McCarthy hails captain Keane

There are no guarantees, it's not a money-back deal; but when you don't play too well and still you win big it's usually a sign that your luck is changing. About time too. If Mick McCarthy hadn't got Barnsley stoicism bred into his bone he'd have hit Basin Street long ago, howling that if it wasn't for bad luck he wouldn't have no luck at all.

Instead he came into the airy conference room under the GSP Stadium and tried to keep the music soft and low. 4-0! No trumpets please! We're underdogs! "Four nil doesn't reflect the picture," he said. "Cyprus deserved a goal but that's why defenders and goalkeepers are picked and played. I have to give credit to us for keeping them out. We scored good goals from various players."

Are Ireland in with a chance of first place, as Stavros Papadopoulos, the Cypriot manager claims? Heavens forfend!

"Portugal are the best team in the group," said Mick, "we have them on June 2nd and we have games before then. We've given ourselves an opportunity, but we have still to keep grinding results out. We'll know a bit better where we all stand on Wednesday, when Portugal play at home against Holland."

McCarthy has known too many near misses at this stage than to be found standing on a biscuit tin claiming to be seven feet tall. Quickly the talk turned to other giants, though.

Roy Keane strode this game like Gulliver among the Lilliputians. Astonishing stuff.

"He was immense," agreed McCarthy. "We've almost come to expect that from him. Yet again in his general play he was excellent, and the way he influences both our team and theirs. Just try to man-mark him."

And as everyone grinned quietly he went on to imagine what it must have felt like to be told that your job was to mark Roy Keane.

It was an image that lingered. Do you call family and friends and tell them not to come, you don't want them to see you like this?

So would Mick McCarthy take two bottles of this inferior brand in exchange for one bottle of Roy Keane? Would he? Did Mick come down the Liffey in a bubble? Did he arrive with the last shower?

"If I said `Yes' I'd be in trouble, wouldn't I? No. I wouldn't though. In his position, he's the best in the world at what he does. Some may say somebody can do this and someone else can do that. Look at the whole picture, the influence on the game. There isn't anyone better."

There isn't anyone better, and in an Irish jersey on Saturday it was hard to find anyone comparable. Four goals was an especially satisfying haul given the lack of creativity and supply. On the wings, Jason McAteer and Kevin Kibane had extended periods of ordinariness, and the cadence of possibility only re-appeared when Damien Duff came into the game late with his rhyming feet carrying him into the most unexpected places.

"It was one of those games," said McCarthy. "We were having more of the possession but we weren't totally comfortable, not that many chances, look at the times we put crosses in. There were times when you think it would be nice to get challenges in there. They stopped us getting to the byline well and putting crosses in."

The evening had its flaws, and a poor crowd of around 7,000 deprived the match of a sense of urgency and gave it the feel of a chore at times. Yet a win is a win, and McCarthy was expecting this sort of outcome.

"If anybody listened to what I said all week I wasn't expecting an easy win. People may look in the newspaper tomorrow and see 4-0 and think it was easy. It was far from an easy win, it was a hard earned victory. We've been saying all week though that the squad is stronger. Goals come from other areas now. "I said to Roy before the game to get in the box and get among the goals. Same for Kevin and Jason. It was always going to be difficult for the two boys. Inside being so tightly marked. Robbie has been heavily leaned on for goals."

The run-in stands before the team as a stark reminder of how many miles there are between here and Tokyo. Back-to-back fixtures against Andorra are fine, but the air gets quite thin by the time we face Portugal on June 2nd in a crunch match which would fill Croke Park, let alone Lansdowne.

"Of course, the more you win," says Mick, "the more you raise expectation, the more pressure comes on the team. We play better when the expectation isn't as great, when we play teams who are supposedly better than us. We have thrived for years on being underdogs. The tag of favourite doesn't rest easy on our shoulders."

He gets up to leave, sober-suited and relieved.

"Finally," he says, and leans forward again to thank Stavros, his Cypriot counterpart for sending him faxed condolences on the death of his father. "A very nice touch," says Mick, a gracious guest retiring from the company of good hosts.

Onwards to Andorra then and the halfway mark of an intriguing campaign.