All week we looked at Mick McCarthy and we knew that this wasn't a man who was looking back at us. We looked at him and saw a guy who was on the touchline of the Azadi Stadium, 48 hours hence, 24 hours hence, six hours hence. All week we looked and saw a man who had been on touchlines before as final whistles condemned him to tears and failure. This week he was never with us; he was on that touchline imagining each contingency, each emergency action and each sweet second he would savour at the end.

When the end came it could never have been as he imagined it. His team had just conceded a goal, eerily reminiscent of one lost late in a famous game in Macedonia a couple of years ago. The Azadi stadium was filled with smoke and fragments of burning paper. If he had a moment to reflect that his side weren't going to equal the Charlton record of 17 games unbeaten, it was a fleeting moment. The final whistle put an end to the last semblance of normality in the Azadi.

Eventually, through the chaos which marked the end of a scrappy, nerve-plagued match, McCarthy struggled through to the press room where more chaos and babel awaited. His face registered relief more than anything else. His words were a compound of a pro's thoughts and a man's emotions.

"I'm not happy that we got beat, I didn't plan on getting beaten and losing our unbeaten record. I wanted to remain unbeaten. They said two minutes of extra time. I was a bit surprised at how quickly we took the kick-off, but overall I'm delighted."

He hardly had need to tell us that. When the end came he danced onto the pitch wearing Mick Byrne as a garland. He disappeared into a thicket of green shirts, his grey head surfacing like a seal's snout from water every now and then, just to disappear into more embraces. His team has played together and suffered together; at last they got to celebrate together. It's been six years coming. He found he had words for the feelings.

"I'm immensely proud," he said. "It's so difficult to come off the field and articulate how you feel. When the whistle went it was a wonderful, wonderful feeling. It's just such a great achievement. Sometimes we dug ourselves out of adversity. We struggled, but we came through. I am so happy."

With McCarthy it is always about loyalty, always about the players. When you wonder how his players can gird themselves in an atmosphere like last night's you need only look back over an anthology of his quotes. The player is always number one.

"Some of us came in for stick," he said. "People like David Connolly, Jason McAteer and Steve Staunton have all come in for stick and they have come through brilliantly for us. I'm so happy for them. We've stuck together as people and we've stuck together as a team. We've got our reward."

He looks tired. Above all else he just looks tired now.

In the end it was the resolution of his older players that got his team through, that and the wonderful agility of a kid he gave a debut to at the start of his tenure. Shay Given merited a special word.

"Yes, it was a wonderful team effort, but Shay made some wonderful saves over the two games. He has been magnificent. He deserves all the credit he gets. He was wonderful tonight. Iran are a good team, and that's showed when you think of just how well Shay has had to play."

Press conferences have never been the stuff of dreams for Mick McCarthy and right now he's itching to end this one. He wants to be with his players in the submerged dressing-room on the other side of the ground. His players.

All heroes, weren't they, says somebody.

"If you want to describe them as that," he says. "I wonder about heroes. Heroes are people who die in wars for countries and that - but very committed performers. In a football sense I agree with you, yeah."

It's seems not to be the time to analyse or parse the crazy 90 minutes which have just elapsed. There is little point. McCarthy came to Tehran intending to leave with a World Cup finals pass in his pocket. Job done, it's no longer a question of how we are progressing or regressing. It's a question of thank yous and hugs.

"I'm delighted for me players, staff, supporters and all our families," he says, "and I'm so pleased for the fans. I've had their support from day one and it never wavered. I can't thank them enough for that. This is for them as much as it is for us.

"I'm grateful to those who made the trip here to Tehran. It was a tough trip for them to make but on the way home now they can have a few Arthur Scargills.

"Make no mistake, we have deserved this. We worked damn hard for it. I'm grateful to everyone who got us here."

And he leaves surrounded by hangers on, cameramen, TV people and curious Iranian fans. The stadium is in total darkness now as he disappears down the running track with this new entourage chasing him. We've seen him on these final nights a couple of times before and the grief has put years on him. As he went last night there was a spring in his step. A man come into his kingdom.

They don't make better fellows than Mick McCarthy. Perhaps he had his slice of luck this past week, but it was coming to him.