Has Trap taken us as far as he can?

In the end, mercifully, this wasn’t Giovanni Trapattoni’s version of Liechtenstein 1995. More ominously, though, it might well have been his San Marino 2007.

And, if that’s the case, the warning signs for the future are not good.

Because, really, that’s what this is all about: warnings, signposts, patterns and long-term trends. In the last few months, there’s no escaping the fact that Ireland have developed a few worrying ones.