Never a nuisance when you win

Players' quotes: An inconvenience? A nuisance? A pointless exercise? An irritating botheration at a crucial stage of the cross-sea season? Well, that's how the game against Norway might have been viewed by the managers of most of the players who made an appearance at Lansdowne Road last night(and the ones who couldn't make it), but for Shay Given it was a proudly significant evening, one that saw him reach his half-century in senior international caps.

"When I left Donegal 10 years ago, if you told me I'd go on to win 50 caps for Ireland I'd have said you were drinking too much of the black stuff. Obviously delighted and very proud. My Dad was here, so it was a proud night for him as well. It's a big thing and nobody can ever take it away from me. Thrilled."

A quiet night? "Yeah, very little to do. I didn't think they were all that great - and you had to be six foot four to play for them. I thought they'd be better than that, but maybe they just didn't get into their stride tonight, or maybe it was credit to us, we didn't let them play too much."

His verdict on his replacement Nick Colgan's performance?

"He played really well, I was happy for him. He made a good save and took a couple of crosses, looked very composed."

Speaking of the Hibernian goalkeeper, who won his third cap last night. "Half an hour was nice, it'd be nice to get a half and maybe even a start soon," said Colgan. "But with everything that's gone on and it being Brian's first game at Lansdowne, naturally he wanted to get off to a good start at home so he played Shay, which was right. And of course Shay was up for his 50th cap, so I understood. I was just happy to get in and do my little bit to help the team win."

Now that Dean Kiely has retired from international football, Colgan is hoping to at least fill the "second choice" slot in the squad, even if, as he's aware, some have expressed doubts that he's up to the task.

"Brian just told me to go out and do my best, which is basically all I'm trying to do. I read a comment in the press this week by someone who said that they'd be happy enough for me to be third choice but would worry if I got in to the position of number one - I'm not worried at all, to be honest.

"As far as I'm concerned I've been having a decent season, but I'm basically playing for my future now because things aren't too good at Hibs financially - we've been told if we can find new clubs that would great. So that's how things stand."

Man of the match Damien Duff, too, had cause to be pleased with his evening.

"It was a good, solid performance. You always think you can play better, but it was hard enough tonight. Norway sat back in the first half and it was tough to break them down, but we did enough."

How about his new "free" role? "I enjoyed it. It got a little congested in midfield so it was hard to find space, but I think it worked quite well. God knows what we'll do in June, we'll see".

Back to the club duty, then. Assorted challenges in the weeks ahead for the players drifting out of the Lansdowne tunnel last night. Relegation scraps to occupy the minds of Gary Breen, Steve Finnan, Ian Harte. European-chasing battles to be won by Shay Given, Stephen Carr, Robbie Keane, Lee Carsley and Damien Duff. And, perhaps, new clubs to be sought by others - Matt Holland, Kevin Kilbane, Colin Healy, Stephen McPhail, Alan Quinn, to name but five.

Come those five days in June, though, Brian Kerr will expect their minds to be back on the international job. Six points to be taken from Albania and Georgia. There'll be nothing pointless about those games, he'll hope.