Manager goes quickly with few regrets

In the end it was short, if not sweet. In less than 20 minutes at Dublin's Burlington Hotel last night, Mick McCarthy said his farewells and his 68-match reign as manager of the Irish football team was brought to an end.

There were tributes from the FAI and even from one of the fans who had crashed the crowded press conference, but little emotion. McCarthy was proud to have been there for each and every day of the six years and nine months he held the job, he said, but the time had come to depart and he was leaving with his head held high.

"I've no regrets," he said, before adding quickly: "Well, if I do it's that there are no points on the board and that makes it harder for these lads [the FAI officials who flanked him through last night's proceedings\] and the players to make it to Portugal in 2004."

The decision to go, he admitted, had been taken on the night last month when Ireland lost to Switzerland and many of the supporters at Lansdowne Road made plain their frustration at the Republic's rapidly diminishing chances of qualifying for the next European Championship finals. Their reaction, he insisted, had been "eked out" of them by "a lot of the negativity that's been put about [by the media\]".

He denied that the falling out with Roy Keane had ultimately cost him his job but expressed some satisfaction that the question of whether the Manchester United midfielder would play for the Republic again "is no longer my problem".

The FAI president, Mr Milo Corcoran, expressed regret that McCarthy who, he said, had an "outstanding record", and his assistant, Ian Evans, were both leaving. Each has received a settlement from the association.