It had been a week full of unpleasant complications for the Irish party in Cyprus, and, while the win that rounded it off was as good a result as anybody in the camp could have dared to hope for, it was scarcely a straightforward affair either.
By this morning, of course, that won't matter too much to the players or their manager. The three points earned moved the Republic up to second in the Group Two table, just a couple of points behind Portugal. The scoreline makes it Mick McCarthy's best away win since his first competitive game in charge of Ireland - the 50 defeat of Liechtenstein four-and-a-half years ago. And the relative strength of the opposition made this a much more impressive result than the one in Eschen.
The quality of the display, though, was another thing altogether. During the buildup to the game the thinking had been that an early Irish goal would kill off the hosts and, quite possibly, open the floodgates, just as a late one had for the Dutch here back in October.
Instead, Stavros Papadopoulos's side defied expectations by mounting an impressively spirited challenge to McCarthy's outfit, even after Roy Keane and Ian Harte had put the Irish in what should have been a commanding position. If the statistics don't lie, then 4-0 is at least economical with the truth. The shots-on-target tally, 6-3 in favour of the visitors, reflects more accurately the nature of this contest.
In fact, it was hard to believe the Cypriots did not convert even one of the chances they managed to create either just before the break, when Gary Kelly was forced to clear off the line twice in quick succession, or during a strong 20-minute spell immediately after it.
At the end of that period errors by Mark Kinsella and Kenny Cunningham allowed Michael Constantinou to get in one-on-one with Shay Given, but the goalkeeper stood his ground and the striker fired directly at him.
Ten minutes from time Marios Christoloulou should have scored from close range but blasted over. How the Irish would have coped with having had to defend a single-goal lead through the closing stages we were, happily, spared from discovering, and less than 60 seconds later a Gary Kelly shot from 25 yards out found the net with the help of a deflection.
Finally the Cypriots gave up the ghost, and after Robbie Keane was unlucky to have a tap-in disallowed for an alleged foul by David Connolly on the goalkeeper, his namesake scored the goal of the night, a wonderful individual effort in which he beat two defenders inside the box before sending a crashing shot in off the near post.
That strike rounded off a tremendous personal performance and ensured beyond doubt that, even if the milestone meant nothing to the Corkman himself, his 50th game for his country will be widely remembered as having been one of his best.
Others will prefer recalling the result to the performance. Of the back four, only Kelly did well. Harte, in particular, was beaten too often down the Cypriot's right flank and Cunningham, who picked up a booking, looked uncharacteristically clumsy in the centre.
Robbie Keane's display, which included a missed chip in the 64th minute that he would surely score nine out of any other 10 nights, was one of his most subdued for his country, while Kevin Kilbane struggled after a decent first half and was replaced late on by Damien Duff.
Jason McAteer's contribution, meanwhile, grew increasingly erratic with the result that it was no surprise, even to him one suspects, when he too departed 12 minutes before the end.
Aside from Keane Senior's outstanding showing in central midfield (as well as just about everywhere else), Connolly was probably the night's main Irish success story. The Feyenoord striker rummaged tirelessly in amongst the home side's three man defence, and his close control and acceleration from a standing start proved far too much for his marker to handle.
Late on he forced a wonderful save from Nikos Panayitou with a close-range volley after a couple of interchanged passes with the Manchester United midfielder, and moments later he created what should have been that goal for his striking partner by getting quickly onto a parried shot on the edge of the six-yard box.
It was a particularly strong conclusion to an impressive 90-minute display. Twice early on his crosses from the right might have provided the basis for an opening goal, but in the end it took a ball from a similar position from Kelly to set up Roy Keane for a straightforward eight-yard finish.
After Robbie Keane had stepped over a low Kinsella pass into the box for Kilbane three minutes before the interval, the Sunderland winger had the legs taken from under him as he waited for the ball to pass him so that he could recover his stride. From the penalty spot Harte calmly sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.
For all their dawdling, Ireland again showed themselves capable of keeping pace with their more illustrious group rivals all the way to October's final round of qualifying games.
CYPRUS: Panayiotou (Anothosis); Theodotou (AEK), Konnafis (Omonia), Melanarkitis (Anorthosis) [Filippou (Apollon), 55 mins], Charalampous (Olympiakos), Chrostodoulou (Aris, Greece); Pounnas (Anorthosis) [Malekkos (AEL), 44 mins], Spoljaric (Apollon), Ioakim (Omonia); Constantinou (Iraklis, Greece), Okkas (PAOK, Greece) [Agathokleous (Aris, Greece), 76 mins].
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Newcastle United); Kelly (Leeds United), Breen (Coventry City), Cunningham (Wimbledon), Harte (Leeds United); McAteer (Blackburn Rovers) [Hol- land (Ipswich), 78 mins], Kinsella (Charlton Athletic), Roy Keane (Manchester United), Kilbane (Sunderland) [Duff (Blackburn Rovers), 83 mins]; Robbie Keane (Leeds United) [Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), 90 mins], Connolly (Feyenoord).
Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).
