What a difference a win makes

HE MIGHT have been a stayaway but he hasn’t gone away, you know.

I speak of James McCarthy — remember him? It’s only a couple of weeks ago that his name was all over the back pages, his withdrawal from the Irish squad igniting a controversy which, with receipt of additional sick notes, threatened to overshadow and even capsize Ireland’s hectic end-of-season programme.

Communication breakdown. Crisis. Farce. Remember? Those were some of the words featuring prominently in print and on the airwaves just a little over 14 days ago, along with the widely held view that, even if the bulk of responsibility for the mess lay with what Giovanni Trapattoni called “the disappeared”, the manager’s authority had been seriously, perhaps even fatally, undermined.