MICK McCARTHY is torn between conflicting emotions after last night's match with Portugal.

Delighted with the performance. Absolutely slaughtered by the result," was his cryptic summation of affairs. "I don't think we deserved to lose. I think we played very well. Had we lost to a goal of, great quality 20 minutes into the second half it might have been different."

"We'll have to lift the lads for Sunday, but we'll do that. They're a good bunch. They're all very upset right now and I've told them they played well and didn't deserve to lose. But they're hollow words. I remember when I was a player and managers said that afterwards. It was cobblers at the time. Players want to win games.

McCarthy singled out practically everybody, concluding "I thought it was a good team performance. We'll have to do something about Shay Given's shoelaces, I think, but there was nothing he could do about the goal it took a deflection."

McCarthy strove to accentuate the positive, though on reflection he'll surely be disappointed with some of the passing, especially in the first half. Another area of the Irish game which has singularly failed to complement some of the more positive aspects is an age old one, the inability to avail of counter attacking opportunities.

This, McCarthy alluded to when commenting "I thought we could have done better when we got breaks at times. It's a new way of playing for us. We're trying a different way of playing. We have to sit back and we have to be prepared to defend deeply. We need people with legs to get into the box." Roy Keane?

The Portuguese are the role model he aspires to. "I think they're a very good side, with very good players. Their movement is excellent. That's what I'm trying to create here. They're all very comfortable with the ball. At times you think you've got them penned in, and then with a moment of skill they're away again. I wouldn't mind watching them every week.

Similar admiring sentiments were expressed by some of the new caps blooded last night, four in this game and nine in McCarthy's three to date. One of them, Dave Savage, said "Some of them are playing in Italy and the movement and the pace of the game is a lot quicker."

"You're playing with some great players as well, Andy Townsend and Alan McLoughlin, Niall Quinn, and they're talking to us all the time. They play the game for you a loot of the time. It's so enjoyable just to play with them.

The impressive and levelheaded teenage striker Dave Connolly is clearly revelling in all of this although he was critical in his analysis of his own performance. "I've definitely played better. I still need to work on my fitness. I got a bit tired in the first half. But there's still a lot of improvement in me. I'm only a young lad."

The infusion of so many young Dubs six of the nine enabled Keith O'Neill, a team mate of Gareth Farrelly's in their formative years at Home Farm, to quip "That's back to the way it used to be. That's the way it should be. Full of Dubs."

He refuted the notion that it was he who said he wouldn't be picked for a representative side by Maurice Setters because he was born in Dublin. "No I never said that, but it was probably true."

"A lot of the players in the team have all played together. Then we all split up and go to our clubs so it's nice to meet and talk about old times. And you know each other which is a bonus as well. You're not training with people you don't know. There's a" great atmosphere in the team and that's a bonus straight off."

Another young Dub, the 27 year old who claims to be a 20 year old in foot balling terms, is Curti Fleming. "It was a tough first hall, but Mick was great and I got my confidence in the second half. It's a learning job for all of us."

Sporting a couple of stitches in his right ear, Fleming said. "It was an eventful day and I enjoyed it."

A home debut? "It was brilliant, standing for the National Anthem. I was singing. l think I lost some words near the end. But overall I was thrilled, if a little disappointed with the result."