SOCCER/ARMENIA v REPUBLIC OF IRELAND REACTION:THERE WERE tired bodies but happy faces as the Irish team made their way to the team bus after last night's hard-fought win at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan last night. They had known it would be tough, but only now were they sure that they would return home with three precious points in the bag.

“We said before the game that if we were to have any serious ambitions of topping the group then we were going to have to come here and win tonight,” observed Shay Given.

“Well we’ve done that now and some of the other teams might struggle to match what we’ve done because they were a good side.

“I think all the lads showed tonight just how badly they want this. They pushed us very hard but we’re very happy with the way we’ve played. Hopefully we can keep it up.”

Given had been forced to make a handful of decent saves as the Republic of Ireland endured a lot of pressure over the course of the night but one of the most worrying moments, he admitted, was when Richard Dunne had intervened to head a 65th minute attempt on goal over from just in front of him. Thankfully, he could laugh about it now.

“Richard said that the ball moved a little bit in the air as it came towards him,” he said with a smile. “The balls are very light these days, and it ended up . . . I think I was trying to help blow it over. But Richard was immense again for us this evening. Not just him, though, everyone’s worked very hard to come away with the right result.”

One of those whose tireless effort contributed a good deal to the success was Liam Lawrence who capped a decent night with a role in the goal.

“Yeah, I put the ball through to Robbie and he tried to get his shot away but it was blocked, then it ran to Kevin and his attempt to make something of it was blocked too, but thankfully it ran to Keith and he finished it really nicely. It’s great to see him get the winner but it wouldn’t have mattered who scored, the important thing is that we won.

“Everyone’s tired after it now; we’ve worked very hard and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few lads asleep on the plane back tonight. But we’re happy. We’ve won the game, that’s what we came here to do and we’re very pleased with the way it’s gone.

“Of course it was tough but we knew it was going to be. We’d seen a few videos of them and we had a pretty good idea of the way they’d play. We knew what to expect and it was no surprise that they made life so difficult for us.

“Really, though, I have so much faith in the lads behind me that I always feel we can keep a clean sheet in situations like that and if you do that, we have lads at the other end that can get you a goal.

“It’s important now that we go away and build on this. Everyone’s come through it alright and we feel we can go on and get a win back in the Aviva against Andorra. If we do that, it will have been a very good start to the campaign for us before the big games next month.”