Martin O'Neill was relieved as the Republic of Ireland defeated Georgia 1-0 in Euro2016 qualifying on Monday.

The Irish eventually delivered in a must-win fixture in Dublin which allowed them to move four points clear of fourth-placed Scotland on the Group D table.

Derby County midfielder Jeff Hendrick produced a dazzling run before setting up Stoke City forward Jon Walters for the 69th-minute winner which kept their dream of automatically qualifying for the UEFA tournament in France next summer alive.

"It's come right out of the blue. It was a great, great run and to keep a little bit of composure as well with the final ball coming in that somebody is going to come in on top of that as Jonathan Walters did, it was great play by Jeff," said O'Neill whose side defeated Gibraltar 4-0 on Friday.

"A very obvious point is I am delighted we have won the game. We found a way to win the second half. We were very tentative in the first half - I'm not sure why we should be having won on Friday, maybe expectation, whatever it is.

"I thought we lacked energy in the first half and consequently created very little, and it's obviously a bit of a worry.

"But the players came very, very strongly in the second half and we deserved to get the goal and we deserved to win the game."