So, the dust has settled and Ireland are forced to contemplate a cruel but not entirely hopeless conclusion to a most trying qualifying group. All reflections on Saturday night's drama in Skopje must be tempered by the fact that we are still alive; that when we were originally drawn in this group, we would have been more than happy to have finished second.

That alone has been a significant achievement by Mick McCarthy's team and I think that they will begin to look at it in that light over the coming weeks.

But for now, those players will understandably feel flat, totally sucker-punched. Once they slumped down in that dressingroom on Saturday night, they can only have felt like they'd blown it, that they had lost their chance and made a mess of the game.

On balance, I don't see it like that. Sure, the timing of the goal was almost mockingly cruel - Zagreb revisited - but let's be brutally honest, it could have been worse. Alan Kelly, after all, had a very busy second half and even though we probably should have won the game, the Macedonians were value for their draw.

Our problem was that having established ourselves so well early on, we couldn't clinch the second score which would have completely taken the fizz out of this game, allowing us to gently secure the win. But protecting a one-goal lead, even against ordinary opposition, is a perilous business and one lapse - as the Irish lads again found out - can alter things irrevocably.

And dismayed as everyone is now, what if the Croatians had stolen a late winner over in Zagreb? Had that happened, Mick McCarthy could justifiably have claimed that the world was against him.

I don't think it is fair to attribute blame to any of the players for Saturday night. The bottom line is that things like that happen in football. It was a resoundingly brave performance and we were burnt for one mistake. Simple as that.

The back four were solid, the midfield I felt coped fairly well and Mark Kennedy was a revelation; all the promise and flair we have glimpsed in recent years was underlined last night by a new-found consistency which I sometimes despaired of him ever finding. That he has done is great news for Ireland.

Niall Quinn was in vintage form up front - opportunistic for the goal and he showed for the ball well. Maybe the substitutes sent out the wrong signals to the Macedonians but at the same time, McCarthy needed a few changes. It just didn't come off.

It was a difficult situation in a new climate for a very young team. In players like Stanic, Hristov and Stovjanovski and Stavreski (a name we won't forget), the Macedonians had technically very adept players who all had a tireless appetite for this particular match. We probably caught them at a bad time, when they were out to impress a new manager.

So, now we have to ready ourselves for one last almighty push. Looking at the campaign as a whole, McCarthy finds himself with several players who have considerably enhanced their reputations at international level.

Lee Carsley is here to stay. The rebirth of Gary Kelly has been significant and Alan Kelly has again underlined his professionalism with some remarkable goalkeeping displays. Also, Gary Breen - and I acknowledge that I have been among his most trenchant critics - has suggested that he has the ability to concentrate and stay focused at this level.

Mick McCarthy's style and image is stamped all over this squad now and regardless of his immediate disappointment, he should feel fairly satisfied. He is entitled to point out that thus far, he hasn't had the rub of the green which helped float the Charlton era - the Gary Mackay goal in Sofia, England's singular inability to score in the European Championship game.

But there is also another crucial difference between Irish soccer now and during Charlton's time. Mick does not have the sort of ruthless characters available to him as were around in Jack's time.

Guys like Kevin Moran, Paul McGrath, McCarthy himself, Andy Townsend. Had those guys been in a situation similar to that in Macedonia on Saturday evening, there would have been no equaliser.

They would have shut up shop, strangled the game. This current Irish squad have not yet developed that mental hardness.

And that is not to criticise, simply to observe that they are still on a learning curve and as with Zagreb, their misery in Skopje will stand to them. It is easy to savour the highs of success, easy to enjoy the wave of goodwill that accompanies qualification to a major tournament. But you have to experience the dispiriting side of the game also, feel the pain. The players will come back stronger for this - even on their next outing in the play-offs.

But my gut feeling is that, sadly, our best chances of qualification have passed now. There are few easy touches in the runners-up slot. Most of our opponents - England, Portugal, the Danes, Scotland - are on a different plane of development to us right now and I think that secretly, most of them would not be displeased if they were drawn against Ireland.

It's not an impossible task - a series against Israel or Cyprus would be a welcome return for the wretched luck we've had recently - and if we have a fully fit squad, Roy Keane, included, well, who knows?

But, justly or not, we may well miss out on the party. For now.

In an interview with Keith Duggan