most of the of the half and caused Ireland quite a few problems from wide positions without ever being able to produce the finish they needed.
Elsewhere in Group D, Wales were comfortable 4-0 winners over Moldova thanks to a brace from Gareth Bale and a goal apiece from Joe Allen and Sam Vokes.
Ireland’s opening World Cup qualifier against Serbia has been given the all-clear to go ahead. That’s a big result for them.
He said: “Serbia will be going into each match playing for a win whether we play at home, whether we play away, and especially since our first match in the qualifiers is at home, we will be going for the three points”.
He said: “We held the ball, we had more chances, we were the one attacking and we absolutely deserved more than one point”. But in those [heavy] conditions here, we’re off the mark.
“I know that this is a hard opponent and there are some hard opponents in this group, but I also recognise the quality that Ireland and Wales and other teams like this have and I’m not surprised that they made it to the European Championships”.
“France is gone. That is out of the way and we’ve beaten Italy in France”.
Jarolim said the second half “was better” and showed his team the way to go in the games to follow. Add to that little or no combination play, failure to keep their shape and it is little surprise an understrength Serbia were twice able to find the net.
“But overall I’m delighted with the fact that we fought back”. The referee blows for half-time, just seconds after Mitrovic wastes a good chance to tap in from six yards after Randolph pushes out Rukavina’s cross straight into his path. “We scored two goals away from home on a quagmire of a pitch against what I would still consider very decent opposition”. “I don’t think you realise how hard it is to come away from home in these conditions and it’s a terrific result for us”. They came back and got a point.
“We’ve got our own things to be concerned about. We don’t have a left-back playing first-team football in the United Kingdom; trust me, that’s not a great position to be in”.
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Seamus Coleman seen his first action of the season to start at right back and captain the side. Coleman denied the Serbs a victor by making a last-ditch clearance off the line.
