IT WAS, he kept saying, "a very sad day", but in the wake of the latest post Jack Charlton era retirement romp at Lansdowne Road, the only face smiling back at us in the press conference was that of Packie Bonner.

Beside him, the last two managers of his playing career, Mick McCarthy and Billy Stark, looked glum - and not simply because they were waving goodbye to one of Celtic's and Ireland's great footballing idols.

For McCarthy, the 3-2 victory came as a welcome boost, while the fact that there were no new additions to his injury list ahead of Wednesday's world cup qualifier must have brought considerable relief.

Still, the Irish manager knows that Liechtenstein, who dealt a considerable blow to Charlton's managerial career, could do the same to his. When asked whether the team and formation employed yesterday gave an indication of how he intended to approach the competitive tie, his reservoir of good humour threatened to run a little dry.

"Possibly. You can keep asking, but you know I'm not going to tell you because everything I seem to do is wrong," he said with a hint of a smile but more than a trace of bitterness.

"I go for 4-3-3 and it's wrong, I go for 4-4-2 and it's wrong, I go for 4-5-1 and it's wrong. The only team that I played that was right was in Macedonia and we got spanked, everyone agreed with that."

Equally chirpy was Stark, whose trip to Parkhead today, to collect his personal belongings, is likely to be his last in any official capacity. In a week, though, when a couple of the club's best known players have been highly critical of Fergus McCann's regime, Stark was diplomatic to the end, paying tribute to the professionalism with which Paolo Di Canio accepted McCann's decision to suspend him for two weeks and declining to comment on the future of either the player or the club.

Bonner, asked about his future at Parkhead, admitted that everything would remain up in the air until after talks with McCann later this week. He is, he admitted, keen to stay on as a coach at the club.

His last appearance for the club he described as "a great occasion" but one which he was glad was now behind him. "It's been a hard week and I was getting uptight about this game. It was very emotional out there for me and everybody has been fantastic.