Breaking up is hard to do for Delaney

THEY were united in ambition and also in caricature but on Tuesday night they found themselves on opposite sides of a table and at cross purposes — Steve Staunton making his last, doomed pitch to save his job and John Delaney facing him as the man who could no longer deliver what he wanted.

Describing the outgoing manager’s demeanour at the meeting, the FAI chief executive said: “It was excellent. I’ve been speaking to Stephen since Thursday. I spoke to him Thursday, I spoke to him Sunday, I spoke to him Monday, I spoke to him on Tuesday morning. So that side of it has been fine. In terms of the meeting I thought he was excellent. I thought Alan Kelly was excellent. I thought Kevin MacDonald was fine and to be fair to Pat Devlin who was there as well, brilliant.”

Delaney had gone on record early in Staunton’s reign to say that the manager would definitely see out his four-year contract.