Job done as Ireland ready to get serious

As a reporter covering a rather more bellicose international contest once famously remarked: I counted them all out and I counted them all back in again.

Which is another way of saying that, though Ireland were under the cosh for the majority of this game, it was still a case of main mission accomplished for Giovanni Trapattoni in Budapest last night, as his first 11 emerged physically intact from their last big test before the Euros.

The two biggest concerns before last night’s game were John O’Shea and Shay Given.