Glenn Whelan believes the Republic of Ireland Under-21s are set on reaching the finals of the European Championships for the first time but warned that tough challenges lie ahead.
The Irish have moved into pole position in their mini-group thanks to last night's 2-0 win over Greece in Athens.
A victory against the group's top seeds, Belgium, at Galway's Terryland Park on 1 September will be good enough to send Don Givens' side through to a play-off for a place in next year's finals.
Whelan scored the second goal for the Irish against the Greeks and the Sheffield Wednesday midfielder is eager to keep playing at this level for as long as possible.
He said: 'We came with a game plan and it worked. It was good to get an early goal because it set us right up. We've some decent players and we're all trying to get to these championships because it's the last year for me and one or two others at Under-21 level.
'I think we can only be true to ourselves and give it our best for Don and all the staff because this is the closest they've got to qualifying in a long time.'
He added: 'Paul Clement has come in as coach to the team and he's had a great influence on setting out how we were going to play. You could see that our keeper only had one shot to save.
'We played three in the middle with Paul Keegan behind me and it let myself and Kevin Deery get forward quickly.
'It was a good performance but we're not there yet. No Under-21 game will be easy for us at this stage. We're in the driving seat but we have to go to the home game now and produce another performance like this.'
Whelan's club situation is unusual in that he was placed on the transfer list at Hillsborough during the summer but has worked his way back into Paul Sturrock's starting line-up.
He said: 'The manager brought in a few midfielders and didn't think I'd want to stick around but I don't mind the competition.
'I've put in a good pre-season and started the three games we've played so far. As long as I play and improve I'm happy enough.
'We had a chat after the second game and he's doing his best for me and I'm doing my best for him so we're going to keep it going. We'll just see what happens.'
