Mick McCarthy says Shane Long is “back where we need him to be” to stake a claim for a place on the plane to Slovakia, while the manager is prepared to give Ciaran Clark and James McClean as long as he can to see if they are able to recover from injury in time for Ireland’s Euro 2020 play-off on March 26.

James McClean has emerged as a major injury doubt for Ireland’s Euro play-off against Slovakia next month after sustaining a medial knee ligament injury.

Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham were all left scrambling forforwards on what was a damp squib of a transfer deadline day as last-minute panic left United desperately trying to seal a deal for random target Odion Ighalo.

Though a player of his quality will inevitably find himself repeatedly linked with a move back to England, Shamrock Rovers playmaker and Irish international Jack Byrne appears happy to be settling in for the long haul with the Hoops this season.

There is a conversation from a couple years ago that sticks in the mind — and the craw — of Sean O’Shea.

The term annus horribilis was used by Queen Elizabeth to describe the year 1992, in which three of her children’s marriages split up and one of her castles burnt down. Quite how horribilis things can really be when you get paid millions by the taxpayer to wave and shake hands with people was never fully looked into at the time.

The change of guard on the the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) board will continue in the coming weeks as Paddy Dempsey is set to replace John Earley as the schoolboys' sector delegate.

The schoolboys’ clubs responsible for nurturing exciting starlets like Troy Parrott and Aaron Connolly want the FAI to ditch the U13 National League after just one season.

Outgoing FAI general manager Noel Mooney has forecasted a protracted tenancy for Stephen Kenny as Ireland manager but admits the new boss won’t be forced to keep Robbie Keane along the journey.

The last time Ireland played in Slovakia was a Euro 2012 qualifier in Zilina in 2010.

The Aviva wasn't exactly the place to be tonight but it's no stretch to say that most of those fans who made the effort would have had a debut goal for a much-hyped wunderkind near the top of their list of wants and needs.

Ger McCarthy picks out the key lessons learned as the Republic of Ireland defeated New Zealand 3-1 in tonight's friendly.

It’s actually not all about the boy tonight but the build-up to Troy Parrott’s senior debut against New Zealand can certainly make it seem that way.

Troy Parrott has described Aaron Connolly’s double breakthrough into the Premier League and Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualifying campaign as a source of inspiration, as the young Spurs hot shot prepares to make his own senior debut against New Zealand.

‘I’m probably the wrong man to ask, I like a little dive myself.”

Parrott will become the third youngest ever Irish international on Thursday week in a friendly that will act as an audition for the decisive Euro qualifier against Denmark.

Henderson last scored at Anfield in 2015. It was the day Liverpool got a spawny late draw against West Brom and Klopp lined the players up in front of the Kop to, ahem, ‘celebrate’.

Forty-five years after making my Ireland debut, 55 years after watching my country play for the first time, I’m struggling to think of a week when we produced back-to-back performances as poor as these.

This was a night of tension, drama, and intrigue.

It didn’t take long at Mick McCarthy’s pre-match press conference for the visitors present to learn that Aaron Connolly’s fever had already reached Tbilisi.

Aaron Connolly may have appeared to be an overnight sensation when he marked his first Premier League start last weekend with two goals to sink Spurs, but Brighton have worked long and hard to nurture one of Ireland’s best young players, who could make his debut for Mick McCarthy’s side in Georgia tomorrow.

Wow, this Aaron Connolly kid looks pretty good, are we sure he’s not English? Like, really sure?

That I can say I feel for Richard Keogh this morning is not the same as saying that he was not guilty of an appalling error of judgment, to put it at its mildest, for his involvement in the events which culminated in the car crash on Tuesday night. One that saw two of his Derby County team mates arrested on drink-driving charges and the club captain and Irish international sustaining a serious knee injury.

Conor Hourihane, Greg Cunningham, and Enda Stevens were teammates in the same Ireland U21 side when James Collins hit a hat-trick on his debut against Liechtenstein.