WE'VE been in this little room before. Big Jack filling it with baleful menace as his team skulked out to the ear park just over a year ago. On Saturday a couple of dozen fans filled the press room with cheers and lightness before they were ushered out and Mick McCarthy lit the place up with his 100 watt grin.

Somebody asked a bristlingly direct question about Roy Keane. A shiver ran through us as Mick McCarthy began to answer, paused and inquired if the questioner was a journalist. I think you should leave. Nope. First ejection of the McCarthy era.

"I think you all know the script for that one," said McCarthy.

Sure do.

Something told him there would be days like these. Through the spring and early summer as the national team ran into a record run of defeats, McCarthy knew he would be sitting here someday grinning broadly. Was he pleased with his young was pleased with all my players. I'm just pleased we won the game. In fairness we were expected to win the game. We've come away, scored five goals, nobody booked, nobody injured and got three points.

"Thirteen months ago they held us to a draw and it was embarrassing. We worked hard, we prepared properly, we rested when we had to. It's given us a base. The more caps the young lads get, the more experience they get, the better they will be when - with the greatest respect to Liechtenstein - we play against better opposition.

The dapper little interpreter is wearing a natty suit, a trim moustache and a flamboyant tie. Distractingly, he has no socks on. Nervously, he had performed this duty 13 months ago beside a glowering Jack Charlton. Today he pasteurises McCarthy's Barnsley frankness into a ream of guttural German and then turns back to stare solemnly at McCarthy.

"Did I really say all that," says Mick McCarthy. The room breaks up.

The interpreter nods solemnly. McCarthy throws an arm around him. Ah humour. You Irish. You only make jokes when you're winning.

Question again. What happened with Jason McAteer, the late defection from the line up. Rumour suggested that McAteer had lost his passport somewhere.

"The runs. He'd been ill. He stayed in bed all day. He had no chance. There was no problem, we had good cover in Jeff Kenna, he played well."

Four goals in the first 20 minutes had suggested an eagerness we though we might never see again. Is up and at them the way forward?

"Continental teams would love to have time to settle on the ball and have a nice game of football for 15 minutes or so. That doesn't, suit us. All my teams have had a policy of up and at them. We can play better at that tempo than other teams have. We want to inflict our strength on them. That's what we done today. It worked for us, it might not win every time.

And for today. What is the pleasure, the significance?

"Just the victory," says McCarthy, "Off to a winning start. This was a game we were expected to win. It was a good chance of a winning start. You have to win the game. It cost us qualification here the last time, so you have to win the game. The pleasure for me is coming here and doing the job we were expected to do. We didn't fall flat on our faces.

"When we scored the first I knew we'd get a second. Once the second was in, it was always going to be harder for them if they had to chase it. I knew then we'd achieved what we'd set out to do to win. When Alan McLoughlin's free went wide early I thought hang on a minute, but we worked and things worked out today. That's the satisfaction.

Having washed his hands of the messy business of the previous visit, McCarthy concludes with words of consolation for the losers. They are a credit to their country and their coach. Ireland won. That is how it should be. Take pride from your performance. Good grace and no cigars.

Good times in the little press room at the foot of the Alps. Mick McCarthy smiles again and rises up to take his leave. Outside he takes a beer and some backslaps. Inhales. He is at the foot of the mountains, looking up and feeling strong.