It's developing into a satisfying habit. There is, happily, a reluctance to employ the "Fortress Lansdowne Road" line these days - it only invites a beating when you least need it - but 11 times now, including last night, manager Brian Kerr has taken on his post-match media duties on home turf with a win or a draw to his name. Never a defeat.

If the trend can be maintained against Cyprus (next month), the Faroe Islands (in October), Israel (next June), France (September next year) and Switzerland (a month later), with a couple of wins and draws thrown in on the World Cup qualifying road then, voila, the 18th anniversary of Euro '88 will be celebrated back where all this major-tournament-qualifying business started: Germany.

Oddly enough, though, the manager wasn't looking quite that far ahead, content to concentrate on the night's work, the final dress rehearsal before part one of that 10-part qualifying challenge begins against Cyprus at Lansdowne Road next month.

"I think we were a little bit rusty overall, we needed to get the game. We made a fair few decent chances in the match and I thought we should have been well ahead before they equalised. They equalised with a great goal - but I thought we could have been two or three up at that stage, had we taken our chances in the second half. There were some very clear-cut chances.

"The pitch didn't help either team to knock it about too freely or briskly, the ball was holding up. But overall satisfactory enough, we didn't lose the game, we've kept the unbeaten run going, I think it'll do both teams a lot of good before the qualification games."

Areas to improve?

"Well, I'd like our passing to be better, to move the ball around a bit quicker. We could have done a bit better off set-pieces in the second half, we could have made better use of the free-kicks we got, although we scored a decent enough goal from one with Andy (Reid).

"There were several areas where we could do better, I'm sure the players themselves will all feel they could do better but it's that time of the year, it's so early in the new season. They'll all have had a couple of more matches under their belts by the time we play Cyprus so we'll be expecting a more fluid performance than tonight."

The five in midfield worked well? "I thought we were playing 4-4-2." Na, looked like 4-5-1. "God, I thought it was 4-4-2. Anyway."

What about Damien Duff? His first competitive start, of any kind, in four months; he has only played six Premiership games all year, his last in mid-April. He has missed six of the last seven internationals.

"He needed the match, he's missed a lot of football since the shoulder injury. He's back now, played a couple of 'halves' for Chelsea, it was important for him to get 90 minutes under his belt tonight. We all hope he gets a bit more football between now and the Cyprus game."

A good hour for Roy?

"Yeah, Roy did fine, Roy did well."

Progress report on the last year?

"Well, the squad has expanded a bit, our young players are more experienced now, Andy Reid, Liam Miller, Alan Quinn. There've been bonuses and benefits to these fellas getting their chance. Stephen Carr, Kevin Kilbane and Gary Breen all came back for us tonight, Roy has played two games now with a newish squad, so it's been good.

"We'll be as ready as we can be for Cyprus but we don't know who'll be available, there's a lot of games for players between now and then, a lot can happen.We'll see."

So, is Steve Finnan edging ahead of Stephen Carr, or will Carr return for Cyprus? Is Gary Doherty now ahead of Gary Breen in the pecking order? Are both behind Andy O'Brien? Is Kevin Kilbane preferred over Alan Quinn? Will neither be considered when Matt Holland returns?

And when Robbie Keane comes back does Andy Reid lose out to Damien Duff on the left? And what of Liam Miller?

Apart from those dilemmas next month's selection is, eh, straightforward enough.

And that was that. We'll meet again on September 4th. Kerr will hope to enter his press conference then with a spring in a step and three points in the bag.