Once again last night, Ireland fans came away encouraged by the team's performance while also having to swallow another bitterly disappointing result due to a late goal.
The opening 45 minutes at Hampden Park saw the continued development of a young side that defended cohesively and established plenty of control which led to a deserved opener after a fine move had won a corner.
But once more, the team lost their way after the break and were punished for lax defending in the case of the equaliser and a moment of madness when it came to the came to the concession of the penalty.
READ MORE: Stephen Kenny rues fine margins as Ireland come undone at raucous Hampden Park
However, while another loss could have been used as more material to back up arguments that Stephen Kenny is failing in his role, two of his more vocal critics took glass half-full approaches when analysing the night as a whole.
Martin O'Neill was pitchside for Premier Sports' coverage and set out a stall that there were far more positive takeaways than negatives.
He said: "Overall it's a big improvement. I think they played exceptionally well in Dublin. It was their best performance under Stephen. Absolutely right.
"They followed it up with a really good performance against Ukraine. And tonight, for really good periods of the game, primarily in the first half, I thought they were excellent."
At another stage of the post-match discussion, the former Celtic boss even stated he felt Ireland would have been deserving of all three points.
Back in the RTE studio then, Liam Brady was similarly optimistic when taking a long-term view of how the team is progressing, albeit our qualifying group for Euro 2024 will now be trickier as a result of us (hopefully) only finishing third in our Nations League placings.
He commented: "We've had some poor games as well, let's not forget that.
"I think we're going in the right direction. The first half definitely showed that.
"I had my doubts, I've been on the programme wondering whether we should have given him a new contract or not, but I think what's been done has been the right thing.
"This team is growing underneath him. We have a Euros to look forward to.
"It's a pity that our league position in this is not going to give us more of a chance in the Euros. If we had have had better results, we probably would have been seeded.
"I think the team is growing under Kenny and I'm encouraged by what I saw tonight. Let's hope we can finish off this Nations League with a really resounding win on Tuesday night at Lansdowne Road."
Both men were involved in coaching tickets with Ireland that had better results but worse styles of play than this current vintage so previously they have been quick to emphasize that wins and losses are what the game is ultimately about.
But the Irish public en masse have had to re-calibrate their expectations for the side since we barely have any Premier League regulars anymore compared to those days under O'Neill and in particular Giovanni Trapattoni and Brady.
And on this occasion, both veteran figures were also more accepting of this new reality in a more globalised game.
But while several of the defeats to nations at or above our level have still contained lots of promise, it's been against the likes of Armenia that Kenny's outfit have put on their most abject showings.
They need to now buck that trend when they host Armenia and showcase that they are finally improving at dispatching lower-ranked opposition if the general good vibe around the team is to be maintained going into the Euros qualification campaign in March.
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