A GOOD game and a first result for Mick McCarthy but, after an opening period in which his side were clearly made to look second best, it would be interesting to know what he is thinking about considering the way in which his side chiselled out their draw yesterday.

For most of the afternoon he persevered with the three man defence and, while his team played well, it was undoubtedly the Croatians who created the better chances and enjoyed the greater part of the play.

Towards the end, though, when McCarthy threw Tony Cascarino into the action and switched to a four four two formation for the dying minutes, the Irish seemed to grab the upper hand, creating better, more clear cut scoring opportunities than we had managed earlier in the game and, at the death, stealing an equaliser through Niall Quinn. The old "route one" won through.

An obvious thought at this stage is that it was the visitors who took their foot of the gas somewhat. But, when you look at what really happened, I wouldn't say that that is a fair assessment of the way the closing stages went.

It was the Irish who set the agenda, with McCarthy's side finally putting their opponents under real pressure, while the Croatians, for the first time in the afternoon, started to find it extremely difficult to create anything themselves.

Achieving a draw was no mean feat for the Irish, because this is a fine Croatian side who are likely to prosper at Euro 96 - particularly as they find themselves in the competition's weakest group.

They are a technically gifted side with a lot of positive aspects, but they will also be glad that they are not facing the prospect of running into any teams that play the sort of direct football that we employed over the last quarter of this game.

In Boban, Suker, Boksic, Stimac and Bilic they have players who have steadily built reputations for themselves over the past few seasons, but there were signs yesterday that their strength runs considerably deeper than the players we had already come to know.

The likes of Asanovic, who looks to be a bargain for Derby at £1 million, and Jarni look well capable of making a very big impact over the coming weeks in England.

Yesterday the Croatians deserved credit for the way they set out to play, and their physical approach and clear determination to win had the effect of raising the Irish game and contributing to a highly entertaining friendly encounter.

With all of the changes that McCarthy is making, both to starting line ups and over the course of the games themselves, it is hard for the younger players to make the sort of impact required to really stamp them into the memory.

For all the difficulties, though, Given continues to impress at this level. His ability to make vital saves in the early stages of games when those around him are still looking to settle down is proving especially important for the side.

In one on one situations he is remarkably composed, and his ability to stand up and force his opponent into making the first move repeatedly pays dividends against the sort of strikers who are well used to facing down quality goalkeepers.

In front of the goalkeeper, Gary Breen also had an interesting afternoon, with the 22 year old looking, at times, an awkward player - tall, gangly and not particularly comfortable within the system. But he settled in well taking to the task set him with great maturity, while his decision making was excellent from the outset.

On the ball, too, he demonstrated that he had confidence well beyond what might be expected of him, against players who must be head and shoulders above any he has found himself surrounded by at club level in the English First Division.

This is a player who, on the strength of this performance, we are going to be seeing plenty more of over the next couple of years.

Another player to do his cause some good was young Keith O'Neill up front - and not just for the way that he reacted to the opportunity to score Ireland's first goal under McCarthy.

There were many things about the way he played that mark him out as another man for the future, and I can only presume that, had he been able to, his manager would have allowed him to continue in the same role he had carried out so well after the break.

First and foremost he looks like he possesses pace, which is not a commodity we've been falling down with in recent times. He likes to take players on and seems well capable of doing it successfully while, as we saw, when he gets the chance he is quick witted and confident enough to stick a loose ball in the back of the net.

All of which leaves us with a situation in which, probably for the first time in this whole series of matches, some of the senior players sitting at home might have had to sit up and look at what was going on in their absence.

There were certainly performances here that will leave more established players calculating the potential impact on their own role in the squad.

What remains to be seen now is the selection for the game tomorrow in the Netherlands.

There will be an upbeat mood in what is a young camp after a strong performance and a result achieved with a hard earned late goal, but playing the Dutch on their home turf still looks to be a formidable task.

For this game, the third in six days, we could see the return of a lewd more established races. But after this outing at Lansdowne Road, McCarthy will be gaining confidence in his young guns.

Yesterday those youngsters showed that with the crowd behind them in Dublin, they can, just as their predecessors did, rise to the occasion. Tomorrow we'll see how they might shape up to the other half of the World Cup qualifying journey - eking out results in more hostile territories.