A matter of national pride for Stephen Kenny

As he sat down to dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel on Sunday night alongside Ireland’s record goalscorer and the last manager to lead the country to the World Cup, there was no inferiority complex for Stephen Kenny.

It’s never been that way for Mick McCarthy’s heir apparent, be it his arrival into Longford Town as a 26-year-old rookie manager or jostling the superpowers on the European stage for Dundalk.