IT WAS A TENSE and end-to-end affair, but the Republic of Ireland have come away from their first European Championship qualifier with all three points after a Keith Fahey goal gave the Boys in Green a 1-0 win against a plucky Armenian side.

Though the opposition were largely dismissed as ‘minnows’ ahead of the game, the home team played with admirable pluck, and had Ireland on the rack for massive parts of the second half.

Substitute Fahey, however, was on hand to make the best of Ireland’s more infrequent forays towards the Armenian goal, and was able to place the ball in the bottom left corner after a Robbie Keane chance was toe-poked into the path of Kevin Doyle, who was unable to connect with the ball. The goal was Fahey’s first for his country.

The result, though far from emphatic, does not befit the measure of Ireland’s performance; the visitors were undoubtedly the better side of the two, and showed – in a performance that even RTÉ’s Eamon Dunphy was forced to acknowledge – genuine threat from set-pieces.

Ireland will now go into Tuesday night’s home international against Andorra – the first competitive match at the Aviva Stadium – knowing that a victory will have put the country firmly on the path towards qualification for Euro 2012.

Ireland have not qualified for a European Championships since 1988.