Return of the king: Keane gives Ireland that extra edge

MERCIFULLY, that's out of the way. Now there's only 99 days to the reason Roy Keane returned the road to the next World Cup.

However fraught that journey may become, it won't be littered with the lingering lenses that the Manchester United skipper had to negotiate last night at Lansdowne Road.

Romania may no longer be the Ceaucescu outpost of yore, but its football team isn't such a draw that they can attract more than 40,000 fans and a gaggle of cameramen to Dublin for an end-of-season international. Only Roy Keane can do that.