Group Four Cyprus 0 Republic of Ireland 1: Those anxious to see Ireland's glass as half full in the wake of this nerve-racking victory at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia were in a position afterwards to point to the fact that the three points taken on Saturday keep the Republic in the hunt for next summer's World Cup finals and leaves Brian Kerr and his players with a clear idea of what they must do to extend their involvement beyond Wednesday.

Football is also, as Shay Given said, a game in which strange things happen and so the prospect of a team following a performance like this with the sort which is likely to be required if the Swiss are to be beaten is far from out of the question.

To say, however, that there was little here to inspire confidence ahead of the last round of matches would be to err on the side of understatement.

The manager and players were as one in their assessment afterwards that the most important aspect of the night's work was that the win had been secured.

That much is beyond debate although it was a rare note of unity on an evening when the visitors produced a chaotic performance littered with individual errors and substandard displays.

The goal that separated the two sides was scored in the sixth minute by Stephen Elliott for whom it was a first in five appearances at this level. The record books will show that the 21-year-old's strike spared Ireland's blushes against a team they had beaten comparatively easily in each of their previous five meetings. If the required win over Switzerland can be achieved, however, its significance might yet go far beyond that.

Saturday's contest could well be described by the old cliché - a game of two halves. In the first Ireland were awful and in the second, after Kerr had intervened to shake up a badly malfunctioning midfield, they were merely poor. That the hosts created more than twice as many scoring chances as their opponents gives some hint of the scale of the mishap, but the reality is that the very obvious limitations of the Cypriots means that the statistics actually serve to flatter Ireland who would have been completely overrun had they turned in a similar performance against a side of better quality.

After a fleetingly bright start the game turned completely with Elliott's goal and from then on Ireland' defensive performance was dreadful, both in midfield, where the wide men largely went missing, and the central pairing of Graham Kavanagh and Kevin Kilbane were, in no small part because of their countless unforced errors, swamped.

Had the back four been playing well then it wouldn't have mattered quite so much, but Kenny Cunningham, Richard Dunne and John O'Shea all had best forgotten first halves. Each did do better in the second when the bulk of Ireland's problems stemmed from the right side where Steve Carr, moderately impressive early on, had suddenly fallen apart.

In attack, Robbie Keane failed to make any impact leaving Elliott and Given as the two Irish heroes. The young striker was a model of energy and application. From beginning to end he chased every ball, endeavoured to provide advancing team-mates with options and spread menace amongst the Cypriot defence.

The suspicion is, however, even that will not prevent him making way for Clinton Morrison against the Swiss.

Given, meanwhile, was at his outstanding best, most memorably when saving a well struck first-half penalty from Ionnis Okkas at a point when Ireland's slide might well have become unstoppable and pushing a seemingly goal-bound shot from Efstathios Aloneftis five minutes before half-time. In between there were a handful of important interventions and his overall composure was one of the factors that enabled those in front of him to steady themselves.

Another was the introduction of Matt Holland for Steve Finnan at half time. Both the Liverpool player and Kavanagh had particularly poor first periods but by replacing the former, switching Damien Duff to the right and shifting Kilbane back out to the wing, Kerr managed to noticeably improve things. The success of the switch may yet have some bearing on his team selection for Wednesday night.

Despite losing Damien Duff to injury just as the Chelsea winger started to exert some real influence on the game an hour in, the Irish did considerably better in the second half and might even have doubled their lead when Kavanagh capitalised on an error to feed Elliott who in turn played a swift ball forward into the path of Keane. With the goalkeeper hopelessly committed the striker found the target as required but a momentary delay allowed Loukas Louka to get back and provide the required goal-line clearance.

Had the Cypriots had a finisher of any real quality, however, they would surely have won this game.

Okkas certainly had his moments, but the Olympiakos striker proved unreliable at key moments while Konstantinos Makridis and Aloneftis provided the required drive from midfield but not the final touch.

Oh how the Swiss must be rubbing their hands in anticipation of Wednesday night.

CYPRUS: Panayiotou; Marios, Louka, Lambrou, Garpozis; Charalampidis, Michail Makridis, Aloneftis; Okkas, Constantinou. Subs: Krassas for Michail (31 mins), Yasoumi for Okkas (69 mins), Marragkos for Ilia (73 mins).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Newcastle Utd); Carr (Newcastle Utd), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Dunne (Manchester City), O'Shea (Manchester Utd); Finnan (Liverpool), Kavanagh (Wigan Ath), Kilbane (Everton), Duff (Chelsea); Keane (Tottenham), Elliott (Sunderland). Subs: Holland (Charlton Ath) for Finnan (half-time), Reid (Blackburn Rovers) for Duff (61 mins), Connolly (Wigan Ath) for Keane (88 mins).

Referee: V Kassai (Hungary).

Permutations for Ireland: Win or bust?

* Ireland now need to beat Switzerland on Wednesday night if they are to have any chance of reaching next summer's World Cup finals in Germany.

* If Brian Kerr's side win and the French fail to beat Cyprus in Paris then they will finish top of group four and qualify automatically.

* If they beat Switzerland but France also win then they will finish second and progress to the play-offs.

* In the event that Ireland draw or lose they will finish out of the top two.