Read it and weep

IF you don’t want to be reminded of the result, look away now. Republic of Ireland 2 Cyprus 5. Pinch yourself. Have a cold shower. Go for a long walk and come back again. Sorry, it’s still there. Republic of Ireland 2 Cyprus 5. It doesn’t get much worse.

But it could. A demoralised Irish team now has two days left in which to try to pick itself up off the floor and defy all expectations by putting it up to the high-flying Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road on Wednesday.

“Northern Ireland did it,” said Steve Staunton in Nicosia on Saturday night, referring to the scarcely credible turnaround in the fortunes of the other boys in green when they followed a 3-0 defeat by Iceland with a 3-2 win over Spain.