Stan and deliver

SO FAR so good for Steve Staunton. He persuaded Bobby Robson to join him on the management ticket and then landed the biggest job in Irish football.

Faced with more media attention than he had ever experienced before, he made a smooth transition from ‘No Comment Man’ to talking for Ireland.

In Montreux he was lucky to avoid a Group of Death and in Frankfurt this week he helped the FAI to negotiate a fixture list which delivered almost everything the manager had wanted going into the meeting.