THE TIGHTROPE THAT is this opening double header to World Cup qualifying continues for the Republic of Ireland in Armenia tonight.

After 15 minutes against Hungary on Saturday the Boys in Green were clinging on with their fingertips, some dreadful missteps gifting the visitors a two-goal lead.

Ireland were dangling above the abyss before Evan Ferguson’s strike, followed by Roland Sallai’s red card and Adam Idah’s equaliser in the 93rd. Just like that they performed a kind of trapeze act, swinging around to somewhat stable footing.

But for how long?

Heimir Hallgrímsson already spoke at his pre-match press conference in Yerevan yesterday about the importance of not making it nine games out of 10 that his side concede the first goal (kick-off 5pm Irish time) in competitive action.

“Obviously, they will have more power in the beginning, I would guess, with an extra day to recover”, the manager said, referencing the fact the hosts were trounced 5-0 by Portugal in front of their own fans on Saturday.

“We just need to be ready for that. Now we’ve conceded early goals in three games of late, and they probably fancy their chances in the beginning, so we need to be ready from kick-off.”

On reflection, the reaction from the crowd at Aviva Stadium at the weekend told its own story.

Yes, there was audible frustration throughout the first half. However, unlike scores of Linfield fans that streamed for the exits at Windsor Park when Shelbourne scored early on in last month’s Uefa Conference League play-off, there was no mass exodus when the Hungarians made it 2-0.

At half-time, there was a smattering of boos, but it was muted and it did feel as the first 45 minutes wore on there was more grumbling about the time wasting of the away side and a referee eager to blow his whistle at the slightest of contacts (he changed his tune in the build up to Ferguson’s goal, at least).

The nature of how the goals were conceded and the cat-in-headlights performance until half time might have caused a more visceral and public reaction among certain support bases. The throwing one’s season ticket in the general direction of the manager or bench springs to mind.

If it was Real Madrid then the white hankies would have been out.

Ireland players train yesterday. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

For a while around League of Ireland grounds there would be familiar anti-FAI chants at the first hint of a decision not going your way.

Maybe if a third or fourth – and Hungary did have good chances to add to their tally – went in then the loyalty and patience of the 50,137 fans who ensured Lansdowne Road was a sell-out might have been more severely tested.

There are marketing reasons for that turnout – the bundling of tickets as part of a package with the lure of Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo to come in November being a major factor – but it still speaks volumes about the desire for this team to succeed.

Compare some of the figures to those other games around Europe for qualifiers last week. Only Poland attracted a larger crowd when 50,897 saw them beat Finland 3-1 on Sunday night.

That same evening there were 43,169 in Cologne’s 50,000 capacity stadium as Germany came from behind to break Northern Ireland’s hearts.

Belgium, with double the population of Ireland, managed a paltry crowd of just 15,119 for a comfortable win over Kazakhstan. A little over 22,000 saw Italy cruise past Estonia, 5-0, while 16,300 were there for Austria’s win over Cyprus.

More people watched Ireland than the Netherlands (40,904), Switzerland (33,996) and Denmark (35,369), and they cannot be accused of jumping on any bandwagon when they arrived desperate to see Ireland simply jumpstart a campaign.

Even Greece, rejuvenated and looking formidable, could only entice 14,936 to a ground that holds over 33,000 last Friday, although just over double that turned out to see them lose 3-0 at home to Denmark last night. Georgia, another country on the rise, had back-to-back attendances of just over 44,000 for home games on Thursday and Sunday.

England could not sell out Villa Park with just over 39,000 there for a 2-0 win over Andorra that was effectively attack versus defence. That’s how the second half turned out for Ireland on Saturday, and Hallgrímsson said you can look at the overall performance in one of two ways. “Is the glass half-full or is the glass half-empty?”

Ask all of those that packed out the Aviva on Saturday and you would probably get a 50/50 split, and for the 680 travelling to Yerevan this evening the balance might be just slightly tipped towards half full.

As ever, though, it’s a delicate balancing act.