THE GAME might have been drawn but, to judge by their demeanour as they left Vasil Levski stadium here on Saturday night, the players seemed to belong to one camp or another: Irish or Bulgarian/winners or losers.

Only Kevin Kilbane appeared to cross the divide, with the Irish left-back clearly anguished by the mistake he had made in the first half and the equalising goal for the locals that had resulted from it.

“I’m really disappointed with myself for the goal,” he said ruefully. “I take full responsibility for it; you can’t legislate for those sorts of mistakes at that level.

“Sean (St Ledger) played very well alongside Richard (Dunne), the two of them were outstanding tonight.

“I think for the first half-an-hour we played really, really well, and then my mistake let them back into it and we couldn’t really get a grip on the game from then on.”

Given his contribution to keeping the Bulgarians at bay during a frantic second period, Kilbane may realise with a little more time that he went on to redeem himself through the honesty of his effort and, of course, the cheek with which he lifted the ball over an opponent’s head before carrying the ball out of defence late in the second half.

Asked what exactly had gone wrong for the goal, though, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The 32-year-old was lost for words as he tried to explain the error.

“It wasn’t so much that I didn’t realise he was there,” he said. “It’s just, I’ve called to Sean and then I’ve just allowed it to come through me. I can’t really say what happened. It was just a silly mistake and at this sort of level you get punished. It was a good finish by the lad, but obviously I’m really disappointed from my own personal point of view.”

Perhaps three feet away, Dunne was in somewhat happier mood. After a prolific start to his international career, the big defender had been averaging a goal every couple of years in an Ireland jersey until the Bulgarians came along.

Saturday’s goal was every bit as important as the one scored against Stanimir Stoilov’s side at Croke Park, but in personal terms it was sort of the icing on the cake this time, for Dunne turned in one of the finest displays of his career, easily outshining Manchester United’s €35 million striker, Dimitar Berbatov, along the way.

“Yeah, Dunney was a rock at both ends of the pitch,” observed Shay Given. “I think Sean played very, very well as well. It was his first competitive start and it looked like his 50th, to be honest.

“But I’ve been playing behind Richard since January at Manchester City and he’s been fantastic. Tonight he was a real rock, Paul McGrath-like, to be honest. He was unbelievable, I mean, it was a fantastic header he scored for our goal, and in our box he headed everything away. And then in one-against-ones he was a different class tonight and deserved man of the match.

“He had an injection before the game,” the goalkeeper continued, “and obviously we were trying to keep that quiet from the Bulgarians. But,” he added with a grin, “I think he should have one every week he was that good tonight, he was fantastic.”

Dunne was clearly proud of his part in what had been a good night, but he was at pains to spread the credit about and paid tribute along the way to John O’Shea’s off-the-ball contribution to his goal.

“Everyone did really well,” he said. “Once we got in front, it was backs to the wall really and we needed more than just the back four, we needed everyone, and I think over the 90 minutes everyone got in important blocks.

“They kept us on our toes throughout tonight. They could have taken just one chance, whether it is early or in the last minute. Thankfully, though, they didn’t have too many clear-cut chances.”

As for the goal, he acknowledged that O’Shea had moved to provide assistance when Berbatov tried to fulfil his defensive duties as the ball came in.

“When it came across, I knew I was free and I would have been really disappointed had I missed. But I was free,” he observed, “because John O’Shea said to me as I came forward that he’d block Berbatov, so to run at him.

“So I ran at him and I was free – I was delighted.

“I watched it back on TV,” he concluded with a chuckle, “and Berbatov is being cuddled by Josh.”