Questioning players about Ireland's hopes of a World Cup qualification revival seems facile at this stage.
That ship probably sailed after the home loss to Luxembourg, but certainly did with Ronaldo's late goals in Faro last week.
When asked to check Ireland's World Cup pulse, however, the players reply with the only answer they can - that they will fight to the end.
"Looking at the group, we have to win the Serbia game and our focus is on winning the game," said Josh Cullen.
"We’re confident we can do that with the group we have. But the responsibility lies with us as players to deliver.
"It’s easy to talk and say we can do this and we can do that, it comes down us to delivering on the pitch and we have to take that responsibility as a team, and as players, yeah Tuesday night, we’ll be doing everything we can to get three points.
"It’s never over until it’s over. All we can do is try and win every game, control the controllables and the games that are in our hands.
"Our full focus now is on getting three points on Tuesday night and that’s all that matters from now until then.
"We have to take each game as it comes from now until then and win every game from now until the end of the campaign. It’s as simple as that.
"There’s going to be mistakes and misplaced passes, all we can do is keep trying to do the right things, work hard to improve our quality and work hard in the final third to make sure we take our chances."
