DUO CAN MAKE FANS DREAM AGAIN
IT HAS been a long, sometimes dreadful 12 months for supporters of the Republic of Ireland football team, a grind that has gotten too many people down. In that time, we have become a nation fed up with watching football — a people so completely overcome with disgruntlement that we’re calling for Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane, two of the most decorated servicemen in the game, to get out of our sight. Nobody expected us to beat Northern Ireland on Thursday evening. On Monday, avoidance of further embarrassment against the Danes before the close of 2018 is our wish. Only a little classiness in 2019 can brighten up the face of Irish football. Luckily, Seamus Coleman and Robbie Brady are a pair who possess such enlightening ability on the field. And they’re back. THEY’RE BACK! I’m not sure who we’ve missed the most. Coleman offers speed and aggressiveness. Brady serves up a calm magical touch. And now they’re back amongst us, and with O’Neill and Keane going nowhere in the immediate future, maybe it’s a good time for Irish football supporters to become supporters once again. Brady, for one, wants to start afresh after putting his horrendous knee injury behind him. He more than anyone else has watched the Ireland team reach depths nobody expected possible a couple of years ago when we were showing other teams in Europe that we can actually play a bit. He had the loneliest perch of all, but Brady said this week: ‘It’s done with now, I’m back and, touch wood, I won’t have another (year) like it.’ Both Coleman and Brady can raise self-belief amongst the team and its fans, and every Irish football supporter owes it to the pair of them to show up and give the next year everything they’ve got also.