Opportunity to relive past
NATIONAL FOOTBALL EXHIBITION LAUNCH
PAST glories and goals might fade away but they are never forgotten.
Last Thursday night at the opening of the FAI’s National Football Exhibition in the County Museum former Irish International Niall Quinn recalled one of his goals for Ireland and the crucial role Dundalk man, Stephen Staunton played in it.
It was April 28th, 1993 and the Republic of Ireland were playing Denmark in a crucial World Cup Qualifier on the way to USA 1994.
‘He laid on one of the most important goals I ever got. It was against Denmark in a draw at Lansdowne Road which helped us on the way to the World Cup. He had a fabulous delivery and used to nearly score from corner kicks.
‘He could whip them in so well that they were very difficult to defend against, but I remember he put a few to the far post in the match and it wasn’t quite working, so he called me to run to the near post and he put this ball in that I got a flick to and scored from’
‘I think there is still photos of it, normally when I scored people ran to me and jumped on top of me, but this time I jumped on top of him and nearly flattened him’.
Over the years some have felt that the gloss on Stephen Staunton’s playing record was dulled by what followed during his term as Irish manager, where he faced difficulties on the field with results and off the field with an often hostile national media.
However Niall Quinn said on Thursday night that football people don’t think along those lines.
‘Football people don’t think like that. Football people know what he achieved, his service to the country is there in lights forever.
‘The management side is easy to look back on and say that maybe he went in too young and that if he went in with a bit more experience he would have been able to bring those leadership qualities that he had into the management role’.
‘My memory of Stephen Staunton will always be, even if I don’t see him for years is that fella, demanding and absolutely hammering senior players older than him to get their finger out, saying it to the likes of Paul McGrath, Ray Houghton, Ronnie Whelan, oye you get your finger out, you’re not doing it. Even Mick McCarthy and you say, wow this is a young fella going places. That drive and determination didn’t have the same reward for him in management as it did in his playing days, but that doesn’t stop any of us from thinking how special he was’.
‘Look at his Liverpool career and look at the players in England now. It is great to see somebody get a goal for Southampton, or a start for Norwich or win a game for Burnley, but just look at what Stan has done. It was an incredible journey for him and I am absolutely petrified that he is going to drag me into some pub in the back streets of Dundalk here tonight and I won’t get out of it until tomorrow’.
The recently appointed Interim Vice CEO of the FAI recalled his first encounter with the then Dundalk teenager.
‘I remember Stephen first coming into the squad in Finnstown House ahead of the Euro 1988 Championships and he did so well in those ten days that there was a bit of worry from some of the players that thought they were going that Stan was going to burst through as a 16 or 17-year-old and make the flight, but he didn’t, but two years later when we made the World Cup he had cemented that place at left back as his own.
During the question and answer session with a packed audience Stephen thought back on those days at Finnstown House ahead of Ireland’s first appearance at a major tournament.
Although signed with Liverpool he had yet to make the breakthrough into the first team under Kenny Dalglish and was delighted to be training with the senior international squad.
‘We had ten days there, myself and Mark Kelly. We had the run of Dublin. Jack had a car from team sponsors Opel, I didn’t drive, but Mark did, Mark didn’t drink but I did, it was perfect’.
He didn’t make the squad for the tournament but recalled manager Jack Charlton telling him if anyone was injured he was in and telling Mark Kelly if two players got injured that Ireland were in trouble.
He didn’t make the squad but got to go home and see the country go mad with euphoria, the pubs and the craic and telling players at Italia ‘ 90 two years later just how gripped the country was by their success.
‘You would hear fellas on the phone back home, saying we’re we staying we’re not coming home, sell the car, get a loan, remortgage the house, it was brilliant’.
In those days everything was less organised than in today’s world and he recalled waiting in the tunnel for the opening game in USA 1994 against Italy in the Giants Stadium in New York.
‘We were in the tunnel and the Italians came out in virtually the same kit and the ref pointing at us, you, you, you must change. It was mad, Charlie O’Leary (the kit manager) nearly lost his life, pulling gear out of the skips looking for the numbers. You can imagine, shorts, socks, strappings, we had to change everything’.
‘It was probably the best thing to happen to us. It calmed us right down. At the end we had Jack shouting at us, get out, get out, we’ll be fined’.
Another player with very fond memories of playing alongside Stephen was his former Liverpool, Aston Villa and Ireland teammate, Ray Houghton.
‘I came across Stephen very early in his playing career, in Finnstown House before the ‘88 Euros and Stan was part of the training squad.’
‘He was very helpful to me when I joined Aston Villa. He was there before me, so he knew everyone and he was the one was looked after me and ensured I settled in and obviously we had a great time with Ireland’.
‘Vocally he was brilliant’, recalled Houghton, ‘a very good understanding of the game, educated left foot. He could play’.
‘It didn’t matter what Stephen did, he could play in a variety of positions. He could read the game and understood where he needed to be. He could play a five yard pass or a fifty yard pass. When he played left wing the amount of quality crosses he delivered in the box was exceptional. A great free kick taker, but it was his desire and passion, a great attitude to the game and he was usually successful.
‘You look around to where he was Liverpool, to Villa where we won the League Cup together. He was a key player on all the teams he played for.
With the 60th anniversary of the first playing of the European Championship this summer, Houghton reflected back on that famous day in Stuttgart when he put the ball in the English net to help Ireland beat their nemesis 1-0 in their first ever game in a major tournament.
‘32 years ago this year, it seems as if it wasn’t really me that was involved in it. It is a distant memory now, don’t get me wrong, a memory that you are very, very proud of, but overall when you look at it realistically it is about the here and now and that’s what I’m interested in’.
‘As an ex-player there is immense pride in watching your team being involved. You are always looking out for players and maybe someone who will go to a big tournament with maybe not the biggest reputation and do something extraordinary’.
During the lively and engaging Q&A session, Cllr Maeve Yore spoke for all Dundalk men and women present when she complimented Stephen Staunton on his remarkable record with Ireland and urged Niall Quinn to get him involved with the FAI.
The big former forward knows his audience and didn’t disappoint stating earlier that the former St Dominics schoolboy footballer and Dundalk Youths player was, ‘a terrific footballer, nothing was a problem to him. Other lads would be nervous before a big match, he’d been laughing, a great lad to be around and a great leader’.