The Airport Hotel may not be the ideal setting for late-night singsongs in the open air, but then team spirit doesn't appear to need too much more building in the wake of what was a decidedly comfortable victory for the Irish under-18s at Tolka Park last evening.
The tougher work, one suspects, still lies ahead for Brian Kerr's squad as they try to qualify for next summer's UEFA Under-18 Championship in Sweden, but there will have been few complaints after a 5-1 win that takes them above yesterday's other group winners, Russia, to the top of the qualifying group table.
As they did when they were the hosts over the summer, the Cypriots showed themselves to be well capable of moving the ball around last night, but in truth they posed little threat to the Irish in the last third of the pitch.
At the back for Ireland, Jason Gavin was in commanding form, while alongside him Peter Murphy, John Frost and Shaun Byrne picked up a steady supply of possession with which Conor O'Grady, Richie Partridge and the outstanding Ger Crossley kept the visitors chasing back to re-inforce their consistently stretched back three.
Crossley's diagonal runs from the right-hand side were a particular source of problems for the Cypriots. He repeatedly took seemingly hopeless routes towards goal only to emerge the other side of a group of defenders.
Partridge, meanwhile, was working a similar sort of magic out wide on the left. His marker, Petros Filaniotis, was finding the Liverpool winger more than a handful until the Dubliner twisted his knee just before half-time and was carried off.
The visitors, who twice benefitted from Gary Doherty's poor shooting in the box, nevertheless did well to hold out until the 40th minute without conceding a goal. Their resistance was broken by Crossley's Celtic team-mate Colin Healy.
The Corkman linked up neatly with Doherty in a crowded area and then pushed a shot, with his less favoured right foot, low past the Cypriot goalkeeper.
Within three minutes of the second half getting under way, Crossley did enough to give O'Grady a relatively straightforward chance from the edge of the area. He duly obliged.
Not long after, Richie Baker, on for Partridge, scored the goal of the night when he flicked Gavin's long ball over one of the two defenders watching him, rounded his still bewildered marker and finished sweetly with the outside of his boot.
The game was won, but the tendency displayed by the Irish late on to fall asleep at set-pieces was still a little alarming. They were punished with a quarter of an hour to go when Gavin's failure to clear the first Cypriot corner of the night allowed Anthimos Angeli to find the net. And he should really have scored a second shortly afterwards, again from a move that started with a corner.
By then, however, Baker had restored the three-goal margin, the Shelbourne player taking Frost's cross down nicely and slipping it away. Doherty wrapped it all up with eight minutes to play when he drove home from 15 yards after a mistake from the visitors' goalkeeper.
Manager Brian Kerr was suitably impressed. "Richie Partridge was fast and Richie Baker was faster. He had a terrific game when he came and could have another couple by the end.
"It's a good result for us all right and it's good to be going into the other games off the back of a win instead of the loss to England. It'll help everybody's confidence over the whole week."
Ireland play Poland tomorrow at Richmond Park.
Republic Of Ireland: Delaney (Everton); Byrne (West Ham), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Mur- phy (Blackburn), Frost (Waterford Utd); Crossley (Celtic), Healy (Celtic), O'Grady (Sligo Rovers), Partridge (Liverpool); Doherty (Luton Town), Bar- rett (Arsenal). Subs: Baker (Shelbourne) for Partridge (half-time), O'Halloran (Cork City) for O'Grady (72 mins), Drew (Home Farm/Everton) for Barrett (82 mins).
Cyprus: Nicolaou; Charalambous, Stavrinou, Kittou; Filaniotis, Pochouzouris, Antoniou, Louca, Lithrangomothis; Fasouliotis, Angeli Subs: Theofilou for Kittou (52 mins), Arisodemou for Fasouliotis (56 mins), Constantinou for Filaniotis (78 mins).
Referee: J Jara (Czech Republic).
Having comfortably beaten Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend to go fourth in the English Premiership, Middlesbrough are at Dalymount Park this evening for a friendly against Shelbourne. The Dubliners scored their first league win of the season in Derry on Sunday and tonight's game will give Dermot Keely another opportunity to look at his options ahead of the weekend's big Dublin derby with champions St Patrick's Athletic.
