Having flown out as hopefuls, Ireland returned from Portugal last night as qualification contenders. Minutes after their 4-0 defeat of Gibraltar had been completed manager Martin O’Neill was already looking forward to Georgia, who may have fundamentally changed the look of the Group D table by beating Scotland, but who must now themselves be defeated.

"It's nice but there's no time to dwell on it," said the manager, who expects to have Seamus Coleman and Marc Wilson available for the game at the Aviva stadium on Monday.

“We fly out in an hour and we’re going in good spirits, but I saw enough of the Georgia Scotland game to know that there’s a renewed spirit about them. We’ve got to win that game now.”

Baulked

Ireland can now finish ahead of the Scots if they win next time out then match their rivals’ results against Germany and Poland but O’Neill baulked slightly at the suggestion that his team’s destiny was only now in their own hands again.

“It was never out of our hands,” he said. “We had to win all four and I know you were thinking in terms of the Germany and Poland games next month . . . ”

Still, everyone probably agreed that things look brighter now than they had before these games and O’Neill looked pleased by the possibility of even a play-off place.

“That would be fantastic but it’s a long, long way away. The main thing for now is that we have to win on Monday.”

Cyrus Christie and many of the other players echoed the point but the right back too had better things to talk about after a successful competitive debut.

Usually do

Robbie Keane

had, he said, told him to “do what I usually do, do what I’ve done in training.

“Get the ball and get at people, get the crosses in early and express myself . . . but first and foremost defend because these games can sometimes be tougher than the big opponents.”

And so, with his “game head on,” he stepped in for the injured Seamus Coleman but when the chance came to get his cross in early, he opted to shoot instead.

Beat players

“Yeah, Wes gave me the one-two and there wasn’t much of a gap for me, but I like to cut inside and beat players. I beat one and I was going to go back outside but I saw that the other had covered the ground back so I went back inside again. The gap opened up for me and I managed to put it in the bottom corner.

“It’s one of them isn’t it,” he said with a smile.

“It happens and you have to seize the moment. Happily I’ve done that and put it in the bottom corner.”