Brady pick of the bunch

Republic of Ireland 4 Oman 1

Manchester United’s Robbie Brady might have been the biggest winner of the night as Ireland recorded an unusually big win under Giovanni Trapattoni, but there were also significant contributions from Shane Long, James McCarthy, David Meyler and Seamus Coleman — and an almost-but-not-quite redemptive cameo from James McClean — as an experimental side brushed aside the feeble challenge of Oman and gave the manager at least some morsels of food for thought before attention turns to Germany next month.

Change was in the air in London yesterday, the blue skies and soaring temperatures of previous days suddenly giving way to scudding clouds and a chill breeze which had the vacant deck-chairs flapping around the Serpentine.