Trap lays down the law

IF a week is a long time in politics, then a fortnight in and around the Irish football team can feel like an eternity.

In just 14 days, Giovanni Trapattoni and his squad have gone from crisis to celebration, the raging controversy over players who didn’t show replaced by plaudits all around for those who did — and who then helped fashion an impressive four-game winning streak, with 10 goals scored and none conceded.

But, yesterday morning, after a second wee hours flight back to Dublin in a matter of days, Giovanni Trapattoni was already moving on from the victories over Northern Ireland, Scotland, Macedonia and Italy, and concentrating his gaze instead on the far horizon of August when Ireland will play Croatia in a friendly in Dublin ahead of the crunch back-to-back European Championship qualifiers against Slovakia and Russia the following month.