The long and winding road

Falling in love with the game. Falling out of love with the game. And now, after years of thinking his chance had passed him by, the opportunity to represent his country at the European Championship finals. West Brom and Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews tells his story

Keith Andrews has been involved in some pretty significant qualifying games for Ireland. Think Paris, for a start, and when you can’t stand the pain anymore, think Tallinn.

And then there was the one where, if anything, the stakes were even higher. Admittedly, Andrews didn’t actually play in this particular crunch match but then he did have the excellent excuse of only being 13 at the time.