Randolph eager to keep his door shut and move party to Russia

SUCH is the nature of international football, players spend so much time together building towards fixtures and then go their separate ways as soon as they’re done as clubs retrieve them harm-free as quickly as possible.

Monday night in Cardiff was no different. While some of the triumphant Ireland squad boarded the team bus and headed for a charter flight to get them back to Dublin for around 1.30am, others scurried to their homes around England before returning to their day job the next morning.

West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis, a Welshman, was greeted by a beaming James McClean at the club’s training ground as others, too, bounded into work bursting with pride on the back of their exploits in the 1-0 win over Wales.

But in the brief time the players were able to celebrate in the away dressing-room at the Cardiff City Stadium, munching on chicken wings, sipping bottles of beer and even listening to Roy Keane break into song such was his good form, the message of intent was clear.

‘These moments don’t come around too often so you need to make the most of them when they come. Unfortunately there is still club football to be played so we all just say our goodbyes and see you next month,’ Darren Randolph explained.

‘We had a good little celebration but, as we said inside, we still have another 180 minutes to go,’ he continued. ‘We said it amongst ourselves. We said it was a great achievement to get out of the group but we aren’t in Russia yet, we still have another two games to go to get there.’

Italy, Switzerland, Croatia or Denmark await in Tuesday’s draw in Zurich and Randolph, the only Ireland player to play every minute of every game in Group D, insists they can draw on their experience over two legs against Bosnia-Herzegovina this time around.

O’Neill’s side earned a 1-1 draw away in Zenica before clinically outclassing their opponents in Dublin with a 2-0 win.

‘We went to Bosnia and then got them back and we had one of those special nights at the Aviva,’ Randolph recalled. ‘We wait and see how this draw pans out. We are not a possession team so it might suit us to play on the counter-attack and we have to make the most of the chances we do create. Maybe that is how the team is.’

Ireland have pulled off some historic results since O’Neill took the helm with Keane as his No.2 in November 2013.

The draw in Germany at the beginning of Euro 2016 qualifying before beating the world champions on home soil to reignite the campaign. The resulting play-off success and triumph over Italy in Lille, followed by victory in Vienna and Monday’s success against Wales on the road to Russia.

Another piece of history will be required next month. ‘We are the ones who have to go out on the pitch, they [O’Neill and Keane] can only do so much. It is up to us to do what we are told to do and carry out the plan of action,’ Randolph said.

‘The plan against Wales was to stay in the game as long as possible , they were the home team and they needed to win as well so they needed to make something happen. Keeping a clean sheet obviously helps win games as well and we managed to keep them out at the other end.’

Two more clean sheets next month and the celebrations might just last a little bit longer next month.