Mick McCarthy would love Ireland to win with style against group minnows Gibraltar tonight.
But he will settle for another scruffy 1-0 if it leaves his table toppers sitting pretty at the halfway stage on this campaign.
In March, Jeff Hendrick’s second-half goal was all that separated the sides at Victoria Stadium.
McCarthy said yesterday: “If it ends in a scrappy 1-0 win, off somebody’s backside, I’m not bothered because I’ll take the win.
“It would cause me stress if it’s only 1-0 in the last minute but so long as we win. That’s me being professional, since when I have been romantic about it?
Ireland also beat Georgia 1-0 in March and scored one goal again in Friday’s drawn encounter with Denmark.
McCarthy added: “I want to win the game. I don’t get this about how ‘we have to be’ expansive. We tried that.
“We were expansive against Georgia and had lots of chances. We scored one, but we won the game.
“We weren’t allowed be expansive in Gibraltar but we scored one and won the game. I thought we played well in Denmark and one goal gets us the draw.
“I’d like a lot better performance than in Gibraltar. It would be lovely walking off with a good result, everyone happy and the squad has a few goals.
“But we’re playing a team who are coming here desperate to stop us doing that and we have to try and break them down.
“So as long as we win I’m not bothered. The more games we win, we qualify and I want 10 points.”
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