Evan Ferguson's fourth goal in five competitive internationals kept the Republic of Ireland's World Cup dream alive as they edged past 10-man Armenia to claim their first Group F victory.
Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson had admitted in advance that he would accept a "s****y" performance and a 1-0 win on a night when victory was the only option, and Ireland eventually delivered - if only just - as they made the most of Tigran Barseghyan's senseless second-half dismissal for a headbutt on Finn Azaz.
Twenty-year-old Ferguson, who had passed up a glorious opportunity to open the scoring seconds earlier, dispatched a 70th-minute header to seal a 1-0 win at the Aviva Stadium and ensure already-qualified leaders Portugal's visit to Dublin next month and the trip to Hungary, which follows it, are meaningful, if daunting.
Ireland now sit one point behind second-place Hungary, who they face on November 16, following the crucial win in front of their home crowd. The fixture against Portugal will be played at home on November 13.
On whether the result against Armenia changes the state of play in Group F after Hungary rescued a late draw against Portugal to prevent Ireland moving level on points, Hallgrimsson said: "Not really, it doesn't change anything. We always knew that we needed to go to Hungary and have a win there.
"This looks like we need a point against Portugal, or Armenia to do us a favour in Yerevan. We all see that this Armenian team is no roll-over. There's a big heart, there's aggression and a spirit that is noticeable."
They will need to be markedly better in both games than they were against a side ranked 103rd by FIFA if they are to stand any chance of claiming the runners-up spot after a performance that, for long periods, lacked the inspiration necessary to make life much easier than it ultimately was.
Hallgrimsson: We just needed three points to stay alive
Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson:
"Listen, we said before this camp we would take a scrappy 1-0 win and it probably was kind of a scrappy 1-0 win, so we can't be unhappy.
"We've been complaining about the second game syndrome - we must be happy that we won the second game; we've been complaining about conceding early - we didn't concede early, we didn't concede at all, so we kept a clean sheet, that's a good step.
"We'll take the positives and carry on to the next window. It's just a new dawn, it's a new day next window - this result today doesn't matter at all.
"We just needed the three points to be alive and have a chance, that's number one, so we cannot be reading too much into that performance today.
"It was always going to be a tough match for us - we needed to win - and again it's going to be tough, just a different opponent, players playing higher quality next time."
