| One
man's virtuoso display lit up
Lansdowne Road on Saturday.
Surely one of the greatest
performances in the history of
Irish football. Sure, a few others
didn't do badly either. That rough
lad from Cork put in a few tackles
and the fat character at the back
inevitably shoved his arse in
front of a shot or two. And hats off
too to the lad they picked up at
the labour exchange who knocked in
that winner.
However,
there could be only one Man of The
Match from this one, - or "M.O.M."
as Jim Beglin has taken to calling
it - stand up (oh you are
standing) maestro of the mic,
lunatic of Lansdowne, gomaloon of
the gantry, Mr George Hamilton.
George
was up for it from the start. As
he might say himself, scarcely
minutes had elapsed when he
conjured the most telling
contribution of the day. And what
a bold move it was. Traditionally
"the danger here" has
become something of a millstone
round the neck - no, maybe even a
gallstone in the kidney - of
Irish football.
The template is familiar. George
relaxes. Ireland in control.
George feels the need to tell
everyone how in control we are.
Something goes awry.
"Oh....danger here". You
know the rest. Why then, did
George assume Gary Kelly knew what
he was doing when he stumbled away
from Overmars just outside his own
area. Why George, were you
surprised when Kluivert instead
ambled away toward goal with the ball? And for
God's sake why, why, did the
dreaded exclamation pass your
lips?
And
yet we got away with it. Grumpy
Pat proved to be the
"bottler" Eamo suggested
and scuffed wide. The curse was
broken. Though the "Oranje"
did go on to make a bit of an effort for a
while, you knew in your heart and
soul twas already not their day.
Rendered impotent by mad old
George.
Buoyed
by his early triumph, the little
man went on to have the game of
his life.
And though he annoyed us as usual
by writing off the Dutch challenge
with a good 15 minutes left on the
clock, why not tempt fate when
you've already laughed in its
face?
In the end, George saw us through
and no doubt repaired to the
Berkley Court to accept the
acclaim he deserved. Click
here for the highlights of his
performance. |
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