O’Shea: Success breeds success

John O’Shea hopes Ireland’s win in Georgia on Sunday can be like the victory over Armenia four years ago — a springboard to launch a successful European Championship qualifying campaign.

Keith Fahey’s goal in Yerevan in 2010 gave Giovanni Trapattoni’s team an away victory on the opening night of the campaign, which ultimately led to Euro 2012 in Poland.

“A huge three points for us,” is how the Sunderland man summed up the late, late win in Tbilisi. “People might have been thinking 1-1 might not have been too bad but, believe me, we wanted to win. Going back to previous games, and Armenia in particular, it can be hard to come away in the first game against tough enough opposition. Ultimately we knew we could win, and we did.