If what goes around truly does come around, then perhaps for this time of worry and sacrifice we shall receive the compensation of a summer of dizzy distraction at the World Cup next year. We deserve a party, just as we deserved this flawed triumph in Nicosia on Saturday night.

It may not be a full klaxons blazing bandwagon, not yet anyway, but Mick McCarthy has something rolling beneath his feet. His team, unbeaten now in their last nine away games (the last defeat was to a 93rd minute goal in Zagreb back in 1999), blew into Cyprus on Saturday night and created a handsome 4-0 win out of a performance dotted with imperfections.

Ireland now have eight points from four games in World Cup qualifying group two and face group favourites Portugal and Holland at home in Dublin before the final tallying of points can be done. Yet the many and various tasks of qualifying are being ticked off.

Having secured away draws against the two sharks of the group, the minnows are now being digested without difficulty. Estonia were beaten three-nil before Christmas. Cyprus suffered even more.

Now we play little Andorra twice in the space of a month in the expectation of having fattened ourselves with another six points before we entertain Portugal on June 2nd. Saturday's was a performance of surpassing competence. The team were careless at times but never seemed truly stretched in achieving their goal, a mark of the growing maturity within McCarthy's young squad.

"We switched off once or twice," said Roy Keane, who was excused from any blame during those periods when the service was down. "It was probably harder than it should have been but the team has come a long way in the last couple of years and we were fairly confident before the match that we would win the match."

Keane's own performance was described by Mick McCarthy as "immense." The player, with typical candour told the media last week that the occasion of his 50th cap meant "absolutely nothing" in itself.

In hindsight, though, his performance will stand as one of his greatest in an Irish jersey.

"Roy drove us all on," said Kenny Cunningham afterwards. He shouts and encourages and he's right. When you see the work he does, and he pops up and scores two goals as well, it's unbelievable."

"That's my job," said Keane himself.

Although you wouldn't have known it if you were reading his body language on Saturday night Keane reckoned the victory was about being patient. Players are performing better, he reckons than they were a couple of years ago and even the younger players all have 20 or 25 caps each.

"We're not up there with the top nations but we are getting there. I don't think we would have made the errors we made against Cyprus against better teams. It's concentration against better teams that counts. That's what wins football matches."

The task on Wednesday in the mini Nou Camp arena in Barcelona should be a little more straightforward than Saturday's business. Andorra, without a point from their four competitive games in the Group so far, and coming off the back of a 5-0 defeat to Holland on Saturday, should offer the chance for a few players to improve their international scoring records.

Of more significance will be events across in Oporto where group favourites Portugal take on Holland. Portugal have already beaten the Dutch in Rotterdam and a win for Portugal on Wednesday would cripple Dutch morale as they have already dropped two points at home to Ireland. The Dutch are due to come to Dublin in the autumn for the penultimate series of games in the group.

The Irish management team expects that Portugal and Holland will get maximum points from their games against Estonia, Andorra and Cyprus and have declared their intention to match them every step of the way.

Meanwhile, Mick McCarthy left Cyprus in the early hours of Sunday morning on a scheduled flight to London. He'll spend a day or so with his grieving family, mourning the death of his father, Charlie, before returning to take charge of the team in Barcelona for Wednesday's game with Andorra.

"Mick deserves a lot of credit," said Roy Keane. "He showed what a good manager he was and how professional he is this week. It didn't affect the players."

And then he added some perspective to a happy night. "But it goes to show that it's not all about football. There's other things, too."

Knowing that makes football all the sweeter.