Valuable lesson to be gained from point

Let's be honest, if that had been a boxing match it would have been all over after three or four rounds - so to get a draw from it was an absolute bonus. People might say "but we went 1-0 up, we should have held on", but after the 90 minutes on Saturday you have to take the draw and say "thank you very much, there is a God".

You learn more in football when you get taught a lesson like that than when you beat teams three or four-nil. That game showed everybody what we have to aspire to. Can you imagine if that Portuguese team had a real, definitive, world-class goal-scorer as well? It would have been game over at half-time.

What we saw was the difference in mentality, in culture, in style, the difference in the way good teams play - the passing, the control, the system that Portugal played which made sure Rui Costa was always free and always a danger. The main difference, though, was the gulf in class - they were the best team we've seen here in a long time.

Roy Keane apart, when you looked at everyone else in that Irish team you thought, "mmm, we've got a bit to do", but that's something we already knew. Because we're top of the table and because of the results we've had away from home maybe some supporters thought "we can beat these", but I think everyone had a real wake-up call on Saturday.

Basically we were pummelled in the first half. I thought I would never make a statement along the lines: "I wish Gary Breen was playing." I don't mean to be disrespectful to him but, really, Saturday was the occasion to make that statement because, in the first half especially, that's how much we struggled at the back.

But, if we don't have the class of Portugal, we've probably got a little bit more commitment. Some might say Ireland were lucky to take something from the game but to their credit they hung on. They were much better in the second half but once we got the goal we changed - we almost went "ooh eh, we've scored - we must just protect it". We took a step backwards, while they just continued the way they'd been playing.

It's easy to be critical, though, easy to say we withdrew into our shell and didn't have players going forward but I've played in teams just the same - if you play against a really good side who've played well against you, but haven't scored, and you take the lead you think "God, we've been lucky, let's make sure we're not beaten". Everybody mentally takes a step backwards.

The reason we do that is because we don't have enough Roy Keanes, enough players who'll say "right, this is us, let's get at them again, let's try to play in their half and let's score a second one". When you score against the likes of Portugal you always have to have a goal threat after that, otherwise they'll just all pour forward. Considering the circumstances I think that was as good as Roy Keane could have been. I felt sorry for him because he was running around trying to shore up all sorts of different things without really being able to concentrate on his own job, which was to stop them playing in midfield.

People will say "oh he shouldn't have got booked" but if you take things like that out of his game you don't get the same player, the same passion. We'll miss his leadership in Estonia but that doesn't make the task of winning - which is a must - insurmountable. The draw against Portugal means we're playing for second place in the group, which is what I always believed. That means winning in Estonia and not getting beaten by the Dutch at home. That game is the crucial one.

So, you have to look back on Saturday and say we played against a very, very good side who have a bit of everything - it was a good result. That's why I say, take it on the chin, we got a point from it - we were outclassed at times. Yes, it's a case of remembering the lessons we were taught by Portugal but the main thing is we got from the game precisely what they got from it - a point.

In an interview with Mary Hannigan