SQUEAKY-BUMMED terror, tearful total joy and sweat-stained relief: Tuesday night was what football emotion is all about.

ONE spends much of any season these days complaining about the grim plastic fraud of the modern game but every now and then you get an afternoon like last Saturday to keep you hooked nonetheless. Ewood Park was everything you want the football experience to be about: a fittingly throbbing start to what could be the best Red week of the century.

THERE’S something about a double-act that fascinates in any walk of life.

I DOUBT anyone will ever top Garret FitzGerald in my list of Five Fave Irish Leaders (in my fantasy play-off, he beat Michael Collins after extra-time) but, like most Manc Reds, I had a big soft spot for Bertie Ahern, due to his evident love of the Reds. And of a good time. (Oh, and for that Northern peace treaty stuff, I guess.)