Only one Irish player in the world’s top 500 footballers

Martin O’Neill’s task has been put into perspective by two new magazine lists, writes Liam Mackey.

Liam Brady caused a bit of a stir in his Irish Examiner column when, ahead of the Euro qualifier against Poland, he underscored his pessimism about Ireland chance’s of qualifying for the finals by declaring that the quality of player currently available to Martin O’Neill was at “an all-time low”.

True, he admitted to having had to “chew on his words”, if not quite eat them following that game of two halves at the Aviva which saw an encouraging second-half performance rewarded with that last-gasp Shane Long goal which keeps our qualification hopes alive.