Friday night's 4-0 rout of nine-man Estonia in Tallinn left Giovanni Trapattoni's men on the brink of play-off victory, with just 90 minutes at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night standing between them and a trip to Poland and Ukraine next summer. While Ireland headed for the former Soviet Republic with high hopes of returning with a foothold in the tie, Fulham defender Kelly admitted they could hardly have asked for anything more than they got. He said: "You couldn't have wished for something as good as that. "To come away with a 4-0 win away from home is just mind-blowing. It hasn't even really sunk in for all of us. We were coming off the pitch saying, 'Was that a dream?'. "It was an all-round good performance - and it was nice for once to get the decisions we deserved to get. "All the decisions the ref had to make, he got them spot-on and for us, it was so good. "To come away with a 4-0 win going into the second leg is just amazing. It really is a fantastic feeling." Those decisions equated to a rash of yellow cards which will deprive Estonia boss Tarmo Ruutli of goalkeeper Sergei Pareiko and central defensive pairing Andrei Stepanov and Raio Piiroja in Dublin. More significantly, however, four of them meant that neither Stepanov or Piiroja finished last night's game, and with Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai also awarding a late penalty - converted by Robbie Keane - for Ats Purje's trip on Stephen Hunt, the home side felt more than a little aggrieved. However, they received little sympathy from a ruthless Ireland side, who exploited their deficiencies to the full as goals from Keith Andrews, Jon Walters and Keane's double secured a seemingly impregnable first-leg lead. Full-back Stephen Ward said: "So many times, it is so close and nervy, but this time we got four goals which, coming away from home, it's not very often you do, so everyone is delighted. "But we will do things right on Tuesday and be professional about our business. "But it's no more than we deserve after coming through a tough group. "With the draw, it was never going to be easy, but we came out here and we have done exactly what we came to do, and we will have to do the same job on Tuesday night."
