Once more across the narrow divide that is agony and ecstasy

AS the haunted demeanour of Slaven Bilic in recent times painfully testifies, failure can take a heavy toll in football. But success brings its own difficult challenges too — just ask Giovanni Trapattoni.

The Italian, with his conservative brand of football, might never have been to everyone’s taste as manager of Ireland, but I don’t recall that there were too many complaints when his team were putting Estonia to the sword in

Tallinn and effectively sealing their place in the finals after only the first leg of the Euro 2012 qualification play-off.