Honest Cunningham rallies the troops

Captain's reaction: On the last occasion Ireland played Cyprus at Nicosia's GSP Stadium the players sprung something of a surprise on their good friends in the media by skipping out the back way despite a commanding performance from Roy Keane having just inspired a 4-0 victory.

In the mixed zone after Saturday's game there was a good deal of nervousness about the same escape route being open as there was more reason this time for the players to avoid public reflection on a game they were so fortunate to win.

From the moment at which the first team member to emerge, Matt Holland, started to pick over the bones of the visiting side's display with a good deal of candour it became clear that the attitude this time would be very different. From almost every member of the squad poured ready concessions that what had been produced in the preceding hours hadn't come close to being good enough and frank admissions that almost every aspect of Wednesday's display has to be a whole lot better if Ireland are to progress.

As honest as ever, Kenny Cunningham made neither excuses for what had just been witnessed nor promises about what will be seen in the Swiss game. Instead, the Irish skipper pointed to the need to identify some of the team's key failings and spoke with conviction about the determination to put things right ahead of Wednesday night.

"What we're not going to do," he said, "is just sweep this under the carpet. We have to play better on Wednesday against a Swiss side who'll be superior to Cyprus all around the pitch. We have to defend better. We have to pass the ball better. We're going to have to put in one of our best performances in terms of how we pass the football.

"Without a doubt there was a bit of nervousness to our play here. There were times in the first half when we couldn't seem to make a full 10-yard pass. And that's not good enough. We're not going to dominate a team for 90 minutes, they're going to have their periods of pressure, but Cyprus really dominated that game for the last half an hour of the first half and that shouldn't happen with the experience we have in the team. We'll have to improve, it's as simple as that."

Little, he admitted, would change in terms of the line-up or the style of play over the coming days but, he insisted, things could be both different and better against the Swiss.

"I think it's about the right mental approach. There's very little you can do on the training pitch over the next couple of days. The next couple of days will be about recuperation and physically just getting ourselves right. And then it's about the mental approach going into the game.

"We play with each other each day in training, we know what good footballers we have in the squad. We're not in fear of anybody in this group, including France, in terms of the individual ability we've got. We proved it in France - we went over there and passed them off the pitch at times. So we can produce that brand of football. But it's a mental toughness to our play that we need to grasp."

Like his manager, however, and many of his team-mates he went on to make the obvious point that the win had at least kept alive their hopes of going to Germany next summer.

"It is a great result for us," he said. "Forget about the performance; the result keeps us in it. And it's all still there for us. There's going to be an amazing atmosphere in Lansdowne Road on Wednesday. We know we'll have the support of the public behind us and we'll give it our best as we always do.

"But sometimes best in terms of commitment, energy and determination is not enough - it's got to be best in terms of the quality of the football that we produce as well. If we can ally those two things together, then that's a successful recipe. One without the other and ultimately you fall flat on your face."