Martin O'Neill hailed Seamus Coleman's "captain's goal" after the right-back proved to be the match-winner for Republic of Ireland in a narrow 1-0 win over Georgia on Thursday.
The Irish skipper bundled home his first international goal to secure a vital victory for O'Neill's side, moving them onto four points in 2018 World Cup qualification Group D.
Georgia were the better side in the first half, twice hitting the woodwork, and O'Neill said he expected stiff opposition, admitting his side were second best before Coleman's intervention.
"I watched their [Georgia] game against Austria and they could have scored before Austria scored a goal," O'Neill told Sky Sports. "Perhaps if they had a natural goalscorer in their side they could cause teams lots of problems.
"We have played them three times now in around a year-and-a-half and we have found all three matches difficult.
"They had the better of the first half by miles and we came into it better in the second half.
"We pressed them better and we gained some second balls, which we didn't get in the first half, and Seamus Coleman comes up with a wonder run and goal that befits the captain of the side."
Levan Mchedlidze and Guram Kashi hit the crossbar and post respectively for the visitors, who controlled the first half at the Aviva Stadium.
Republic of Ireland improved after the break and held on to clinch their first Group D win in their bid to secure qualification for the World Cup in two years time, leaving O'Neill to pay tribute to his players' character.
"The important thing about the players is they have, certainly since I have come to the team, a great desire to do well," the manager said.
"When it's not going so well, obviously you need to re-energise and we needed a spark again in the second half to get ourselves going.
"The players got themselves going in the second half. Obviously I'm delighted with the three points [but] we can play much better than that."
Goalscorer Coleman added: "In the first half we weren't good enough and we were lucky to go in 0-0 at half-time.
"It's all about three points but we know the performance wasn't good enough, but we're happy to come out of it with three points.
"The manager just gave us a rollicking and said 'nowhere near good enough'.
"We came out second half, played slightly better, scored the goal, defended better. I thought man of the match was our keeper [Darren Randolph]. Shane Duffy was immense."
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