REP OF IRELAND v CYPRUS:  Tom Humphriesfinds the Ireland manager determined to look on the bright side

"Is a great victory. Yesterday I said tomorrow we look to play well but tomorrow is very, very important we win. I think the three points were very, very important. I am going to ask the team why, after a few minutes, we stopped playing a little bit. The result was important though.

AN OCCASION for satisfaction but not jubilation, we felt. As yet though we can't measure the feel of these things. Plenty gets lost in translation but we just roll with it. So Giovanni, how was it for you?

Giovanni Trapattoni came to the airless bunker of a press-room and tried to cheer us up with some of his charm. He was smiling. The translator was giggling. A slender victory against a weak Cypriot team. Come on , come on. You'll all have no jobs by Christmas. Cheer up.

"Is a great victory. Yesterday I said tomorrow we look to play well but tomorrow is very, very important we win. I think the three points were very, very important. I am going to ask the team why, after a few minutes, we stopped playing a little bit. The result was important though. Remember 1-1 at home. Five goals in Cyprus!"

Okay. Okay. We get it. But the second half Giovanni? Not a little bit worrying?

"No. We suffered for 10 minutes in the game. Remember what Shay Given did in the last 10 minutes. We had chances with Duff, Doyle, Keane, McGeady. We had possibilities."

No fears in that fraught time near the end?

"I thought Cyprus pushed, pushed and pushed. Cyprus played well. All their players played well with confidence. Our defenders were very strong. We didn't have any real difficulties. I like Cyprus though. They have a lot of good players. "

And Richard Dunne for us? Sublime, no?

"Yes, he is built like a wardrobe."

Of the manager's apparent aversion to midfielders who play for Sunderland there were inevitable inquiries. Andy Reid and Liam Miller were left to do the crossword on the Irish bench last night as a young central midfield pairing failed to shine.

Trapattoni, though, never felt like make any substitutions earlier than that late insertion of Caleb Folan and was pleased in a qualified way with the first full game played by Darron Gibson.

"Darron is a young player. He started a game a little quiet. Normally he has a different personality. Today he was a little quiet but I needed his height today. Miller was one of the best players in training but I needed Gibson's size today."

Duff and Keane, who once were the great future of Irish soccer, are the men who pull the wagon now. Their link up for the early goal was vintage but Trapattoni pointed out that there may be different things required of them in the games ahead.

"Duff is one of the stronger players in the team. I thought McGeady had great qualities too. Their speciality is running, running down the wings but today I thought they suffered a bit with two in the centre of midfield. In this team we haven't had time to look and check out another scheme like three in midield or another player in attack. Gibson is young and Glenn Miller - did I say Glenn Miller! - Glenn Whelan is young too. In future we will have time to check other players."

Was he at all optimistic then about the shape of a group where Italy and ourselves have established a foothold (Ireland are now four points clear of Bulgaria) and the Italians have looked to be doing some huffing and puffing?

"At the start of qualifying I thought it would be like this. It was important that we got this start. I think we can play with more confidence now. We saw the first 20 minutes of Cyprus against Italy. Cyprus will be one of the strong teams in our group, the more they play together. Italy is like this, play well or play badly the result is important.

"Sometimes I have doubt about things. In the group. Italy is Italy. I know Bulgaria and Cyprus are good teams. Maybe Georgia. We should be competing against these teams. We shouldn't delude ourselves, though we need more and more again, but today was important. The first game at home to a team which beat us 5-2. we won and the table looks good."

The Cypriot manager Angelos Anastasiadis, desperately grave-faced and gloomy, observed sadly that things hadn't gone well at the start for his injury-poxed side, losing their best player (Efstathios Aloneftis) during the warm-up and then conceding a goal after four minutes

"I am very proud of our guys despite all the problems that we have. They played extremely well against a very experienced team. It was a very physical game, tough play from both sides, we had three good chances to draw the match. You see an Irish team playing at home in front of 70,000 people wasting time in the last 10 minutes. That says a lot for our performance." Angelos looked so despondent that we left feeling better about ourselves.