You don't always get what you want. If you try sometimes you get just what you barely need. So it was in Tirana. Ireland came away with a point in their pockets when a week ago three points would have seemed feasible. Tom Humphries in Tirana.

The situation is fluid, however, in a group without any outstanding teams. There are many points yet to be lost and won. Brian Kerr's squad hangs on.

Four points from four matches isn't exactly the haul of swag we dreamed off when the draw was made for this group, and it's fair to say that if all were right with the world of Irish football we would have the beating of any of the other sides. Instead, having come close to self-destruction last summer and having suffered a plague of injuries for this trip, we must participate as equals in the Group of the Banana Skin. We'll spend as much time on our backsides as anyone else.

At least last night we looked competent. In Moscow before Christmas we played with the composure of hogs on ice. We are re-asserting our good habits, putting the pieces back together again.

Last night we caught a glimpse of what we look like when we are doing what we can do. Decent but limited is how we looked.

It's one of those truisms in football that Tirana is a hard place to come and play in. That used to be because Tirana was a hard place to come and do anything in. Now, though, the hosts are organised and buoyant and showing a little native creativity. Tirana lures you in now with the almost daily improvements to its face. The Irish stayed in a fine hotel a couple of hundred metres from the pitch which, as it turned out, was groomed and manicured to suit a passing, footballing sort of side. Albania.

Inadvertently perhaps the crowd identified what would be the difference between the two sides. "Murati You Are Maradona of Balkans" read a long, blue and white banner. Edvin Murati may not quite be all that yet, but last night he was pitted against Lee Carsley. They say of Lee Carsley that he is the Lee Carsley of Merseyside. No more, no less. Carsley grafted hard but he seemed to personify the difference between the sides. The Irish midfield was filled with artisans. The Albanians had a little more flair.

Things have changed rapidly here. The place is bursting with energy. The people have an impatience about them.

Ten years ago a post-match shower would have been a dream for players. Last night there was pop music and dancing girls. They even had a goofy eagle mascot. Money has bled a little colour into the place and the high-banked stands blushed poppy red in the evening sun, apart from a far-distant corner of visitors' green.

It's a problem which Brian Kerr will have to solve in the longer term, but for last night he was pleased to get out of town without having conceded a goal. The Irish full backs struggled with their passing and the midfield was composed of players who specialise largely in the safe five-yard pass. Kevin Kilbane has a little trickery up his sleeve but last night, as in Tbilisi, he was working hard at disciplines other than sorcery.

In that respect there was some disappointment. Steve Carr and John O'Shea look on paper to be a fine full-back partnership. Neither was on the crest of their game last night. Both were involved in the heroics of clearing trouble away when the Albanians poured forward with passion, but the manner in which the ball evacuated the Irish defence left a lot to be desired. Not for the first time the experience of Kenny Cunningham and Gary Breen was the decisive influence on keeping a clean sheet.

Further forward, it's not that the Irish midfield was bad. You don't criticise coalminers because they can't juggle knives. It's just that doing what they do so well isn't enough on some occasions. The Irish midfield works hard and covers well, but the national buckle goes unswashed.

We forget, though, what a time it has been. The list of casualties would make a better team than we had last night perhaps. We had one returnee: Robbie Keane for understandable reasons was tried from the start and for equally understandable reasons proved himself not to be sharp enough to resume at this level. That left the Irish always struggling for a route to goal. Damien Duff worked hard as usual but at times he looked a forlorn figure as he set himself for a little jigging with a wall of three or four covering defenders in front of him.

Twice we had the ball in the net but had we won it would have been an injustice to our hosts. We have four games left, wrapping up in Berne in October. It'll be white knuckles all the way to the end.

Afterwards Tirana celebrated. Flags and firecrackers. Why not. It's all bread and gravy. These have been a heady few days for the Albanians. Beating Russia on Saturday was their greatest result ever. Beating the Irish under-21s and drawing with a team of Premiership stars did nothing to damped the joy of a nascent country, still looking for ways of expressing itself.

"I hope we can learn something from their passion," said Kerr, who has always been a polite and inquiring tourist. "Sometimes with our crowd at home you'd think it was a Legion of Mary meeting."

The local interpreter didn't get the reference but he caught the drift. His face broke into a luminous smile.

In the Group of the Banana Skin the Albanians will have many more chances to smile.