Bucharest. Brussels. Belgrade. There is an eerie familiarity to these occasions. Honourable defeats by slender margins and the slightly sour feeling that better was deserved.

Mick McCarthy walked into another of those press conferences last night. A crowded room above the Red Star Stadium and the opposition manager slapping his back and tossing garlands.

Another defeat to digest. The issue of the penalties which never materialised was on Irish minds, a slight sense of injustice rankling.

"We appealed for them," said McCarthy with an expressive shrug. "We didn't get them. I thought they were worth appealing for. I thought at the time that they were penalties. Somehow I seem to remember a game (Macedonia) where we got two given against us."

At this point Milan Zivadinovic's good humour evaporates.

"I thought they were not penalties," says the Yugoslavian manager sitting to McCarthy's right. "The referee was right."

"I'm not arguing with you," says McCarthy. "It's the ref I'm talking about."

And McCarthy and the Slav gaze out in different directions.

McCarthy had gambled slightly on the form of Damien Duff, the Ballyboden teenager. The pay-off was good, however, with Duff submitting his best performance so far in an Irish jersey. One of the little nuggets of gratification taken away on a difficult night.

"Duffer was excellent. I'm delighted for him. That's the best he's played for us. I've told him that, told him he's done well. He is a very good player. He can do it," said the manager.

Duff was pleased with himself too. "I was pleased. Things are getting easier for me match by match," said the young Dubliner. "I thought it was the best performance I have had. I thought we deserved at least one penalty and should have got a result out of this."

For McCarthy these fraught away occasions have been promising good things for some time without delivering. The best performances produced by his teams to date have been narrow losses, harsh results against a backdrop of passionate heroism. For over an hour last night it looked like something was at last swinging McCarthy's way.

"Look," said McCarthy, explaining the texture of the game. "I would expect to come to a place like this and have to defend at some stage. "They took Stojkovic off at halftime because he had done nothing and they put on a young lad who was up for it. That made a difference. I would imagine there were harsh words in their dressing-room at halftime. We played well against them."

Whether it was diplomacy or genuine lack of clarity in the heat of the moment, McCarthy claimed not to have got a clear view of the bungled transaction between Gary Breen and Steve Staunton which undid the Irish effort. Small errors had undone the plans once more.

"I couldn't see properly from where I was. I couldn't see how the ball ended up in our net. It was a ball I thought we should have dealt with. We missed the header, I think, at a time when we were under pressure. To be fair to them, they had us pinned back at that time. They scored in the period when they had us under pressure."

Had he expected more from Yugoslavia asked a Yugoslavian journalist seeking to add perhaps to the friction between the managers.

"I expected a hard game, we've had a hard game. You should appreciate though how well we have played. We have performed well and I am proud of my team. I was delighted with their performance. But as your coach has said, we lost."

McCarthy found the Yugoslav style similar to that he encountered from the Croatians seven weeks ago.

"They came to us with a technical, passing game, a different shape than the Croatians. They are exceptionally talented footballers though and we did well against them."

Talented but beatable. "We shouldn't have been beaten, but of course that's my opinion. . . I think if we play like that for the rest of the qualifying then we'll make it. It's only a setback in that we played so well but didn't get a result and we should have a draw out of it at least.

"I've seen teams play a lot worse than Ireland played tonight and win games but it's a harder road ahead in that we have to get a result out of the next match."

"Forget the penalty. It wasn't given and there is no point now talking about it. How many saves did our 'keeper make? Their 'keeper? About the same. We came here and did well and deserved more.

"Alright?"

And the Irish swept out of the Red Star stadium in the headlong rush for the airport and home. Empty-handed pirates.