He was, by common enough consent, the best player on the pitch for Ireland the night they lost to Scotland in Glasgow, and then he partnered John O’Shea at the centre of the defence that kept world champions Germany scoreless in Dublin.
Not bad going for his first two appearances of the campaign, but the moment that lingers for Richard Keogh is that missed chance against Poland. And he's the last man on earth who needs reminding that if he'd steered his header either side of Lukasz Fabianski, the draw required for automatic qualification for Euro 2016 might well have been sealed.
Replayed it in your head?
“Of course. I’ve seen it back,” said the 29-year-old Derby County defender. “I just tried to get it on target, I headed it down but the goalkeeper made a very good save. I’ve thought about it since. It’s fine margins and that’s football. It’s the little details that can win or lose you the game.”
“It just wasn’t to be. The Germany game will live with me forever, it was a fantastic night for everyone involved. It’s a result which will go down in history. From that point of view, it was amazing, on the other hand there was disappointment after Poland. But beating Germany, and the way we played, it gives you confidence for sure, knowing we can compete against anyone on our day.”
Close squad
“I think we’ve got such a tight close squad, we’ve been together for so long, it’s a real club atmosphere. Every time we meet up, we’re all good friends, we click, we’ve good banter and that helps us on the pitch. We all want to work hard for each other. . . I think we showed that, especially against Germany, and I think that’s important going forward. So yeah, it gives us a lot of confidence going in to the Bosnia and Herzegovina game, we’ve just got to make sure that we give a good positive account of ourselves because we’re good players.”
With the amount of homework that the management and players have done, Bosnia and Herzegovina shouldn’t be strangers, nor will there be any assumption that there’s only Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic to worry about.
"We've done quite a lot of analysis on them," said Keogh. "The manager has spoken to Chris Coleman because Wales played them. We've gone over their strengths and weaknesses, players like Dzeko and Pjanic are at the top of the game, but they're not the only dangers. We've looked at the whole team, their set-plays, the fine details that you need to go over in such an important game to make sure when we step over the white line that we're well prepared. That's credit to the manager and the coaching staff, they do that for us and it's up to us players to take it on board an put it into practice."
It’s moved on a touch, too, from analysing opponents’ tactics and systems on blackboards in dressing rooms, the players sent footage of Bosnia and Herzegovina that they can watch on their phones. “So we can go over it ourselves, any time you need to do it, just click on your phone. As a professional, it’s good.”
In the absence of the suspended John O'Shea, the centre back pairing is likely to be two from Keogh, Marc Wilson and Ciaran Clark. "I've been lucky to play in some big games for Ireland so if I'm picked I'll be ready to go for the manager," said Keogh. "It's a fantastic game to be involved in – it doesn't come much bigger . . ."
"Under Mr Trapattoni I got called up, made my debut and then didn't get called up for the next squad. I was on the bench and left out of squads, but you just have to keep working and every time I was called up there was no way I was going to turn it down . . The change of manager has helped me, he has shown a lot of faith in me and I feel like I've taken the opportunities he has given me. We've got a lot of good players in my position who play in the Premier League, but I'm confident in my own ability. I feel I'm in the best form of my career."
