Martin O’Neill dusts down play-off memories

A keen observer of the Republic of Ireland football experience over many years, Martin O’Neill was as outraged as anyone else by the most famous of all our play-off games — the ‘Hand of Gaul’ match in Paris in 2009.

“That was shocking, it really was shocking,” O’Neill reflected. “It must be the biggest sickener of all time to lose to a goal that everybody other than the referee and perhaps the officials beside it, didn’t see.

“Didn’t France then end up playing Ukraine last time in the play-offs? And I think they got every decision going. I think it was a case of ‘oh, we’ll get France through here, whatever’.”