Job done, happy days. All you can say about the Estonians is that they were spirited but if they'd played any deeper I think they'd have been in the next country. I have never, ever witnessed an international team play so deep at home in all my life - they looked like they were protecting a 4-0 lead.

That suited us completely because we were never under pressure, we had so much room to play. And, as we always say, if you score the first goal against these teams you force them to change tactics and most of the time they're not good enough to do it - and that's exactly what we saw.

We've fallen on banana skins like this before, though, so the team deserves credit for getting the job done and taking the points. The timing of the goals couldn't have been better and, really, Shay Given - apart from a couple of decent saves - could have folded his kit up.

The pitch was terrible but I thought Mick McCarthy was right when he stressed beforehand that it was the same for both teams - by saying that you don't give your players an opt-out, you're telling them `look, they've got to play on it too, let's just deal with it'.

Matt Holland did really well but I thought Mark Kinsella was outstanding, he really took up the mantle of Roy Keane. He drove them on, played extremely sensibly and was the driving force behind the team. It often happens that you really don't see the best of a player until the team's leader is absent - against Estonia Kinsella provided exactly the kind of leadership we usually get from Keane.

Damien Duff did well too. He's a young man learning his game, he's got a lot of talent and ability and he does things that, at times, gets you off your seat. He's one of those who, with confidence and a few more games under his belt, could turn out to be a really good player for us.

Some might complain that we should have gone on and scored more goals in the second half but because it was the very last game of the season and because the pressure was on to get the win, once the job is done at half-time it's very, very difficult to pick it up again.

Anyway, I expect the Portuguese to wrap up the group so I don't think goal difference will be a factor - it's down to ourselves and the Dutch now and the fight for second place.

Our three best players are Roy and Robbie Keane and Niall Quinn - after 37 minutes we had none of them on the pitch but we had enough honest pros out there to do the job. I would think that everything Mick McCarthy asked of that team they did to the letter.

When Quinn went off it underlined how few options we have up front. We played with two young players, Duff and Gary Doherty, neither of whom is a natural striker. That demonstrates how few players we have to choose from so, bearing that in mind, I think the time has come to take our hats off to Mick.

With what we have available we've had a really, really good campaign. The Dutch might come to Lansdowne Road in September and beat us but there wouldn't be any shame in that. Quite honestly I don't think any other manager could have got any more out of the players than McCarthy has.

Eighteen points from eight games? Outstanding. If we can separate the Portuguese and Dutch in this group that would be a fantastic achievement. There's real feel-good factor about it all now. I know we have our limitations against the top teams but I don't think we could have done any better - to a certain degree we're over-achieving and that's credit to McCarthy and everyone involved.

End of term report? Couldn't have done any better. We've kept the pressure on Portugal and Holland, beaten the teams we were expected to beat, which we haven't always done in the past, and we've done extremely well against the Portuguese twice and the Dutch away. The home match against the Dutch will now be the most eagerly anticipated game played at Lansdowne for many, many years.

In an interview with Mary Hannigan