It was ugly to watch at times yet the Republic of Ireland, thanks to the game’s solitary slice of beauty, claimed not just their first competitive away win against a team seeded higher than them since 1967 but, more importantly, three invaluable points that leave Martin O’Neill’s team excellently positioned to reach a first World Cup since 2002.

James McClean, who had come into the game nursing a back problem, scored the only goal early in the second half, finishing off a splendid counterattack to inflict more woe on a desperately poor Austria. Wales and Serbia will both have plenty to say about which nation qualifies automatically for Russia but finishing 2016 with 10 points from the 12 available has left O’Neill’s team full of belief.

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Wales travel to Dublin when the action resumes on 24 March and despite Chris Coleman’s team being the group’s first seeds, on the evidence thus far Ireland may well be favourites for that Celtic collision.

O’Neill, forever coy, was not going to get carried away by this battling win, though.

“Austria will be disappointed because they’ve dropped three points but something tells me they still have a chance and while we’ve always believed this group would be tight I think teams will still take points off each other,” he said. “I’m genuinely pleased we won the game and have 10 points on the board but there’s still a long way to go.”

Losing here may not have been fatal for Austria but they have plenty of ground to eat up and Marcel Koller had a pained expression on his face at the end of his side’s fifth defeat in seven. A team that was predicted by some to do serious damage at the European Championship now looks devoid of self-belief and will need the three teams above them to trip over each other to progress.

“We know it’ll be difficult but we will do everything we can to be successful,” Koller said. “Ireland played compact and ran a lot, so it was difficult for us.”

They had started promisingly – Marko Arnautovic forced a corner in the first minute, while Marc Janko was denied by Darren Randolph after spinning Shane Duffy – but anxiety soon pervaded their play and Ireland effectively stymied them. David Alaba, in particular, looked too eager to force things and was uncharacteristically wasteful with possession through a mostly dire opening half. “We lost a lot of balls in midfield,” Koller said. “And we were not calm enough during the game to score goals.”

The game did spring into life towards the break. Séamus Coleman brilliantly blocked Arnautovic’s shot from about eight yards and Marcel Sabitzer struck the bar having chipped Randolph from a tight area. At the opposite end Robbie Brady’s cross from the left was perfect for Jonathan Walters but the Stoke forward could not connect cleanly, shooting over the bar from about six yards.

O’Neill said that miss “could have left us deflated” but if anything Ireland were buoyed and three minutes after the resumption the game’s only real piece of quality put the visitors in front. David Meyler, introduced midway through the opening half for the injured Glenn Whelan, stole possession deep on the right and galloped forward before cleverly picking out Wes Hoolahan near halfway. His threaded pass was perfect for McClean, who controlled the ball before shooting ferociously between the legs of Ramazan Özcan.

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Too often in these situations Ireland have sat back and tried to conserve the lead only to be finally broken down. O’Neill describes it is a “natural tendency” but with Austria evidently against the ropes and swaying, Ireland continued to attack. Walters thought he had landed a knockout blow when heading another Brady delivery past Özcan two minutes after McClean’s strike, only to be correctly flagged for offside.

In response Koller removed Alessandro Schöpf for Louis Schaub, whose first act was to warm the gloves of Randolph with a fizzing drive from 25 yards. Alaba curled a free-kick narrowly wide to the right approaching the hour and landed another speculative long-range attempt on the roof of the net soon after.

Gradually Ireland did drop deeper but they remained menacing on the break and the hosts became increasingly frustrated. All Austria could muster late on was a tame Martin Harnik effort that was easily held by Randolph and a poor miss from Janko, who headed wide under precious little pressure three minutes into injury time. “We’ve shown great strength of character in the past couple of years,” O’Neill added. “And that was epitomised tonight.”