Not pretty, but a perfect finish and a perfect start

It was a perfect finish and gave Martin O’Neill the perfect start, which was all the more important because the performance was far from impressive.

Those are the most salient facts from Ireland’s 2-1 win over Georgia as Aiden McGeady finally proved himself the most influential attacking player. His brilliant late goal gave O’Neill everything he would have aimed for from his first competitive match, and it came from virtually nothing.

That kind of conjuring is often described as the mark of genius and, with McGeady at 28 years of age, the hope is this campaign can at last see him become the dominant and decisive player he should be.