Mick McCarthy offered up two hostages to fortune early in his reign. He announced a devotion to 3-5-2. He promised that only players getting regular, first-team football would play for Ireland.

Neither intention was feasible. His words have haunted him. The most vitriolic critics, not surprisingly, are those who never face him. That is their prerogative and McCarthy shouldn't be quite so touchy about it all. Yet a firsthand insight into the mechanics of the squad would be instructive for those throwing the battery acid.

It was never going to be easy inheriting an elderly team used to the certainties preached by Jack Charlton. That team was set in its ways. Young players on the current panel remember being hesitant about speaking to players they had grown up idolising.

Trivial? No. Therein lies the problem. Half the panel are too old for international football and the other half too young. Against Belgium a couple of weeks ago when Andy Townsend (69) caps tired he was replaced by Lee Carsley (1 cap). Not enough paper to cover the cracks, see.

Illustrations have been plentiful. To see Kevin Kilbane performing for the under-21s in Bucharest last April was to be thrilled. To see him knocked about by senior internationals in Iceland in September was to realise the difference between being a boy and a man in international football terms.

He has made mistakes, every manager does, but what could he do about the following? Injuries to Niall Quinn, Keith O'Neill, Roy Keane, Denis Irwin, Ray Houghton, Andy Townsend, Phil Babb, Jon Goodman. Losses of form by Jason McAteer and Phil Babb. The disappearance from public sight in England of Mark Kennedy and Ian Harte. Gary Breen's misplaced confidence.

There was more. Paul McGrath woke up with an achilles problem. John Aldridge took the hump. Phil Babb disappeared. Roy Keane agreed to go on the US tour, then changed his mind. Privately.

Through it all, McCarthy has built a panel which operates harmoniously if not yet at the limit of its potential. It should not be forgotten either that second was as well as Jack Charlton's infinitely more talented side ever achieved in a World Cup qualifying group. Instead sciolists quibble about his selections. The centre half position has become the epicentre of some spiteful debate, most of it flavoured by ignorance.

Ian Harte has made a couple of errors (tentative clearances in Romania and Iceland), but overall has performed above the level of expectation and works well with Cunningham.

The alternatives aren't as clear as McCarthy's critics pretend. For instance, the whispering campaign about how Paul McGrath's career came to an end has been malign and grossly unfair to McCarthy.

Gary Breen? Until Macedonia, Breen was McCarthy's most picked player, a special project. That month the world went awry for Breen. At Coventry the blame for a couple of thumpings was added to his bill. He had to be dropped.

Ian Harte came in for the next game, against Romania, and played well. His partnership with Cunningham just about worked. Running out of options, McCarthy has stuck him.

Oh and there's Phil Babb. News of a long-term contract at Liverpool proves nothing. The club at which he has never prospered may just be guaranteeing themselves payback on the post-Bosman market. He went missing the weekend the team headed for Macedonia. His form has been poor. His body has been injury-wracked. He has a lot to do to prove he is the manager's type of player.

Look through the team and the situation at centre half is replicated. Injury and old age have stymied McCarthy. He has ploughed on through a difficult transition.

Anyway what did we really expect when McCarthy was appointed?

To make the play-offs and take our chances from there? Done.

Rigorous repair work at underage level? Done.

The courageous blooding of new players? Done. Loyalty to the players? Done.

An end to kick and rush? Done.

The last great Irish performance was at home to Portugal nearly three years ago. Then the team went over a cliff.

Have we forgotten the lost men of Liechtenstein, Lisbon, Vienna and Anfield. The old team was dead and needed to be buried.

McCarthy has been building from scratch. He has had just 20 games in charge and has brought us this far.

Sure, under McCarthy progress has been patchy, but ultimately the verdict is encouraging.

It is perhaps true to say, as Eamon Dunphy says, that the only pair of young players capped thus far who have the potential to be truly international class are Connolly and Given. Whatever. That is what McCarthy has to work with.

The criticism of Charlton was that he played too conservatively with the great talents he had at his disposal. McCarthy's ailment is the opposite. He believes too passionately in his players, expects too much adventure. He hasn't succeeded yet and neither has he failed, but his passage has been honourably worked. We await the advent of Messrs McPhail, Maybury, Keane (Robbie), Duff, Dunne, Fenn and others with interest.

The FAI were right to give Mick McCarthy two more years when they did because they were wrong not to give him four years in the first place. The original deal was, as Mark Lawrenson said at the time, "another example of how mean spirited the FAI can be".

McCarthy has steadied a fast-sinking ship. Regardless of Brussels he has earned his turn at the tiller for at least one more voyage.