Stirred by fighting spirit

Manager's Reaction: Meet Mick McCarthy as he sits savouring these moments of reprieve. Sometimes the greatest obstacles are the ones which nobody else frets about and all along McCarthy had warned and warned about Saudi Arabia, writes Tom Humphries

He spoke about how they were consigned to the corner reserved for fodder, about how they were a proud people, about how they might come up on the outside rail. None of it came to pass.

"I'm delighted." he said. "We played very well second half, having got a great start. We were very nervous, it was a huge game for us. I think there was frustration on the pitch and off the pitch, it affected us. We started trying to chase it and get that other goal. After we had the chat at half-time and once we'd settled down we looked solid and we had a base to build from.

"Overall a good performance, we gave them a few chances, more than I liked."

Any chance offered by our defence is more than Mick likes and as the first half wore on his rage at what he was seeing grew to the point where it was almost biblical in dimension and you expected him to begin smiting people with bolts of lightning. Instead he brought them in for a half-time chat.

"Half-time? First thing was to settle people down. I just thought everybody was getting frustrated. We were doing things we shouldn't have been doing, getting picked off, being played around and we tried to settle. We were one-nil in front and I though a win would get us through. I wanted to get players passing. We were a bit nervous, a bit tense. I made the change at left back, Ian Harte had a sore toe, he had a sore knee all week. It worked."

The removal of Harte and the introduction of Niall Quinn changed the shape of the game. Kevin Kilbane dropped back behind Damien Duff. Of more significance was the team's obvious relief at having a big man to aim at.

Quinn, at 35, doesn't move much quicker than a glacier but he has a bag of tricks and deceptions like few other forwards have. They just don't make them like Niall Quinn anymore. His presence on the field is as reassuring as a lighthouse on a stormy night.

"Quinny, we know what he's about," said McCarthy of his reserve 6ft 4ins striker, "and the two smaller lads were being bullied out. Quinny gave us a target to aim at. He's a threat not only in the air. Not just that but he holds it up well for us."

Of course if you going to begin talking about the zimmer twins . . . "Stan, one hundred and one not out. Another wonderful performance. Reads the game very well and he has that terrific left foot. I'm not chasing him out the door so the future is up to him. I remember being sat in a similar position and Jack Charlton back in 1990 said we don't want to have that many players to be retiring. Stan's being wonderful. I can't eulogise him anymore."

Staunton's contribution last night was indeed immense. Significant parts in both of the first two goals and a wonderful timely tackle on Al Yami late in the first half were the highlights. While it was all going on there were highlights of a different kind being compiled on the Cameroon-Germany game.

McCarthy and company were oblivious.

"Somebody told me when Damien Duff scored his goal that the other game was two-nil. I wish they had told me sooner. It would have taken the pressure off. I expected Germany to win. I said that in my press conferences this week. Somebody said there were 16 bookings and two red cards but there was a lot at stake.

"Our game, we've played with good spirit but I was very disappointed with how Steve Staunton got booked. For time wasting? We'd had three or four players off the field and the referee wouldn't let them back on and next thing he books Stan for time wasting. Other than that there wasn't a bad tackle all night."

McCarthy is caught now in that no-man's land. He has lots to look back at from last night's game, lots that won't please him when he looks at it. And he has lots of work to do. Spain or South Africa await at the end of the week.

There is homework to be done.

"Our first-half performance here was probably the worst of all during the competition. What has been pleasing is the way the lads have stuck at it though. Been together for a month. We haven't done that not to go to Korea.

"It's very pleasing to be going on. I'm delighted that we got three points today.

"We could look at the goals we have conceded but when you've played three games and qualified for the last 16 it's not the time for that. I'll look at things over the next four or five days."

And finally he rounds up for a message to the nation and a drive-by slaying of the journalists present. A bravura performance.

"What's our goal?," he says. "It's to get as far as we can. We'll try to win it. Is that realistic? Who knows? People didn't think we could get to where we are now. They thought we'd be beaten in the first two games. We fight against doubters all the time. We fight against critics all the time. We do very well. Whoever faces us won't be looking forward to it."

We weren't sure if he meant at football matches or at press conferences.