True, most expected Andorra to be as tricky a challenge for the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road as American Samoa proved to be for Australia a fortnight ago, but you'd have been hard pushed to convince the Irish players who filed out of the dressing rooms last night that the game was a "no win" situation, even if the win had to be painfully extracted from the evening. Another three points seemed like a victory to them, even if nothing less was expected. And, to a man, they politely pointed out that the "nothing to be gained" theory excluded the not insignificant fact that the victory keeps the Republic sitting nicely on top of Group Two, with just four games left to play.

Sounded like a gain to them, even if two of those games are against Portugal and Holland. "The most important thing was the three points and we got them, even if it wasn't a great performance," conceded Shay Given. "Their goal was the kick up the arse we needed but in fairness to the fella, it was a great header; I don't think there was too much I could do about it.

"We had a poor start, never really got going but we knew from Barcelona how many men they put behind the ball and how difficult they are to break down. It's frustrating but you just have to keep plugging away and keep concentrating. Their big centre-halves handled Gary (Doherty) and David (Connolly) very well but we got our reward in the end and the points we needed - that's all that mattered," said Given.

Same sentiments from captain Gary Breen? "Yeah, to be honest shock-waves ran through the team when they scored but the most important thing was we didn't give them time to defend their lead, we got back in to the game almost straight away. It was a professional performance from us, nothing more or less than that, but that's what was required tonight. We have our points now and hopefully we can kick on.

"It certainly wasn't a game for spectators; I'm sure it was very frustrating to watch but the crowd was fantastic and kept us going. I was delighted to celebrate the captaincy with a goal - the ball seemed to take an age to come down but everyone was shouting `shoot, shoot, shoot', so I did. It was nice."

So, played six, won four, drew two, 14 points on the board. "Not bad," said Breen. "I think we would have settled for that at this stage when the draw for the group was made." Silence in the tunnel. No arguments there. Next up: Portugal. "We're under no illusions about how difficult the Portugal game will be, we know what quality they have, but we also know if we win our remaining games at Lansdowne we'll win the group and we'll have qualified for the World Cup. That's not a bad position to be in."