Pole-axed: The story of what might have been

Andy Townsend might struggle to remember Ireland’s 3-3 draw away to Poland in 1991 – the last competitive meeting between the two countries – but it’s a game which is lodged firmly in your humble correspondent’s memory banks.

In fairness to the former Ireland skipper, two World Cups and 70 caps, not to mention innumerable club games in England, must all clamour for his attention whenever he’s invited to take a trip into the past, which perhaps explains why, when asked about that game in Poznan by a few of us out in RTÉ earlier this week, he went from wondering if it was in the same group as the infamous Liechtenstein draw (actually four years later) to floating the idea that ‘The Three Amigos’ — Gary Kelly, Phil Babb and Jason McAteer — were somehow involved at the time (when they wouldn’t actually make the breakthrough until just before the finals of US 94).

The other reasonable explanation for the Hall Of Famer’s amnesia is that it’s a kind of lingering post-traumatic stress reaction to the fact that, having been 3-1 up with just 13 minutes to go, a late double-act of Irish self-destruction allowed the home side to snatch a draw which would ultimately cost Jack Charlton’s men qualification for the finals of Euro 92.