Murphy feared it was all over

Martin O’Neill’s mantra that age is no barrier to an international career has fallen kindly for Ipswich Town striker Daryl Murphy ahead of his Ireland re-launch tonight against Serbia.

While Giovanni Trapattoni sprang teen Sean Scannell into his first squad and similarly, before him, Steve Staunton with Terry Dixon, it was the evergreen Murphy — 31 next week — in receipt of O’Neill’s golden ticket.

Eight caps were accumulated by the Waterford native up to 2008, so his subsequent protracted international drought only served to intensify doubt that his career in the Ireland jersey was consigned to history.