Old Wes Hoolahan gives doubters their answer

“I’m 34 now and for the opportunity to come now…”

The sentence trailed away, but Wes Hoolahan had already echoed in those 10 words what thousands of Irish supporters in Saint-Denis must have been thinking as they left the emotion and drama of Stade de France behind.

There is no need to pick over again the interminable path the Dubliner had to take to trade his wares on such an elite stage, but it is difficult not to play the what-might-have-been game, given the years he spent toiling in the international wilderness.