Jason McAteer: Shane Long rocket no match for Dutch destroyer

The celebrated 1-0 win against Germany last year was widely regarded as the most significant Irish football result delivered in Dublin since victory, by the same margin, against the Netherlands in 2001, when Jason McAteer’s famous goal secured crucial points for Mick McCarthy’s team en route to the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea.

And, despite the huge excitement generated by Shane Long’s dramatic winner at the Aviva in October, the former Liverpool man who scored the decisive goal at Lansdowne Road 14 years earlier, maintains that the game against the Dutch still reigns supreme.

“It put a smile on my face when people started talking about it, but I just think that, as good as that (Germany) result was, the Dutch game was by far the better game,” says McAteer.