Martin O’Neill keen to make most of new Robbie

There was a touch of ‘out with old Robbie, in the new’ at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday, as the veteran Keane signed off with a trademark flourish and then, with his own exquisite free kick, rising star Brady signed in on the night with an equally characteristic strike.

Robbie Brady was widely acclaimed as one of the stand-out success stories of the summer, a view shared by Martin O’Neill who admits he’s baffled that the transfer window came and went without the Dubliner emulating his Irish colleague Jeff Hendrick by moving to a top-flight club in England.

“I have been championing his cause now for the last couple of years, I think he’s been terrific,” says the Ireland manager, “and I am surprised, I must admit, that he is not playing in the Premier League. Particularly on the strength of what he did in the Euros. I think Jeff Hendrick was transferred on what he’s done at the Euros, not really what he’s done for Derby in the last year.”