Shane Long’s goal has changed dynamic of O’Neill tenure

Whatever about making history, Thurs- day night’s victory over Germany was the result the Republic of Ire- land have needed since the qualification for Euro 2012, and offers a real platform going forward.

I haven’t experienced a home game like that in a long, long time, and to see and hear Lansdowne Road react in the way it did was great to see. This was the boost we’ve needed, and not just for the team.

In the four years since we qualified for Euro 2012, there’s been the feeling we’ve been going backwards. We had indifferent results in Giovanni Trapattoni’s last campaign, and Martin O’Neill’s start to the Euro 2016 campaign wasn’t completely convincing, particularly since we only got one point from two games against Scotland. On top of that, there was all the Fifa business and the controversy over the €5m payment to the FAI after the Thierry Henry handball. It all made things look kind of bleak.