The best part of Saturday's scoreline? Iran 0. I'm certain Mick McCarthy will be absolutely delighted with 2-0, he'd have taken that before the game in a heartbeat. Yes, three or four would have been great but if we score on Thursday the tie is dead - absolutely dead.

We all want the ideal world, we all wanted a bigger win because there's still a slight element of doubt - if they score in the first 20 minutes, with that fantastic backing they get at home behind them, nerves will jangle, but we can turn that negative into a positive if we just play our normal game.

Remember, we've drawn with Portugal and Holland away from home and Iran just aren't in their class, those games were much more daunting in terms of the players we faced. The only concern now is that going to Tehran is going into the unknown.

Regarding Saturday's game, it's difficult to explain to people who've never been in those circumstances but it's like being so close to the winning line there's almost a haste in trying to get the job finished. They got 24 points from 10 games by playing a certain way but all of a sudden they had this massive prize within reach so they just wanted to get the job over and done with.

But if you look at all of Saturday's play-off results it was, arguably, the best result of them all. It's not about performance, it's just about results at this stage. You don't have to analyse how each player performed because you know exactly what they're capable of by now, all you do is say, "great, 2-0, we'll take it". Even if we lose 3-1 away from home we're through, 2-0 buys you the fact that you know on Thursday the Iranians will have to come out and go at us, because they're thinking, "we've got to score, we've got to score straight away" - we have to use that to our advantage.

I can't think of any team that has ever gone into a game like that and played absolutely brilliantly.

For my sins I also watched Ukraine versus Germany on Saturday and the Ukraine were SO nervous, you could see they were thinking "God we have a chance of beating these". Germany actually should have won, even though they're not a great side at present, but they seized the moment.

Yes, there were times Ireland left themselves open at the back when they were chasing the third goal but that just tells you that it's a team desperate for the prize and also it's one that was never really in that position before. I'm really not surprised that that happened, they just wanted to kill the tie off.

Shay Given saved us on a couple of occasions but if you look at our campaign, whenever any of our players were asked questions they've answered them - that's why we finished on 24 points, there has not been a weak link in the team.

We thought we would have a major, major problem in the centre of defence but when, early on in the group, Dunne and Staunton were asked questions they stood up to them. That's all about team spirit, players coming through when they're not expected to and that's why I look towards the second leg with plenty of confidence.

I wouldn't be too worried now about who's out and who's doubtful. These lads are 90 minutes away from playing in the World Cup, basically the biggest prize they can ever get in football - and you cannot understate that. Whoever plays on Thursday will be absolutely gung ho.

The best thing about this team is that they are very much together and that spirit can transcend any problem. Yes, Keane is out but the thing is he wasn't going to be fit anyway so a fully fit Mark Kinsella can do the job, I'm confident of that.

What we saw on Saturday was a Roy Keane operating on probably 60 to 70 per cent - with Kinsella, in the second leg, we'll get absolutely everything from him. He will want everyone to turn around on Thursday and say "we never missed Roy", he'll give it everything he has, no worries.

We always knew Iran would be very, very skilful but the great thing for us after Saturday is that it looks like we can score against them if we need to.

Their goalkeeper comes under the "he couldn't keep bees" category, so even if we're a goal down in the second leg there'll be a feeling that we can score from corners and free-kicks - a weak goalkeeper like that transmits that level of confidence to the players.

If we do score they need four and that's a massive task. Even on a really, really bad day you would not expect us to concede three goals without reply.

There are quite a few players who will be involved on Thursday who will have played in games, either at European or international level, where the away goals count so they will know how to handle it. The first half an hour will be the most difficult, but if we go without conceding we can then turn the 100,000 crowd against their own team.

There's no need for us to chase the game on Thursday. We've had our serve, we've won our game, now let's see what they can do - let's not give them any encouragement whatsoever and if we don't, I think we'll go through. We will, I'm certain.

In an interview with Mary Hannigan