Satisfied O’Neill ready for real thing

Martin O’Neill played football in an era when long apprenticeships were par for the course so the last 10 months of candy floss football since his appointment as Republic of Ireland manager must have taken him back.

“It’s been a long, long time,” he admitted last night. “A long period. I was sitting here in November time and thinking this day would never come but it is here upon us. As I said before, it will be a long road but we will try to be as prepared as possible for it.”

A goal in either half and a couple of crossbars scuffed were all that interrupted the monotony, that and the news released by the FAI during the first half that James McClean would not be travelling onwards to Tbilisi.