Republic of Ireland frontman Jonathan Walters is focusing on the positives after Saturday night's disappointing 1-1 draw with Georgia in their World Cup qualifying Group D clash.
A below-par Ireland hung on for a point in Tbilisi after taking the lead in the fourth minute and regressing from that point on.
Starved of possession for long periods and reduced to playing a long-ball game, this was perhaps Ireland’s most lacklustre display of the campaign.
Nevertheless, Ireland still emerged with a point, remain unbeaten in the group and know that if they win their final three games, they will book their place in Russia as group winners.
For now Walters is keen to put the performance in Tbilisi behind him and is already looking ahead to Sebia’s visit to the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, a game which would send Ireland to the top of Group D if they win.
"If we win three games, we’re there," Walters told RTÉ Sport. "We’re still in with a shout, we’ve got Serbia at home, Moldova and Wales so if we win three games we’re still there.
"It’s a disappointing point with the chances we had although we didn’t dominate the possession and sat back. It’s a difficult place to come, we all knew that and they’re a very good team.
"We probably let them have it at bit too much but I think with the chances we had we should have come out with three [points] but we didn’t."
"Let’s take it on a positive note, we’ve got three games to go and if we win on Tuesday, we’re top.
Walters paid tribute to Georgia, who have made life difficult for other teams in the group but was at pains to point out that Ireland’s qualifying fate remains in their own hands.
"If you look at how they [Georgia] played against Austria, Wales and Serbia, they were three excellent teams."
"We said before the game it was going to be tough and we said before the campaign there were going to be ups and downs. We’re still unbeaten, we had a disappointing result today but it’s still in our hands.
"If we beat Serbia at home it will all be forgotten about and we’ll be top of the group, it’s a huge game come Tuesday."
