Shane Long prepared to wait to be the established first-choice striker

If Leicester City as champions was once the most improbable punt of the season then, at the other end of the gambling spectrum, pretty much the safest bet in all of football had to be that Shane Long would pick up the Goal Of The Year gong at the annual FAI awards ceremony last Sunday.

Yes, Robbie Brady’s lovely strike away to Bosnia certainly illuminated the fog in Zenica but it would have taken something entirely off the chart to eclipse the goal which rocked the world champions, the Aviva and the nation.

Consigned once again to a starting place on the bench on that never to be forgotten night in Dublin last October, Long had used his watching brief well before being sprung into action against the German defence..