Richard Dunne fears the Ireland team are quickly going backwards amid lowering expectations.
A 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan at the Aviva has eliminated any faint hope of qualifying for the World Cup.
Stephen Kenny's side have just one point to their name after four games in Group A.
And Ireland legend Dunne has given a very blunt assessment of the state of the national team.
"If we are not qualifying for tournaments, we have to look and ask if there is progress and are we getting better," Dunne told Sky Sports.
"The expectations of the Ireland team have been lowered over the last few seasons and it's almost like we have to find a way to win again.
"This Irish team can't find a way to win games and until we turn that corner, there is always going to be negativity around the side.
"People will point to the performance in Portugal as being progress, but this game against Azerbaijan was Ireland going backwards again. They might say we are playing nice football, but that is not good enough. We need to start putting points on the table.
"We need to see over the next six months that we are getting points. That's all people are interested in.
"We got beaten by Serbia (at the start of this World Cup qualifying group) and some people were giving them a pat on the back saying it was a good performance, but that's not good enough. If you want to improve and go forward, you can't accept defeats are okay.
"Even the draw in the play-off in Slovakia when we failed to qualify for the Euros. There was a lot of well done and nice try, but that's not good enough. You need to get results.
"We are giving new players a game, introducing a lot of new caps, but they need to win games."
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
