Roy Keane is never short of an opinion but, as Ireland’s number two, he was happy to defer to Ireland’s number one yesterday, when the thorny subject of Stephen Ireland raised its head yet again.

We have to talk about Stephen. Well, actually, we don’t, but it seems that in at least every other encounter with a manager of the Republic of Ireland over the past seven years, we end up talking about Stephen.

West Brom 1 Stoke City 2

Stoke 1 Hull 0

Stephen Ireland has turned his dream into reality after being handed a permanent deal by Stoke boss Mark Hughes.