It’s a story he might get to tell a few times when he is reflecting on his career in years to come; the time he popped up to equalise against the world champions at their place in the 94th minute.
John O’Shea looked like he was enjoying one of the first opportunities.
“I was thinking that Jeff (Hendrick) was going to take a touch,” he said while the event was still fresh in his mind. “It was a great ball across and I took a chance and got across my man; (Mats) Hummels was probably the best man on the pitch. It was the last kick of the game as well.”
He laughed at the reminder that this was just goal number three in those 100 appearances. “Yeah, without a doubt my ratio should be a bit better after playing that many games. But hopefully there is a few more to come.
In the meantime, he observed: "It keeps the momentum going in the group because it's going to be very tight. But we have the momentum going into Scotland, I hear they had a decent draw as well. It's a big point, hopefully, in the scheme of things. The manager said momentum was key and I know when he was manager of Sunderland he didn't want to come off the pitch with a 1-0 defeat where we did okay. Realistically, it's a big big point that we take forward to Scotland."
For Glenn Whelan, long a favourite of Giovanni Trapattoni, O'Neill clearly deserved his share or the credit.
“Obviously the new manager has come in with his own ideas and beliefs,” said the midfielder, “and it shows the confidence that he’s brought that we had the character to go to the world champions and not give up.
“I think the last five minutes were probably our best chances, we had one or two, and we might have scored from Wes’s one a few minutes earlier but it didn’t matter who got it, we were just grateful to nick something at the end and we got away with a result, it keeps us going.”
“Obviously the manager’s got a big name in football. He’s given everybody their chance, it’s a new belief for everyone; new players coming into a new squad. We’ve got a great feeling there, it’s like a club and if we can keep that going then it will get us places.”
O’Neill’s plan here, he continued, was for the Irish to just stay in the game early on and “to our credit I don’t think they had too many chances in the first half; Fordey had maybe one real save to make and they had a lot of possession without ever really going anywhere. We were always in the game and that was the plan.
“Even at 1-0 you’re always in with a chance. It’s the Irish spirit, the Irish passion; you keep going to the death. Maybe if it had been two or three then heads would have slumped but being one nil down we still had a chance. In the end, It was great for John, 100 caps and to get the goal and a result at the end; a perfect night.
“And it was the performance that we felt we needed to kick on because we have belief in what we can do in this campaign.”
