Players' reaction: Andy Reid emerged from the dressing-room weighed down with crystal, his prize for a man-of-the-match performance that, back in the RTÉ studio, John Giles had described as one of the best midfield displays he had seen in a long time.

A night of personal triumph, then, for the Charlton man, but little consolation, it seemed, after a game he felt was there for the taking.

"To be honest, it's not about what I do, it's about what we do as a team, and although we gave a very good account of ourselves and performed well as a team, it's disappointing that we didn't win because we felt we dominated the game," he said.

"I thought we were the more ambitious team. We were the team in the running and the most likely to win the game. We caused them a lot of problems, created a lot of chances; they couldn't get the ball back off us at times.

"I thought the two lads who came in, Joey (O'Brien) and Andy Keogh, were absolutely fantastic. They handled the situation brilliantly, did everything that was asked of them and more. I was delighted for them."

If the mathematics still say Ireland can qualify for Euro 2008 Reid isn't anticipating an implosion by the Czech Republic. Instead his mind is already turning to the next qualifying campaign.

"There has been a lot of pessimism floating about and a lot of disappointment. But I think, as a squad, we can be optimistic about the future and we can look forward to the next campaign with our heads held high and give it a good go, as Ireland teams have always done and always will.

"In my opinion it's a quite exciting time. I think we'll be better equipped next time; we have young lads coming through and they've got a lot more experience under their belt. We've got the nucleus of a good squad.

"Of course it's disappointing that we're not going to qualify, but you can't regret anything in football. You've just got to live for the moment and do the best you can when the game is being played."

But might things have been different if he'd been picked for the Slovakia game?

"Yeah, of course I feel I could have made a difference. I was sitting there watching the game and wanted to be on the pitch. So did everybody else who was on the bench or didn't make the squad. They probably felt they could have made a difference as well, but that's just a thing in football."

If Reid had cause for personal satisfaction about his performance the same couldn't be said for his captain, Robbie Keane, who by the time he left the dressing-room appeared still to be reliving the moment he failed to lob Jens Lehmann when put clean through in the second half.

"I was disappointed with it," he said. "I thought I was offside, but as a kid you were always told to keep playing to the whistle and it's something I usually do - and I usually get a yellow card after it. But I should have finished it, regardless of whether the flag was up or not."

Keane was eager to pay tribute to the crowd for its support through the evening. A sizeable section of the Croke Park attendance may have roundly booed when the manager's name was read out by the stadium announcer as the answer to the half-time quiz, but they stayed with the team for the duration of the game.

"I thought the atmosphere was fantastic," he said. "Performances like this make us feel that we can beat anyone on our day, especially at home, and we enjoy playing in front of the fans and the kind of atmosphere they created for this game.

"We do appreciate it. It's a lot of money for fans to come and watch games, we know that."

Lee Carsley, as is usual after these games, offered a more sobering assessment, noting that putting up a stirring display against Germany when it was all too late didn't count for a great deal in the overall scheme of the campaign.

"It's alright performing against the better teams but we've got to go away to teams like Slovakia and Cyprus and beat them, that's what it's all about really," he said. "It's been frustrating, but we have something to build on.

"A lot of players came off the pitch tonight having enjoyed the game, which is something we've not done in a while. I'm sure this group of players will have learnt a lot from this campaign."

The question posed by the Croke Park crowd, it seemed, was, "Has the manager?"