O'Neill - Next Two Matches Are Vital

Having overcome the United States of America on a score-line of 4-1 at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night in a highly-entertaining friendly encounter, spirits were understandably high in the post-match press conference room.

Of course, Ireland boss Martin O' Neill was his usual cautious and softly spoken self when addressing the media and, while full of praise for his players after a job well done, he did his best to draw attention away from the emphatic score-line, deciding instead to look ahead to next year's immensely vital games against Poland and Scotland.

Up first in late March will be the Poles, who the Boys in Green have yet to face, and then they'll once more do battle with the Scots, with both matches set to be played at home, something that is giving people hope that the Green Army can still fight their way up into one of the qualifying spots.

“Qualifying games are the most important and everything else is a build up to it, even including tonight.” O' Neill said.

“We've scored four goals tonight and it was nice, and it was nice to regain momentum from Friday night. The most important fixtures, again, are the matches that we have in 2015. So those are important for us.” he added.

Reflecting back on their narrow 1-0 loss at Celtic Park against Scotland, it's clear he feels they should have gotten something out of the game, despite widespread criticism for their largely non-existent midfield, but he was keen to stress that the loss wasn't a disastrous one, and he fully believes all is still to play for in Group D.

“We've seven points on the board. Disappointing not to have got something from the game on Friday, but it is not fatal, we have matches regardless of the result on Friday.

“If we'd got a point out of the game we would've still been looking to beat Scotland and Poland – those next two matches are of vital importance to us.”

Clearly keen to keep his squad motivated on the task in hand, the former Celtic supremo isn't about to get carried away with the super performance his men turned in during the week against Jurgen Klinsmann's men.

Using last Friday's loss against Gordon Strachan's charges as fuel for his vision, the Ireland supremo made it clear that friendly competition for places is certainly a tactic that could help his side continue to excel in bigger matches.

“Well, we had the group of players to begin with and we were naturally hoping to get a result on Friday evening, but the players who hadn't played I think were really just desperate to play and so I made the changes to incorporate everyone that we had in the squad. And it worked out nicely for us, and players took them on. I thought their attitude was terrific.”