We felt ‘a little bit robbed’

Ahead of Wednesday’s game in London, we revisit Ireland’s last game against England at Wembley, in the company of 1991 goal hero Niall Quinn

It’s the story of the last time Ireland played England at Wembley, 22 years ago, in March 1991.

It begins with a man getting to shake the hands of some of the football heroes he’d only ever previously been able to see on television in prison. It ends with one of those same football heroes, having partied well but not wisely, fast asleep at a table in a motorway café and being prodded awake by a couple of passing Welsh supporters. And in between is one of the defining games of the Jack Charlton era, a 1-1 draw with England in a European Championship qualifier at their national stadium which should, in truth, have been a victory for an Irish side playing at something close to the peak of its powers.