Promotion to UEFA Nations League A has been secured with two games to spare, but there's no room for sentiment in the Republic of Ireland camp.
An ugly win over Albania - thanks to Denise O'Sullivan's 89th-minute strike - got the Girls in Green out of a rain-soaked Schkoder with the three points that wrapped up the group, their lead officially unassailable after Northern Ireland drew with Hungary later in the evening.
That's four victories out of four for interim boss Eileen Gleeson, who has shown a real commitment to giving younger players more opportunities.
Abbie Larkin, Izzy Atkinson and Erin McLaughlin have been the beneficiaries of that approach. But there's been casualties too.
Amber Barrett, Claire O'Riordan and Megan Campbell failed to make the matchday 23 last night. On Friday, for the home game against the Albanians, Lucy Quinn missed out.
Competition is fierce, and some seasoned players are missing out.
"What they need to do is just between me and them," Gleeson said.
"We have lots of competition now, football decisions will stay in between the squad and we have them chats between ourselves. Like I said, it's all football decisions."
Gleeson won't be in charge by the time Ireland begin their Euro 2025 qualifiers in 2025, but she's determined to leave the squad in rude health.
The FAI are still working on finding a permanent replacement for Vera Pauw, with a decision expected to be made by December. Whoever comes in will inherit a deep panel with a great opportunity to make it to another major tournament.
Denise O'Sullivan has broken the deadlock for Ireland in their Women's Nations League clash in Albania and Eileen Gleeson's side are on course to maintain their 100% record #COYGIG #ALBIRL #IRLWNT
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"The team has been really developing over the last two years, has become difficult to beat, is now wanting to add different facets to the their game and they've shown they're capable," added Gleeson.
"Yeah, we need to be tested by different opposition but there is real potential here to drive forward and continue on the journey that the team has been on.
"We've got some good young players coming through, we've got players that are out injured that will most likely make a return at some point. There's starting to be real competition in the team and players with different attributes that can allow us to have a little bit of flexibility in the way we play as well."
Gleeson has steadied the ship impressively since taking the job temporarily in the wake of Pauw's departure. Thirteen goals scored and just one conceded makes for impressive reading, but the big question mark over this team is whether they can play more expansively against better teams.
"The narrative around this group has been about how weak the opposition are but you still have to come out and do your job and as you’ve seen tonight, anything can happen," Gleeson argued.
"Football is wild, you can be the top favourite and playing a lower-ranked team and still lose so there was high risk in this game with the conditions, the performance wasn’t what we wanted it to be but we showed real resilience and it took grit to come back out and be ready again and go for the second half. I’m super-proud of them, we got the three points."
The conditions were indeed appalling. The game was suspended after half-time as ground staff attempted to sweep large pools of water of the pitch. It took them over 90 minutes, but they managed to improve the surface sufficiently for the match to resume.
"The first half was absolute chaos," Gleeson reflected. "The players were absolutely soaked, you literally couldn't walk on the pitch, never mind try and play football.
"You couldn’t pass the ball, couldn’t dribble. If you tried to dribble, it was left behind. So it is a huge testament to the girls to come out and perform after that long break. We didn’t know until ten past eight what was happening and the game was going to kick off at twenty past eight so you don’t even have an opportunity of an extended warm-up and then you are waiting.
"Performance overall, we are not going to dress that up and say it was great but what they did show was adaptability and grit and they played right to the end and came away with three points so I will give real credit to the girls to be able to do that after the first half, after a long break, and to come back out and show that after a long period of time."
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