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| The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, offers his best wishes to Mick McCarthy at Dublin Airport this morning (© Inpho) |
The Republic of Ireland will be carried on a wave of emotion across to the Far East this morning despite Nigeria gatecrashing the farewell party for Mick McCarthy's boys.
Hundreds of fans and well-wishers, including Bertie Ahern, turned up at Dublin airport to give the 23-man squad, management team and FAI entourage a rousing send-off this morning.
The travelling party departed Dublin at 10.15 a.m. on a marathon three-flight trip to the holiday island of Saipan for a week-long break before beginning their World Cup.
The reception last night from a passionate 43,000 Lansdowne Road crowd as McCarthy and his 23-man squad performed a lap of honour will have still been ringing in their ears but masked the fact those same supporters had just seen their side's two-year unbeaten home record come to an end.
After nine wins and two draws at the venue since May 2000, including three friendly victories this year, the expected bon voyage to the World Cup finals failed to materialise as Nigeria claimed a 2-1 win.
But an upbeat McCarthy believes last night's defeat will bring his players "back into reality" and said: "This has given us a lot to think about.
"I joked about losing this game, and we didn't mean to lose it, to rein a few people in on the expectation level because maybe things had gone a bit easy for us here".