Mark Kinsella was gone, Man of the Match award in his back pocket, and Tony Cascarino, having just equalled Paul McGrath's record of 83 senior international appearances for the Republic of Ireland, was also already on the team bus. Back in the tunnel under the main stand, meanwhile, the man who will stay in the memory for his performance last night was being mobbed again.

"Make it fast, lads," pleaded Niall Quinn as he edged towards the exit. "Sure thing," came the reply in chorus before somebody kicked off the questioning by asking the Sunderland striker where he was heading for his holidays.

When the subject returned to the game he sighed: "There's no point saying anything different, it was a struggle out there tonight. They defended resolutely and you were just hoping that we were going to break them down.

"In the end we did but then we panicked a bit and what else can you say about it now other than that we have to be glad to have taken the three points."

Quinn was delighted to have added to his own goal-scoring tally but Cascarino's near miss was still on his mind as he went through the night's sequence of events.

"Yeah, it was a terrible pity that it didn't go in for him. He'd equalled one record and just then it really seemed as if he'd equalled a second but it'll come again for him, it's just a matter of time."

Quinn had been frustrated trying to find a way through as the match wore on, but felt there had been more purpose about the Irish display as the game went on.

"It was just one of those nights when it took us a while to settle into the best approach. I thought in the second half our play was a bit more co-ordinated.

"As it went on we all gradually seemed to switch on to the fact that we were going to play a bit of a long ball game because we weren't really getting at them the other way and from then on we got on top of it much better."

The shift in emphasis might have been taken as an indication that the original game plan, involving the extensive use of the wide men, Mark Kennedy and Damien Duff, hadn't quite paid off but the one half of the duo certainly didn't see that way.

"I have to admit," said Kennedy, who seems to start all of his observations like that just now, "that I thought everybody did well, and I said before the game that the most important thing was the three points, so of course I'm happy."

His own display, he admitted, had been satisfactory too. But was it, he was pressed, enough to help him out of the shadows at club level?

"I must admit," he bounced back with a speed that suggested that he had merely been waiting for somebody to roll that one out again, "that I'm getting tired of being asked the same old questions after these games. Every time with you lads it's, `Was that another chance for you?'

"I mean, I played against Sweden, played well, and then, the next game when I'm in the team, the headlines in all the papers are still: `Another chance for Kennedy'."

Silence ensued and as Kennedy was allowed to leave without being quizzed any further you could tell everybody was thinking: "Wish that Quinn fella hadn't been in so much of a hurry. He never gives us lip like that."

Clearly in Quinny mode as he left, though, was the big man's striking partner, Robbie Keane, who was finally heading off for a break after what has been a truly remarkable season.

"It's been hard, but I feel all right to be honest - just glad to have gotten the three points there tonight and disappointed that I didn't manage to get on the score-sheet.

"I actually thought it was in," said the teenager who was in the process of winding up for his traditional post-goal bout of gymnastics when he saw the ball come back off the upright. "I'd already started celebrating," he added with a still slightly bewildered air about him, "and I could barely believe it when it came back out."