Qualifying for Euro 2012 will help us bury France demons - St Ledger

Sean St Ledger will use the agony of his World Cup heartache to fuel his mission to reach the Euro 2012 finals.

The 26-year-old Republic of Ireland defender will go into tomorrow night's final Group B qualifier against Armenia still smarting from the injustice of their controversial play-off defeat to France two years ago.

A point at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow night will pitch the Republic into another two-legged battle and, while that will inevitably bring back bitter memories for St Ledger and his team-mates, it will also provide them with an opportunity to exorcise the ghost of Thierry Henry's infamous handball.

St Ledger, whose pain was obvious as he spoke to journalist in the bowels of the Stade de France immediately after the game in November 2009, said of that time: "It was tough.

"Every footballer wants to get to the finals. You are seeing teams qualify now outright and the finals are becoming more realistic. They are not too far away now in terms of time.

"Obviously, France was a bad time for everybody, for the fans, for the country, but you have to get on from that, learn from it and just try to get these three points.

"That's the most important thing at the moment, this game on Tuesday. We don't want to look too far ahead of ourselves because Armenia are a very, very good side."

Should Ireland avoid defeat by in-from Armenia and then safely negotiate a play-off, that would go some of the way towards making up for what happened in Paris.

However, for St Ledger, parts of that fateful night will always remain with him.

He said: "I don't think it will ever go away really, but it would go some way towards making up for it. To play in a major finals would obviously be a great thing."

Giovanni Trapattoni's men will head into the game knowing they can take absolutely nothing for granted with Armenia having giving themselves a fighting chance of sneaking into second place in the group with successive victories over Andorra, Slovakia and Macedonia.

The 11 goals they have scored in the process are evidence of the progress they have made since Ireland won 1-0 in Yerevan in September last year.

But the Republic have demonstrated a remarkable resilience in recent months and will face the Armenians looking for a ninth successive clean sheet, one which would ensure their name goes into the hat for the play-off draw.

St Ledger said: "They are on a bit of a roll at the moment, and they are very good attacking-wise, they are very quick.

"We want to try to keep this successive clean sheet record going and try to make it as many as possible.

"It's obviously great to have eight, but why not have nine, 10, 11?"

St Ledger is likely to partner the returning Richard Dunne in central defence despite currently being out of the team at club Leicester.

He said: "It's obviously a frustrating period.

"Not playing is not great and I feel if I am not playing at club level, it would be justified if I didn't play here because it's not fair, probably, on the other players who are playing regularly for their club and not being selected here.

"It's something I am going to have to look at. It's a strange time in my career, really, it's never happened to me before.

"I have always played week in, week out, so being in the stands, it's a strange time."

St Ledger admits Foxes boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has been more than understanding, although that does not make his disappointment any easier to bear.

He said: "It's hard to get angry with him because he is such a nice man. When I have not been on the bench, he has said sorry to me, and you can't really ask for any more than that.

"But I want to play football and I feel my place is in jeopardy a little bit if I am not playing week in, week out."