Look on his mighty works and despair

To be unkind about it, O’Neill declaring himself a winner in the immediate aftermath of a home defeat to Wales felt a bit like Ozymandias still proclaiming his greatness from amid a pile of rubble in the middle of an empty desert, says Liam Mackey.

Like the journalists who were present at the time, I’m sure many people were pinching themselves when they read of Martin O’Neill’s fairly breathtaking show of defiance following Tuesday’s 0-1 defeat to Wales at the Aviva.

“I’m good…I’ll win…Ireland will qualify for the Euros… Simple as that.”