Martin O’Neill urgently needs Cork send-off

Republic of Ireland 1 Holland 1: While Bruce Springsteen was rocking the crowd under blazing lights over in Croke Park there was, happy to report, no sign of darkness on this edge of town – just a small, if unwelcome, shadow as the other Boss, Martin O’Neill, saw his team surrender a 1-0 lead late on against the Netherlands.

On the plus side, the Irish didn’t lose on home soil, nobody succumbed to injury and the manager got his chance to run the rule over a handful of hungry hearts as he finalises his squad for France.

With Marc Wilson’s Euros injury disappointment edging Shane Duffy ever closer to a place on the plane to France – the Derryman even graced the cover of the match programme - it meant that when O’Neill’s experimental starting line-up was unveiled an hour before kick-off, the attention was very much on the inclusion of hopeful contenders like Harry Arter, Stephen Quinn and David McGoldrick alongside cast-iron certainties like Seamus Coleman, Shane Long and Jon Walters.