It was a long and wearing week for Mick McCarthy. Losing the two players who perhaps owe the most to his patience was a bad start. Saturday night was a reward of sorts. Yesterday he trekked off to Talinn in Estonia to see the Portuguese play.

Despite being wreathed with garlands of personal abuse for most of his tenure McCarthy has developed and grown and on Saturday night his team reflected some of the journey they have made with him. It was an accomplished away performance, a natural progression from promising displays in recent years in places like Bucharest, Brussels and Belgrade, all of which deserved more.

McCarthy knew enough about the detractors to insist good humouredly that having taken the blame for defeats in the past he was going to claim a little credit for success right now. He tempered the pleasure though with the perspective of the pro.

"Tonight is a game we should have won but it's also a game we would have always been happy to draw, and it is a game in which we could have been beaten in the end. It was a wonderful game of football, we were under the kosh for quite a bit in the second half, but the lads have been brilliant."

From the press box high above the manager's dug-out, McCarthy's torment as the game wore on was clear to see. He instructed his team at half-time to keep playing football, not to soak up too much pressure. They did just that, scoring a sublime second goal and almost pinching a third through Kilbane immediately after the Dutch had scored. The last 20 minutes, though, was siege stuff. McCarthy patrolled the sidelines like a demon.

"It must have looked a wonderful spectacle for the fans, but it was absolutely dire for coaches and managers. I've told the players I don't know how they feel but I'm knackered."

It was a slightly surreal night in the Amsterdam Arena. There were Irish dancers at half-time, and giant inflatable dolls dancing behind either teams goals, and although the roof was open and at times the rain was pouring, we had the feeling of being indoors watching a match on a big screen. Then there was the confusion as to what to feel. You get a draw but lose a two-goal lead. Like deciding not to answer the final question in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and then discovering that you knew it all along.

"It feels strange coming away from Holland feeling disappointed with only a point," said McCarthy. "But people said we would get only one point from our first two qualifiers against Holland and Portugal. There it is already." That point was well earned. The Irish, playing with one rookie centre half and another who until last week was complaining of double vision, were frankly expected to be torn apart through the centre, the only hope of being spared a whipping being for Roy Keane to plant himself like an Alsatian on a chain in front of the defence. Instead Ireland imagined up a strategy whereby they brought the game to the Dutch. Dunne and Breen were seldom in trouble.

"I'm proud of the team because we came here to take Holland on at their own game," said McCarthy. "We passed the ball and played with controlled aggression. I'd have taken a draw before the start, but in the end we're a little bit disappointed. When the Dutch got hold of the ball in the last 20 minutes they made it very difficult for us. But earlier we had made it very difficult for them. The fact they made so many changes as the game went along shows how well we played."

Overall, it was a good week for McCarthy. One assumes that he was personally hurt by the antics of Babb and Kennedy earlier in the week. Neither player has shown the sort of consistency to be automatic choices, but McCarthy has stuck with them, waiting for pennies to drop. Last week he had to act decisively.

"Earlier this week when we sent two lads home for misbehaving some people suggested the players lack respect, self-respect and perhaps respect for me. "But I judge players on how they perform on the pitch. And in this game tonight the players we had were superb. I know it is not the same Dutch team that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2000, but it is still a top team." Inevitably but reluctantly, he picked out one of two performances which meant a lot. "Richard Dunne I thought was absolutely brilliant, he came in there against a world class player like Patrick Kluivert and he was outstanding. I thought Kluivert gave a great centre forward display, but Richard stuck with him and he saved us right at the death with a great tackle. I picked Jason McAteer to get forward and he scored a goal for us."

Dutch manager Louis van Gaal sat for a much longer while suffering the inquisitions of an unhappy Dutch media. He made a plea of mitigation based on the strength of the opposition.

"I thought we would still win it right at the end. We had the chances but Ireland played with us in the first half when Roy Keane and Mark Kinsella were outstanding. They toyed with us and they deserved their lead. We found more of our ability, aggression and accuracy in the second half and in the last 10 minutes we could have won because Ireland were down. Ireland deserved to be two goals ahead and we deserved to come back and draw."