PHILIP QUINN ON SOME TRICKY TRAVELS TO TURKEY

JIM BEGLIN danced past five players, rounded the keeper, and then stopped. An empty net beckoned but Jim, who always had a sense of style, couldn’t resist falling on one knee and nodding the ball in.

It was one of the finest goals scored on the international press beat but the referee, a local lady with a stern countenance, saw things differently and cautioned Beglin, much to his annoyance.

That was back in November 1991 when the Republic of Ireland were on call in Istanbul for a crucial European Championship qualifier against the Turks.

Alas, the traditional match-day game for the press is long over but, briefly, in Belek yesterday, the clock was rolled back when a ball landed beside the scribblers gathered pitch side.

Instinctively, a trio of 50-somethings, who should have known better, began to pass the ball about like kids in a schoolyard. Was Martin watching us? Or possible Roy? If they were, maybe they might think we once played the game.

The knock-about didn’t last long as one of several mishit passes saw the ball stray towards the pitch and an FAI official asked us to leave it there.

The invite from Ireland manager Martin O’Neill to see the squad train in the high-end Regnum Carya resort on the Mediterranean coast was welcome.

As a youthful Irish crew — Shane Long was the oldest player on view at 31 — indulged in a lively session, it also allowed time for Turkey recollections among hacks.

My first reporting brief in these parts was in 1990, along the coast in Izmir, for a friendly prior to the World Cup finals.

That day, May 27, was the hottest in the city for 50 years. Otherwise, it was a drab scoreless draw, which deserved a footnote in Irish football history as the following day, Jack Charlton omitted Gary Waddock’s name from the list of 22 players going to the finals.

Waddock, a stalwart of 10 years, was privately crushed and never played for Ireland again. Some 18 months later, on the day of Beglin’s mischief, we survived a night of fires, fury and flares in Istanbul, winning 3-1 thanks to a brace from John Byrne.

Mistakenly, we thought Ireland had qualified for the finals in Sweden, but word soon filtered through of a late England winner from Gary Lineker and the reports back to Dublin were amended accordingly.

Our most recent visit was in 1999 for a Euro playoff which was unique in that the game wasn’t shown on TV at home.

It was an exhausting trip as we arrived by plane, boat and bus to the earthquake zone of Bursa.

On match-day, the traditional press kickabout was played on a cinder surface which was as hard as asphalt and a colleague was shunted skywards and landed heavily.

He needed painkillers to get through the Ireland game which ended with Tony Cascarino standing firm as punches rained in — it was Cas’s last international and he went out on his shield.

On the return crossing of the Sea of Marmara, the mood was sombre, the waters decidedly choppy and I saw one Ireland player throw up.

Izmir, Istanbul, Bursa… the Turks certainly moved us about in the 90s. And this week, we are back in unfamiliar turf in Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

This is no World Cup warm-up, no Euro qualifier, no Euro play-off, rather a low-key friendly to open 2018 against opponents who, like Ireland, missed out on Russia.

For O’Neill, who was in chipper form after training yesterday, the challenge is to integrate the new with the old as he moves on as manager, armed with a new contract.

There are eight uncapped players on call this week, some of whom will push on to become part of O’Neill’s front-liners for the Euro 2020 campaign.

By the time of those finals, 30 years will have passed since the inferno of Izmir.

That’s a sobering thought. Perhaps the next time a ball rolls close by at a training session, I should leave it be.