IT is always the next time. Ever since Holland were defeated in 2001, the familiar pattern to the chat from the players and the managers in the aftermath of disappointing draws and defeats, has been the same. "We will have to do it the next day," they say.
Yet they rarely deliver. Sure, against mediocre opposition, the Armenias, the Faroes, the Georgias, the Albanias, the San Marinos, the Welsh, the Macedonias, the Cypriots (okay, not them), Ireland have produced. But the ability to be a flat-track bully and a team who ekes out draws from winning positions is usually not enough to qualify.
The exception was in the Euro 2012 campaign, when Ireland emerged from an easy group with a combination of character-defining performances from the old guard - Robbie Keane, Shay Given, Damien Duff, Kevin Kilbane and particularly, Richard Dunne - and huge slices of luck.
Slovakia, inexplicably, fell apart - leaving Armenia as Ireland's chief rivals for a play-off spot. And after seeing off that unimpressive threat, the play-off draw for once was kind. Estonia, the same Estonia who had lost to Brian Kerr's Faroe Islands team in their group, were easily swept aside.
And so, not the first time, were the burning issues in Irish football as everyone headed off to Poland for a party before the team stank the place out - while back home the League of Ireland was left neglected, and another club (Monaghan United) folded.
Now here we are again, staring at a repeat of the scenario that unfolded in 1958, when Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England all qualified for that year's World Cup while Ireland stayed at home. Of course, things could change. There is always the next day, after all.
As it happens, the next day sees Ireland face Gibraltar. Three points there, chalk them up, thank you very much and then it's Georgia at home. Another win and Martin O'Neill's team will be on 15 points, probably ahead of the Scots, who face a tricky double-header against Georgia away and Germany in September.
And as we head towards the defining days of this campaign, and in all likelihood Martin O'Neill's reign, you can't help thinking that the results from Tbilisi and Hampden Park involving Scotland will have as significant an impact on Ireland's qualification hopes as our games.
"Realistically speaking, can you see a scenario where we beat Germany, then Poland away?" asked Steven Reid in his Irish Independent column last Monday. "We need favours. Lots of them."
They could arrive. While Gordon Strachan has mobilised the Scots into an effective unit, one that has played with greater conviction in this campaign than O'Neill's Ireland, they have suffered nightmares in Georgia before, losing 2-0 there at the tail end of a superb European championship qualification campaign in 2007, a campaign when they defeated France home and away, before they lost their way in the home straight.
That could yet happen again. It is not inconceivable for Georgia to produce one good performance - their average per campaign. Nor is it beyond the realms of possibility that Germany will win in Glasgow. After all, they did beat Brazil 7-1 in their backyard a year ago.
If that scenario unfolded, Ireland would head into the final pair of matches in October with a three point advantage over Scotland. All of a sudden Strachan would be feeling the heat from the moment Poland touched down in Glasgow, knowing a win was needed. And if they only collected a point - and Ireland somehow held the Germans to a draw - then the trip to Warsaw would appear a lot less intimidating for O'Neill than it does now.
Ifs, buts and maybes.
That is what we are left clinging to.
It wasn't meant to be like this under O'Neill. As a manager, he usually delivers, getting Wycombe into the Football League, getting Leicester to three Wembley Cup finals and a regular place in the Premier League's top-half, revitalising Celtic and overseeing a series of brilliant European nights at Celtic Park before he did a much better job at Aston Villa than he was ever given credit for.
Since then, his reputation has been dented. Sacked prematurely by Sunderland, he now has a couple of noisy pundits calling for his head in Ireland, even though he has only been in charge for six competitive matches, only one of which has ended in defeat.
He needs a win to save not just this campaign, but also his reputation and job. By October, Ireland have to produce a performance that has not been seen since Paris in 2009 and get a result as good as the victory over Holland in 2001.
Can it be done? You'd like to think so but history suggests otherwise. Too often we've been let down to the point where the trust has gone in this relationship. Realistically, if Ireland are to make it to the play-offs, we need big results by Georgia, Germany and Poland against Scotland combined with a couple more draws by O'Neill's men in October.
There has been nothing apparent in this campaign to suggest this will happen. Instead it has been a story of cheap goals going in at our end and far too few being scored at the other. Gibraltar aside, Ireland have averaged just one per game against Georgia, Germany, Poland and Scotland. They need more. Otherwise yet another campaign (and possibly another manager) will be written off.
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