'I've never enjoyed it here. It was just a battle' -- Dunne
THE raw emotion after a game often ensures that cliché is replaced by honesty and the post-match mood outside the GSP Stadium confirmed that theory.
No longer was Cyprus the archetypal tough place to come to. Richard Dunne put it in plainer terms.
"We were just saying in there, that it's a horrible place to come," admitted the Dubliner. "I've never enjoyed it here. It was just a battle."
And that, ultimately, was the message from the Irish camp. The end justified the means. Player after player filtered out to deliver the bottom line that it was all about the three points.
"You can play nice football all the time but when the game is as tense as that, there's a lot of pressure on it as well," said Dunne. "In the last 15 minutes, when people started getting tired, we had the ability then to knock it around a bit."
The feeling of victory was sweeter when the players learned of victories in Tbilisi and Sofia for Italy and Bulgaria respectively.
"I don't think a draw here would have been good enough if we wanted to win the group," observed Sean St Ledger, while Shay Given added, "we didn't know the other results until after the game but now it looks like a huge three points.
"We'll see how Italy and Bulgaria go now on Wednesday. That result maybe guarantees us second but it's still game on for Bulgaria now."
The goalkeeper (right) had been prominent in celebrations after the final whistle, with the senior members of the side lapping up the adulation having soldiered through some grim away days in recent campaigns. In turn, they showered compliments upon each other with Dunne hailing Given -- so dearly missed here three years ago -- as the best in his business.
"I think people within the squad have been saying for years that he's the best keeper in the world," he enthused. "He wins games sometimes on his own, there's nothing better than having him playing.
"Every team has to have a great goalkeeper, and he's a great goalkeeper so we have to try and become a great team in front of him."
For the third time this year, however, it was the late goalscoring feats of Robbie Keane that grabbed headlines with the captain sticking his head above the parapet when it mattered.
"Robbie has got a great knack for sticking the ball away at the right time," said Given. "He deserves credit because he's a great captain and a great leader as well."
"I don't think many people thought he could be a captain because he plays up front but he doesn't stop speaking," added relative newcomer Glenn Whelan.
Keane was in confident form, saying he was never too worried when the game was locked at 1-1.
"In our back yard, we're always confident that we can beat anyone no matter who it's against," said Keane. "We've given ourselves a good stepping stone.
"People expected Italy to win the group but we definitely want to win it. If we get second, so be it, but we want top spot and there's no reason why we can't. Obviously it depends on Italy and whether they drop some points on Wednesday. If they do, we have a chance."
- Daniel McDonnell
