Carling Cup left looking a little flat

TWELVE years ago, almost eight decades after the FAI had been founded, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland faced one another in a senior international friendly for the very first time.

Organised as a fundraiser for the victims of the Omagh bombing, it was hailed at the time as heralding something of a thaw in the long-running Cold War that had always lingered between the rival associations in Belfast and Dublin.

The day itself was a disappointment. Only 12,100 people paid for their vantage points in Lansdowne Road on a May afternoon and a bizarre goal from the North’s Danny Griffin was the only difference between the pair at the end.