Jonathan Walters insists it is a case of job done after the Republic of Ireland took maximum points from their two World Cup qualifier games against Georgia and Moldova.
While Ireland rode their luck against Georgia at the Aviva Stadium last week, a much-improved performance last night saw Martin O’Neill’s side defeat Moldova 3-1 away thanks to goals from Shane Long and a double from James McClean.
Two wins in a week, coupled with negative results for Wales and Austria yesterday, sees Ireland level on points with Serbia at the top of the Group D standings.
And Walters said the results were all the mattered after the team took criticism for their performance at home to Georgia last Thursday.
“Sometimes games like this, I compare them to cup games against a lower league team, and sometimes you can take it a little bit easy and take your mind off it a little bit"
He said: “We knew the Wales result before the game, and as we reiterated the other night, these games aren’t easy and there’ll be twists and turns in the group.
“Our sole focus was getting six points this week - it doesn’t matter how we got them, we got them so we’re sitting nicely in the group now with a huge game coming next month.”
And while the Wales result gave Ireland the opportunity to move up in the Group D standings, Walters isn’t looking too far ahead with plenty of margin for error yet in what is turning out to be a very competitive group.
“I’m sure there’ll be more twists and turns yet to come. There’s some very good teams in the group and the likes of Georgia and Moldova aren’t easy games.
“Although on paper they will be easy, they have some good players, they have a game plan and they’ll stick to it and teams in our group will find that out.”
Along with the Wales draw, Serbia’s victory over Austria, who Ireland play next month, could be a result that proves beneficial to Ireland by the end of the campaign, but Walters insists the Ireland players are focused on their own performance.
The Stoke man continued: “We can only look after our results and see how the others get on, but we have got to play them all again and we’ve got a huge game again next month so hopefully we can get the result we need and stay where we are in the group.”
While Ireland started brightly, there was a lull after Shane Long’s early strike and Walters compared the match to a cup game against inferior opposition as Ireland failed to trouble the Moldovan keeper again during the first half.
He explained: “Sometimes games like this, I compare them to cup games against a lower league team, and sometimes you can take it a little bit easy and take your mind off it a little bit.
“I mean you see cup upsets all the time back in England, so you’ve got to be fully focused and we came out in the second half excellent and what matters is the result at the end of the day and we got it.”
Ireland next play Austria at the Ernst Happel Stadion on 12 November, with their next action after that not until March, with a home clash against Wales.
