The mathematics are much simpler now, no more need to pour over pool permutations; after yesterday's 1-0 win over Kazakhstan here, the Irish team is now just 70 minutes from Perth, Australia, and a place in next year's World Cup finals.

Victory over Ukraine today would secure them qualification, but they have also guaranteed themselves another chance to qualify through the weekend play-offs should the win elude them.

The Irish supporter who nervously pointed out that "we've been 70 minutes from lots of places before but never got there" was abruptly hushed yesterday, but he had a point. Most recently, the team was a win away from qualifying for Sydney, at last year's Olympic Qualifier, but lost to Spain - and was then eliminated in the play-offs.

Add to the cautionary tale the fact that Ukraine beat Ireland when the teams last met in the European finals two years ago (3-2, after trailing 2-0) and little wonder, then, that the message from coach Riet Kuper yesterday was "Job far from done".

The job against Kazakhstan, though, was done satisfactorily, if not with any great composure. Lynsey McVicker's eighth-minute goal proved enough, but the team - and their edgy supporters - endured some uneasy moments, not least when Elena Lind, checked by the imperious Daphne Sixsmith's timely tackle, almost snatched an equaliser four minutes from time when she hit the outside of the right post.

McVicker's goal, which she scored with considerable poise from close range following excellent work down the right by Laura Lee and Claire McMahon, should have settled Irish nerves, but for the next 62 minutes they managed to avoid adding a second, despite a wealth of possession and a string of half-chances.

But Kazakhstan have proved to be the surprise team of this tournament, having been categorised as an outfit that would be good for "target practice" when the draw for the qualifier was made. Before yesterday they had scored four goals against Ukraine, in a 6-4 defeat, had lost just 1-0 to England and held France to a scoreless draw.

Ireland found them to be just as stubborn, with their gritty, disciplined defending and occasional threatening sorties forward making it a testing morning's work.

Again, however, Ireland's passing was substandard, so wayward at times that players were required to toil and scurry a whole lot more than they should have had to and expend energy they needed to save for Ukraine. "Sloppy," as Kuper accurately described it after the game.

They survived a fifth-minute scare when an unmarked Yelena Apelganetz, in front of goal, shot inches wide, and were rescued by Pamela Magill three minutes before half-time when she dispossessed Yekaterina Zhukalina just as she was surging in to the circle.

They also had goalkeeper Tara Browne, who wins her 50th cap today, to thank when she reminded the umpire of the relatively new rule that forbids goalkeepers from leaving their own half - Kazakhstan's only penalty corner of the game, on the stroke of half-time, duly came to nothing when the umpire blew a "foul" when their goalkeeper ran the length of the pitch to take her place at the edge of the circle.

Substitute Karen Humphreys, Jenny Burke and McMahon all should have done better with scoring opportunities, while Arlene Boyles' 47th-minute penalty corner strike came within millimetres of doubling the lead.

In the end it was a deserved win, Ireland were much the better team, but it should have been a more leisurely one.

"Trust me, we were never going to let them come back, there was no way," said right back Linda Caulfield, Wexford's representative in the Irish squad.

"The girls were so up for it, especially after the French match, we were never going to lose. Ukraine will be one of the biggest games some of us have ever played - it's a huge match, a ticket to Perth. We're all just tearing for it now, and we're all fit enough to carry it through to the end.

"Yeah, there are a few tired legs alright after five games in seven days, but we'll have a quick massage and we'll be sorted, no problem. With Perth as the prize, if we beat Ukraine, do you honestly think the adrenaline won't keep us going?"

A rhetorical question, if there ever was one.

IRELAND: T Browne, A Boyles, J Burke, L Caulfield, R Kohler (capt), L Lee, P Magill, C McMahon, L McVicker, J Orbinson, D Sixsmith. Subs used: E Cregan, K Humphreys, C O'Brien, J McDonough.

WORLD CUP QUALIFIER (at Amiens and Abbeville) - Pool A: Ireland 1 (L McVicker), Kazakstan 0; France 0, India 5.