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In front of a capacity 44,000 crowd at Lansdowne Road, there can be no doubt these boys in green did just that, offering hope of a bright future with Ireland's most-capped player in charge.
The home side piled on the pressure from the start with Chelsea winger Damien Duff giving Sweden the most trouble early on. Collecting a raking pass down the left wing from Ian Harte, the Chelsea winger delivered a curling delivery across the edge of the six-yard box that had goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson at full stretch.
Isaksson succeeded in doing nothing more than tipping the ball on to the chest of the advancing, and completely unaware Stephen Elliott, who was unfortunate to see it drop agonisingly wide of the left-hand post.
Duff again delivered to the far post soon after - this time from the right wing - only for rising debutant Kevin Doyle to plant a header into the side-netting.
One of the turning points of the game came when Zlatan Ibrahimovic felt the full force of a John O'Shea tackle that led to him limping out of the game shortly after. With Sweden temporarily down to 10 men, Ireland took full advantage in the 36th minute.
Unsurprisingly, an on-fire Duff was the man to score the first goal for Staunton, initially teasing and tormenting Southampton right-back Alexander Ostlund. Turning inside the Saints defender, he then struck a rare right-foot shot into the bottom corner - with skipper and Aston Vila defender Olof Mellberg claiming an assist.
After skipper Robbie Keane had spurned a chance for 2-0 just before the break, he clinically made amends just 122 seconds into the second half. Latching on to another searing ball from Harte that split the Swedish centre-back duo of Mellberg and Peter Hansson, Keane ran on to the pass.
Ireland's all-time leading goalscorer then drove a right-foot half-volley past Isaksson for the 26th goal of his international career.
Substitutions and debuts followed for Brighton goalkeeper Wayne Henderson, who produced one fine save to deny Henrik Larsson, as well as Manchester City's rising star Stephen Ireland, who scuffed his first touch narrowly wide after being teed up by Keane.
But the best was reserved for last, with Leeds midfielder Miller scoring his first goal on his 11th appearance for Ireland in the 71st minute, 10 minutes after his arrival as a sub for Harte.
Taking the ball up from the halfway line, Miller simply ran into the wide open space afforded to him before letting fly with a 25-yard right-foot shot over the flailing Isaksson.
The match was over as a contest and the tempo dropped as the Republic cruised to an easy victory.
Rep of Ireland: Given, Joey O'Brien, Andrew O'Brien, Dunne, Harte, Elliott, Steven Reid, O'Shea, Duff, Keane, Doyle. Subs: Breen, Morrison, Kavanagh, Miller, Henderson, Kilbane, Ireland, Douglas, Kelly, Lawrence.
Sweden: Isaksson, Ostlund, Mellberg, Hansson, Edman, Linderoth, Elmander, Kallstrom, Wilhelmsson, Ibrahimovic, Larsson. Subs: Gustafsson, Christoffer Andersson, Dorsin, Lucic, Daniel Andersson, Allback, Alexandersson, Svensson, Rosenberg, Jonson.
Referee: Damien Ledentu (France)