The points aside, it was a night to forget for quite a few of the Irish players - but not for their captain, Steve Staunton. After what he clearly felt was unfair criticism of his performance in the game against Yugoslavia last week, the Dundalk man was walking tall as he greeted the media in the heat outside the Ta'Qali stadium.

"I had one bad match and got a lot of stick for it from the press," said a Liverpool defender in score-settling humour. "They seemed to forget the 78 that went before it. Tonight I had the ball off the line and the goal," he added just in case we hadn't noticed that the lunging figure making the last-ditch clearance in the 50th minute was the Irish captain.

Of the goal, the 30 year old was justifiably proud. "Lee Carsley didn't want me to take a shot, he was shouting at me not to, but I did anyway and I hit it really well. It had been so long since I'd scored that after it went in I didn't really know what to do with myself, but it was a great feeling. I was absolutely ecstatic."

It was, he said, not only the best goal he has scored for his country but also the most important. "Seeing it hit the back of the net was a great feeling, but hearing the final whistle was a better one.

"We knew that it was going to be hard coming here. We've come off the back of two very hard games and we weren't interested in the performance. What we wanted were the three points and we got them, end of story.

"The importance of the goal is that we did what we came here to do, nothing more. We got six points from the three games and we're over the moon about that. If somebody had said that's what we would do beforehand, we would have been thrilled and the fact that it's turned out that way means that we're delighted with the trip."

Staunton was clearly a little less happy when asked how precisely a seemingly comfortable position, with the team leading 2-0 against a side that included many part-timers, was transformed into one in which the Maltese appeared to be pushing on for the win.

"They scored two goals, it's as simple as that. You must remember that we've had two very tough games, I think you forget, in a very short space of time. And in the heat and the humidity, it took its toll. You have to remember, Malta never played a game in that time - they were fresh, keen and eager and they wanted to get a point out of this group.

"We stuck at it, though, and after taking a 2-0 lead and then letting them go level, to go on and win this game showed a lot of character within the team."

It's a strength that he feels can carry the team through next month when they travel to Macedonia requiring a win to have any hope of topping the group. On the face of it, the destiny of the automatic qualifying slot remains outside our hands, but Staunton is far from unhappy with the current state of play within the group.

"It's been a great trip for us and the only pity of it is the way that it has worked out elsewhere with the Yugoslavs beating the Macedonians home and away. But that still means that they have to win in Croatia, which won't be easy. If we win in Macedonia, we are guaranteed a second place and could well end up finishing first, so I can't see how we can be disappointed with the position that we're in."