James McClean is targeting one of Ireland's "famous wins" in September to fire them back into the Euro 2024 qualification mix.
Stephen Kenny's side face the daunting task of meeting France in Paris on September 8 before hosting Holland in Dublin 72 hours later.
But veteran McClean believes that Monday's victory over Gibraltar gives Ireland a much-needed starting point in Group B.
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He claims that the Dutch, the favourites to take the second automatic qualifying spot on offer, are vulnerable as they lack the team collective that Ireland possess.
"I've seen plenty of them, I don't want to create headlines and be disrespectful," said McClean.
"They seem to have a lot of very good individual players but maybe as a team they're not where they want to be and hopefully we can exploit that.
"I actually think we perform better in the big games, as you've seen here against France. We'll see, that's all I can say.
"I don't think that's something that can ever be questioned, the togetherness in the Irish team - from the day that I came into the set up, there's always great camaraderie, it's a special atmosphere within the camp."
McClean says that closeness was important in the wake of Ireland's costly systems failure in Athens.
"We had to be picked up off the floor last Friday because we had put so much in, had good preparation and just didn't perform," he said.
"But that's football, that happens, especially with young players but our job is to help become more consistent.
"I feel these lads will flourish and become the future of Irish football for a long time.
"This win is great for confidence. There's a lot of ability in those young lads - if you can get them playing with confidence, you're onto a winner.
"Hopefully they can create special memories for themselves."
The Derry man could feel the anxiety coming into Monday's game on the back of the poor display in the 1-0 defeat away to Greece.
Then, at half-time, he was concerned that Kenny's predominantly young side could have folded after failing to break the deadlock against the Mediterranean minnows.
But after two losses to open the campaign, McClean is hoping the win represents a first step in an uphill battle to qualify.
"It has to be, aye," he said. "It was important that we won after what happened on Friday.
"That was all that mattered, getting points on the board and getting up and running. There's still a lot of football to play.
"We've still got to play Greece (at home), we've got to play Holland twice so there's still a lot of football ahead. We've picked up wins before when people haven't given us a chance and we're going to have to do that again.
"We're not naive, we're not stupid. It's a big task ahead. What I said to the lads was we have to start somewhere if we want to achieve something special.
"So it was just about getting that win and then, who knows?
"There were a lot of young players in there so we could have crumbled at half- time, it wasn't exactly the best reception coming off the pitch and rightly so - no disrespect to Gibraltar but we shouldn't probably be coming off 0-0.
"But look, we got the job done, we were professional. As a player it's obviously not pleasing but France beat them 3-0, Holland beat them 3-0.
"Of course it's Gibraltar, I'm not here bigging them up but it's frustrating when you have 10 players behind the ball - it can be hard to break down but in the end we got the job done, it was comfortable.
"We're not going to put ourselves high up on a pedestal but we're up for the fight.
"Nobody likes being criticised, that's the way it is. But we're not stupid.
"This is the game we're in, if you don't perform and do well criticism comes along with that, as does praise when you are doing well so you have to take the bad with the good.
"We bounced back, that's all we could do on Monday night - we could do no more than bounce back.
"It's a massive win to take us into September and hopefully we can pull off one of those famous wins."
The 34-year-old confided that it was "absolutely amazing" to lead out the Ireland team as captain to mark his 100th international appearance.
He was joined by his wife Erin and his four kids on the pitch and received a special 100th cap presentation from Ireland's president, Michael D Higgins.
McClean then produced two second half goal assists, for Evan Ferguson and Adam Idah, after Mikey Johnston finally opened the scoring in the 52nd minute.
He also came close to scoring himself but a goal bound effort from close range was deflected over.
"It was a great block, fair play to whoever did it," said the Wigan winger. "But look, two assists and a win, I'm sure I can be satisfied with that.
"It was an absolutely special night and there's too many people to thank but I'm very, very appreciative.
"Absolutely amazing, having my family on the pitch, the president of the association and of the country handing me an honour, the reception of the crowd, having the whole family there, the way the lads treated me this week leading up to it and how they treated me after the game...look, it couldn't have gone any better.
"The president just said that he was very proud of me. I've had a good relationship with the president over the years, which is obviously nice to have.
"It was a touch of class from there before the start, a good start to a good night."
