Kevin Kilbane believes last month's morale boosting victory over Scotland will spur Brian Kerr's squad into resurrecting their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign.
The Sunderland clubman insists the team has moved on from the humiliation of early defeats to Russia and Switzerland and are now relishing the challenge that Georgia and Albania hold.
Following the 4-2 defeat in Moscow and the 2-1 home defeat to Switzerland, Ireland sit pointless, alongside Saturday's opponents Georgia, at the bottom of Group 10. But Kilbane says Ireland will "continue the form that we showed against Scotland and bring it into the qualifiers."
"We know what we have to do," he said today. "We certainly have to win all our home games, we'll go out for every game expecting to win and we're more that capable of winning every game."
"It's going to be difficult [to qualify], but it was always going to be, even from the start of the group. We feel very confident that we can go to Georgia and Albania and get six points. That's what we're expected to do."
Kilbane dazzled down the left during the 2-0 win at Hampden Park and, in the process, notched up his fourth international goal with an early first-half header. But it was the biting breaks infield to shooting and crossing positions that made onlookers take note that the 26-year-old possesses more than a kick and rush game.
A spate of injuries at Sunderland forced then manager Howard Wilkinson to deploy Kilbane in centre midfield and it is here that he could figure against Georgia, bearing in mind winger Damien Duff returns after missing the Scottish jaunt.
His conversion to the engine room has been heralded as one glimmer of hope in an otherwise miserable season at club level, and that could lean Kerr towards selecting him alongside Matt Holland on Saturday.
Mark Kinsella's creditable showing in Hampden Park must also be factored but his inability to feature in a hapless Aston Villa side does not bode well for his immediate international future.
"Before the Russia and Switzerland games we were very confident we could have won them but it just never materialised," Kilbane explains. "Now we're looking onwards and we know those games are history now. That's all we can do."