“He (Doherty) is a good footballer for Wolves. It’s a different way. Maybe there is more room on the pitch when Wolves have got it. They’re more expansive, they’ve been doing it for two years, they’ve been brilliant. I’m not going to knock Doc’s performance. He had a little bit of joy in the first half, him and Seamus (Coleman) doubling up. Other than that it didn’t work, so there was a substitution. I’m not saying he played badly – he didn’t do anything wrong in the game – I was just looking for a few more crosses, I guess.

“But I’m not dismissing doing it again. Did it work? It wasn’t a rip-roaring success in terms of how much we’ve got out of it. I’m not giving the Doc any grief. I chose to play him there and he did what was asked of him. But we didn’t get that much from anybody else, to be quite honest. And I have to say I put that down to them as well.”

McCarthy did single out three players for praise, however. “The two midfielders, I thought, played very well — one (Jeff Hendrick) scored a goal and Conor (Hourihane) I thought was excellent. He’s a good footballer, Conor. I always admired him. When he was at Barnsley I was looking to sign him but I’d no chance. I think he’s got a lot to offer. His free kicks and corners were terrific. He’s got good delivery, he’s a good player.

“And David McGoldrick I thought was very, very good. And I know all the others scrapped away like I expected.”

Unfortunately, it was also a case of scrapping, rather than scoring, for Sean Maguire, who is still looking for his first goal for Ireland.

“He didn’t really get any chances,” the manager pointed out. “You really need balls put to the side of him. I thought they marked him well. It’s not easy trying to control it — it was a tough night for him.”

As it was for Mick McCarthy on his return to the international fray.

“I hated it because — I love being there, I take immense pride in being there — but I just hated the game because I knew what it was going to be like. It was blowing a gale, it was bouncing all over the place, it’s tough. And I just knew what it was going to be like. I could see what was coming. It’s not enjoyable playing against a team that has got nothing to lose and everything to gain, and everybody is watching and thinking we should be beating them by a number of goals — it’s bloody horrible.

“It was set up for us to come away with nothing or a point just because of all the circumstances. It was my first game back; we’d only been in together (for a short time). Everybody has wanted to talk about the past. But the lads have been brilliant this week, they really have. So I’m happy. We’ve got three points.”

And he added that he hopes Gibraltar will make the other sides in the group sweat just as much to get a result in the Victoria Stadium.

“If the conditions are like that nobody is going to find it easy against them, also bearing in mind we’ve only had five days together. It’s not a great deal of preparation time to get them all passing and moving and playing through them. But they are a handful to play against, certainly on that pitch and in those conditions. It levels it up somewhat.”

But now McCarthy’s focus is firmly on the visit of Georgia who lost their opening match 2-0 to Switzerland in Tbilisi.

“I was watching their game,” said McCarthy: “Switzerland went and pressed them and pressed them well and they didn’t have as much possession and couldn’t get up the pitch.

“Switzerland are a good team. They are one of the best teams in Europe — they have been over the last couple of years, I think, with the results they’ve had. So it’s no surprise they’ve gone there and won.”

As for the Georgians? “They’ll be busting a gut wanting to come and play us and try and get something off us.”