- Dec 9, 2006
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It's been going on longer than O'Neill. Trappatoni got the same grief not so long ago. The likes of Iceland and the North have had purple patches of late but they mirror the ones we had, a golden generation which were the exceptions to the rule. No doubt another small nation will pop up soon as well. But sustained success is a different story.
We've been to 3 World Cups (90, 94 and 02) and 3 Euros (88, 12, 16). We've had a handful of good results at those but even then we can only really enjoy the solitary goals of Houghton (England 88/Italy 94), Whelan (Russia 88), Sheedy (England 90 again, soz/not soz), Quinn (Netherlands 90), Aldridge (Mexico 94), Holland (Cameroon 02), Keane (Germany 02/Spain 02), St Ledger (Croatia 12), Hoolahan (Sweden 16), Brady (Italy 16/France 16). Those single goals aside we had a 3-0 to Saudi Arabia and the 5-4 penalties win over Romania.
More often than not we suffer playoff heartache which we are lucky to get to considering for the last couple of decades we were pretty much a sustained 3rd seed, 4th now, trying everything to scrape a 2nd place and upset someone who thought they had (and actually had because of the seedings) more right than us. We should sit on the outskirts but time and again we sneak in to the party. This is, and has been, an over-performing country and all we ever hope to do is get there and have a good time. We we go, we do, no matter the result and for all the bollockses saying we are no loss to a major tournament, you're living in a dream world, where the World Cup is Football's very own version of the Harlem Globe Trotters. Instead it is where many big names and big teams go to die while the true stars rise to the occasion, sometimes only for the tournament, and fade again. The World Cup has always been about the unique for me. The stories, the moments, the characters, because that is the only thing you can guarantee to turn up. And a lot of the time they are provided by nations the Footballing Snobbery spend most of the time looking down on.
We should have bloody won that group too
My eyes bled a little reading that rather long paragraph lol :dead: