Cullen and Idah keep the faith but World Cup now a pipe dream for Ireland

Mathematics first, just to mop up any hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup, as expressed by junior members of Stephen Kenny's squad, Josh Cullen and Adam Idah, who were put forth as spokesmen in the aftermath of drawing at home with a nation ranked 112th by Fifa.

The Republic of Ireland cross the halfway stage of Group A with one point from a possible 12. Should they somehow win their last four matches - starting with Serbia on Tuesday before Azerbaijan next month, Portugal at home and Luxembourg away in November - Kenny’s kids will finish on 13 points.

Serbia and Portugal currently rest on 10 points from four games. Luxembourg have six, which makes it fair to ask if aspirations of experiencing a Qatari winter need to be revised.

“No, no chance,” said Idah. “We believe in ourselves as a team. When we came in we 100 per cent believed we could still qualify for the World Cup. That’s the main target - to qualify for the World Cup and that’s what we are going to do, fight right to the end.”

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Cullen also rejected a narrative shift towards longer term development.

“It’s never over until it’s over,” replied the Anderlecht midfielder. “All we can do is try and win every game, control the controllables and the games that are in our hands. Our full focus now is on getting three points on Tuesday night and that’s all that matters from now until then.

“We have to take each game as it comes from now until then and win every game from now until the end of the campaign. It’s as simple as that.”

The delusion is an allusion. These young professionals, understandably, feel the need to play a straight bat with the media.

"It's my job to score goals and I am disappointed in myself that I didn't put them to bed," said Idah after missing the target with two headers before being named man of the match by Ray Houghton. "I need to work on that. I haven't scored for Ireland yet and all I want to do is get off the mark. All I can do is keep working harder and hopefully they will come."

At least they possess enough self-awareness to take responsibility for their inactions. On Emin Makhmudov being invited to shoot from distance, by Séamus Coleman and Cullen, for the Azerbaijan goal, the 25-year-old admitted his costly error.

“I need to get out and block the shot, it’s as simple as that,” said Cullen. “It’s part of the responsibility of a player to recognise when I could have done something better and for sure I could have done better in preventing that goal and blocking the shot.”

For the record, San Marino recently scraped themselves off the bottom of the Fifa rankings as Aguilla became the 210th best team in football. It can always get worse for nation ranked 47 that continues to stumble against minnows, but a perverse upside for the FAI is that the Aviva Stadium will be easier to sell out as better teams will visit due as Ireland slide down the qualification seedings. Despite the long absence of fans, over 3,000 printed tickets were left idle in Abbotstown this weekend.

“We know we’ve got a group here with the character and talent that should be able to get a result on Tuesday night,” added Cullen despite Serbia trashing Luxembourg 4-1. “There is no time for us to be downbeat, it’s a quick turnaround, we have to fully focus on Tuesday night and as players, it’s our job to be confident going in against a good side.”

Or as Ronaldo told RTÉ, sometimes you score, sometimes you miss, it’s part of the business.