After Northern Ireland's flying start to the qualification campaign of Euro 2016 a lot of references have been made to the fact that they have never qualified for the finals of the European Championship.
"I must be satisfied with the point at the start of this qualification round," said Mihajlovic. "If you cannot win, it's important not to lose.
And then there was Macedonia and the three points which lifted Scotland off the bottom of Group A. We could still end up at the wrong end of the table - other results can decide that - but I'm more interested in the start of the next qualification campaign than the end of this one.
He arrived in Sri Lanka in March to prepare the national team for the Asian Five Nations tournament, which was the start of Asian qualification for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and to see how the sport could be developed and the standard improved.
Instead of leading the line for his country at the start of qualification for the 2018 World Cup, Kang is banned for much of the season, his international career likely over before it started.
Fabio Capello will turn to Fulham's emerging new goalkeeper David Stockdale when he names his England squad tomorrow for the start of the Euro 2012 qualification campaign against Bulgaria and Switzerland.
The FAW's chief executive, Jonathan Ford, spoke this week of the pressing need to identify a successor to Speed so as to ensure the new man is ready for the start of the World Cup qualification campaign in September.
But Southgate, who does not consider himself a candidate for the job full-time, is understood to have serious reservations about stepping in, even on a temporary basis, to oversee the start of the World Cup qualification campaign in September.
