There have been some good days before, of course, most memorably the ones on which Croatia and Yugoslavia were beaten in Dublin a couple of years back. On Saturday, though, the 35,000 fans that crowded into Lansdowne Road for this crucial and, as it turned out, thrilling World Cup qualifier were fortunate enough to be present for the first really great day of the Mick McCarthy era.

Those who saw it will surely never forget the drama or the atmosphere in which it was played out. It was an astonishing game that the Dutch had dominated, even before Gary Kelly was sent off in the 58th minute. His departure should have marked the end of the home side's invariably spirited resistance to what were quite plainly superior forces.

When all seemed lost, however, Jason McAteer struck with a goal that was wildly against the balance of play to guarantee Ireland's place in the World Cup play-offs and make qualification for Asia next summer an entirely achievable goal.

The Dutch can blame nobody but themselves for having failed to wrap up the win they required by the midway point after which they simply fell victim to the home side's much greater hunger and dedication.

By the end it was the Irish who deserved the points they took from a match in which they had repeatedly been forced to defend deep and in large numbers. More than once it had seemed inevitable that they would cave in under the pressure but they persevered and at the end of a quite compelling 90 minutes it was hard to recall a day on which a home side had played with as much passion at Lansdowne Road.

Having run riot during the first 20 minutes, the Dutch then proceeded to lose much of their sparkle but only for the a fleeting period during the build up to the interval could the locals really have claimed to have been on top at all.

By then Louis van Gaal's side should have been three goals up, with Patrick Kluivert first having shot wide when in a one-on-one with Shay Given and Boudewijn Zenden then failing to lift the ball over the keeper in a similarly promising situation.

Most incredible, though, was the sight of Zenden's curling free from the left bouncing past one Irish defender after another until it reached Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was lurking unmarked just inside the far post. Had it been a foot higher or lower the ball was as good as in the net but instead it arrived at a magnificently awkward height and having belatedly opted to attempt the shot the Manchester United striker ended up failing to make any contact at all.

For their part, the Irish players posed virtually no threat to the Dutch goal over the course of the 90 minutes, with the striking partnership of Damien Duff and Robbie Keane hardly ever seriously troubling a visiting defence led in commanding style by Jaap Stam, the newly-signed Lazio defender who was booed every time he received the ball, presumably by the Manchester United contingent among the Irish fans.

Duff, though, was in wonderful form, dropping off in every direction to pick up possession and then using the ball more creatively than any of his opponents seemed able to. While the would-be striker roamed, Roy Keane tended to provide the support for his namesake around the box but only once did one of his magnificent surging runs result in the pair creating a chance of note and on that occasions the younger man's snap shot was comfortably saved by Edwin van der Sar.

Throughout the team, though, there were outstanding performances, particularly defensively, with Kevin Kilbane and McAteer both working tirelessly to win ball out wide, while in towards the centre Matt Holland almost shadowed Kluivert out of the game completely.

Ian Harte held up well in the circumstances, while Staunton and Dunne did all that could have been expected of them, toiling doggedly to blunt the Dutch assaults on their goal. If the pair struggled initially then they were at least boosted in their efforts by the visiting side's increasing tendency, after their initial momentum had been lost, to hoof balls high towards van Nistelrooy. It was a ploy forced on them, they claimed afterwards, by the long and - wait for it - surprisingly dry grass.

Kelly, meanwhile, had something of a nightmare, eventually being sent off with 32 minutes remaining for a second bookable challenge from behind on Overmars whom he had never quite managed to come to grips with.

With the game still scoreless at that point, Ireland's hopes of taking something from the afternoon suddenly seemed entirely linked to their ability to dig in and wait for the final whistle.

Amazingly, though, van Gaal did much to aid them in their moment of need, first squandering the threat of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink by deploying him on the wing, apparently on the strength of one training session, and then by withdrawing the consistently effective Overmars from the other flank where he had tormented Kelly and already shown once that he was more than a match for the newly-arrived Steve Finnan..

McCarthy must surely have struggled to contain his relief and Finnan, on for Robbie Keane from immediately after the sending off, certainly profited from a reorganisation that left him to look after Phillip Cocu rather than the more natural winger.

In truth, though, the Dutch manager and his players had simply run out of ideas.

Even that might not have mattered had the referee been more sympathetic to their penalty appeal shortly after Kelly's departure when Staunton headed past Given, though not, mercifully, with enough power to send the ball over the goal line.

The goalkeeper then appeared, at the very least, to obstruct van Nistelrooy as the striker attempted to get in for the finish but the match official dismissed the desperate claims after which the Dutch chose to blame him for most of their ongoing problems.

Five minutes after the penalty claim those difficulties mounted dramatically when Roy Keane's strength under pressure enabled him to start a move that ended shortly afterwards with Finnan cutting inside his man before finding McAteer in space on the far side of the box. It was space that should also have been occupied by Mario Melchiot but the right back was nowhere to be seen and so the Blackburn midfielder, a long-time favourite of McCarthy, took the opportunity splendidly by driving past van der Sar on the half volley.

Demoralised before the goal the Dutch were, in the words of their manager, "worn and beaten" after it.

There was enough time for them to rescue the situation and, in the four strikers on the pitch, there was certainly enough fire-power. What there was not, however, was anything close to enough belief in their ability to bounce back against a side whose collective spirit was now soaring.

Tamely, they played out the remaining 20 minutes, after which McCarthy's men joyously celebrated a truly memorable victory.

Sure, they'd ridden their luck in a way few teams ever get to but they say you make your own luck in this game and if the work-rate of the Irish on Saturday is anything to go by, forget the play-offs, they could fluke their way right through next summer's tournament to the final in Yokohama.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Newcastle United); Kelly (Leeds United), Dunne (Manchester City), Staunton (Aston Villa), Harte (Leeds United); McAteer (Blackburn Rovers), Holland (Ipswich Town), Keane (Manchester United) Kilbane (Sunderland); Keane (Leeds United), Duff (Blackburn Rovers). Subs: Finnan (Fulham) for Robbie Keane (59 mins), Quinn (Sunderland) for Duff (88 mins), O'Brien (Newcastle United) for McAteer (93 mins).

THE NETHERLANDS: van der Sar (Fulham); Melchiot (Chelsea), Stam (Lazio), Hofland (PSV), Numan (Rangers); Zenden (Chelsea), van Bommel (PSV), Cocu (Barcelona), Overmars (Barcelona); Kluivert (Barcelona); van Nistelrooy (Manchester United). Subs: Hasselbaink (Chelsea) for Zenden (56 mins), van Hooijdonk (Feyenoord) for Numan (64 mins), van Bronckhorst (Arsenal) for Overmars (72 mins).

Referee: H Krug (Germany).