Meyler on a high with play-off spot

“We were very good for the 90 minutes and we were worth the win.

“It comes down to wanting to work for your team-mate; wanting to run for your pal.

“Everybody did that to a tee, we got the victory and that’s we deserved it.

“We worked on it. The manager was clear. He spoke to the majority of us individually and then he spoke to the midfielders, I imagine he spoke to the full backs . . . he told us what he wanted to do. And we executed it.”

On his costly yellow card, following a collision with Welsh keeper Wayne Hennessey, 28-yearold Corkman Meyler(pictured) said: “Probably it was a rush of blood on my part.

“I sort of smelled the way it was going and felt that Jeff [Hendrick] was going to flick the ball that way and so I took off.

“It probably wasn’t the quickest of races, I’d say, but if I’d got there a second or two earlier I might have scored my first Ireland goal.

“I felt I won the ball, but if you’d said to me beforehand ‘take a yellow card to captain your country in a World Cup qualifier to beat Wales in Wales,’ I’d have bitten your hand off so . . . sometimes there has to be a sacrifice.”

Bournemouth’s Harry Arter is dreaming of a trip to Russia for the finals.

He said: “They’re dreams that you have as a young kid, to play in a World Cup, so of course it would be something that I’d be excited about.”