Rebel rising as Colin Doyle ends long Ireland wait

Irish football lore has room for just one one-cap wonder from the Steve Staunton era. And that’s fine by Colin Doyle.

A full decade after he made the only senior international appearance of his life in the sparsely populated surrounds of New Jersey’s old Giants Stadium, the goalkeeper is back in the Garden State this week. He’s hoping things are about to get a whole lot rosier.

Should he step onto the field during tonight’s friendly clash with Mexico, Doyle will bridge one hell of a gap. He will also move one cap ahead of Joe Lapira on the all-time list. Doyle is one of three survivors — Daryl Murphy and Stephen Gleeson are also part of Martin O’Neill’s panel here — from one of the more bizarre episodes in Ireland’s footballing history when Steve Staunton capped a US college amateur in a 1-1 draw with Ecuador in the summer of 2007.