Hull City midfielder Kevin Kilbane has called for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup playoff with France to be replayed.

The Irish players were furious that Swedish referee Martin Hansson had not spotted Thierry Henry's handball before he delivered the decisive 104th-minute cross to Arsenal defender William Gallas.

France will now compete in the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer but left-back Kilbane wants the Republic to be given another chance after the heartbreaking end to their qualifying campaign.

"Well, I'd like to think it would be replayed and I think everyone in the squad would like it replayed," Kilbane told talkSPORT.

The Hull player insists the manner of their World Cup exit is a "major disappointment" for Giovanni Trapattoni's squad.

Kilbane said: "You see for yourself he's handballed it once and it's still going out of play so he's handled it again to make sure it doesn't go out of play.

"And you know what? I asked him on the pitch, 'Did you handball it?' and he said, 'Yes, but I didn't mean it.' But when I've seen the replay it's there for all to see that we were let down. It's a massive disappointment for us all here.

"I saw it [the handball] clear as day. I went over to the referee after the game had finished and I asked him what happened and if he'd seen the handball. He said, 'I can 100 per cent say it wasn't handball'.

"When he said that to me I knew full well that he was just lying to me because he hadn't even seen it. That was the worst thing about it, we feel really hard done by.

"It will be worse in a couple of weeks' time when the draw is made. We'll have to lift ourselves up again. We can hold our heads up high because we played so well and we should have won the game and that's the ultimate disappointment. We played so well, but we can't come back [to the UK and Ireland] knowing we're going to a World Cup in the summer."