Dunne’s great shirt lift

A MAN whose own savage hunger was often the subject of wry comment in his early years made plain on Tuesday night the depth of his appetite to play in the finals of a major championship.

And in playing the lead role in the Miracle of Moscow, Richard Dunne gave us our very own Terry Butcher moment. Let’s hope precedent is followed.

Funnily enough, it was 22 years to the day after bloodied Butcher staggered around in Stockholm nursing a gaping head wound that spilled more and more claret on the Three Lions every time his forehead stymied a Swedish attack. That last stand earned a goalless point that dragged England towards Italia ‘90, where dull beginnings eventually gave way to Gazza-inspired glorious failure.

Of course, we’d like to think the FAI are tidier about their running repairs and the four stitches Dunne earned when he planted his face in the Moscow track didn’t look quite as spectacular as Terry’s red tide.

But the heroics were every bit as remarkable and if we do make it to Euro 2012, Alan Kelly’s hastily scrawled number five can hang proudly in the National Museum — a monument to the night a nation that lost its own shirt could begin to hope again.