James Collins won’t forget his competitive debut in a hurry, even if the collective performance was instantly forgettable.
But the bruising Luton Town striker isn’t sure yet if he has done enough to merit a second start in Geneva tomorrow.
Collins, 28, scored off the bench on his Ireland debut against Bulgaria last month and Mick McCarthy is a fan of his industry.
In David McGoldrick’s absence, he trusted the English-born hitman to lead the line in Tbilisi.
And while Collins never got a sniff on goal and spent more time unsettling defenders off the ball than on it, he was happy with how it went.
Collins said: “It was a massive honour for me. I knew about it on Thursday and it’s probably the biggest moment of my career, definitely.
“The gaffer has shown faith in me and I know I owe him a lot but I really enjoyed my (competitive) debut on Saturday.
“We knew that Georgia are good with the ball and that they were going to keep it for periods of time.
“I didn’t manage to get a chance but, listen, playing out there on your own as a striker, you have to work for the team.
“And I was always going to do that because I didn’t want to let anyone down.”
Sheffield United striker McGoldrick won’t be involved tomorrow either as he has failed to recover from the groin injury that was dogging him the last three weeks.
McCarthy is tempted to start Brighton starlet Aaron Connolly after the teen’s exciting cameo off the bench in the Georgian capital.
But it remains to be seen if that would be as a lone striker or playing alongside Collins, although Sean Maguire and Scott Hogan are also in the mix.
Collins admits the step up to international football is a considerable one from the week-to-week grind of the Championship.
“It’s the quality of players you’re playing against and the quality of players you’re playing with,” he continued.
“It’s a massive stage but it’s what I’ve always wanted. It’s what I play football for, to play at the highest level I can and I really enjoyed it.”
But the objective for Ireland is clear now, with a win over Switzerland or Denmark enough to qualify automatically.
And Collins added: “You can’t qualify for the Euros by drawing games and we want to keep getting points and we know that the next three points will be massive.”
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