Alandonnelly88

Wednesday night was truly a dark day for the beautiful game! Platini and Blatter basically hand picked the draw for the play-offs and my God Thierry Henry hand picked France’s winner. I travelled into the city centre last night proudly wearing my Italia 90 Ireland scarf that in truth only comes out when I fear the worst. It hasn’t brought me much luck in the past watching Ireland in the big games but I felt surely the luck would change.

Meeting up with the lads and lady in the Living room and after a pint or three you could feel the energy in the bar. The place was packed to the rafters, everyone anxiously waiting for the biggest Ireland game in nearly a decade to get underway, glued to the big screens like  it was a glorious sunset. I was nervously demolishing my packet of ciggarettes silently praying in the smoking area to God/Allah/Buddah..whoever to get us a result! As the national anthems were about to ring out in the magnificent Stade de France my nervousness had gone away.

For some reason I got the feeling that this could be the night, this could be our night. I’ve followed the boys in green to Germany Cyprus Switzerland to name a few, big games that they have lost . But for some reason I got the feeling that tonight would be different. Maybe it was the shots of the Irish fans in the crowd, maybe it was the way the Irish lads belted out Amhran na bhFiann or maybe it was the pints inside me.

I just thought this has to be it lets get in on!  The first twenty minutes were electric in the bar everyone kicking every ball, cheering every pass, and celebrating every tackle like a goal! The atmosphere was infectious it was like the good old days strangers standing side by side everyone hoping to overcome a common enemy! Half time was approaching and I was enthralled by what I was seeing “my God we’re battering em’ I thought, not even the advances of a very intoxicated young one could take my eyes off the big screen! “Maybe later love!”.

Just when I thought we were going in nil all…Bang!! Keane slots the ball passed Lloris. The bar erupted! It was something you’d see at a Metallica gig in the mosh pit! People were literally crowd surfing beer was flying into the air and I was drenched in Fosters, but I didn’t care we were one up and not even in my dreams did I think we would get on the score sheet! “We’ve got em rattled” I thought “they don’t have any answers“.

As the game was drawing to a close my fingernails chewed off long ago I hoped and prayed that the best performance from the boys in green I’d ever seen would be enough to at least get us to extra time. It was, the final whistle went and was met by a tremendous rendition of Ole, Ole. Extra time was a blur the nerves erasing it I suspect. ‘we’ll take em in penalties’ one of my mates reassured me. And then…The hand of Henry struck!

What’s going on there? I thought. Jesus Given is going mad what’s happened? Then the replay… you cheating ****! When the final whistle did go I sank into a chair don’t think I’ve been that disheartened in a long time!! And the image of Henry sitting beside Richard Dunne on the pitch as if he gave a damn made me want to get sick!

The fact is whether you want to say we had our chances to win it or not we were robbed of our place in the World Cup! It was one of the most obvious handball I’ve ever seen and saying the referee and linesman didn’t see it ? I’m sorry that isn’t good enough! What are they even on the field for then? With all that went on you could be forgiven for not even remembering that it was William Gallas who scored the goal.

A replay would be the right thing to do in this era of “fair play” that Fifa keep throwing in our faces but in all honesty it isn’t going to happen. The team were immense Wednesday night and every single player should hold their heads up high although that will be hard to do. We deserve to go to South Africa but we’re not! As I said it was a dark day for the beautiful game!