Along the Match of the Day lines here.  Top 10 games we ever played in your lifetime.  They can be included for footballing performance or entertainment or significance or a mixture of all 3.

1.  Eire v Italy 1994

2.  Eire v England 1988

3.  England v Eire 1991

4.  Eire v Holland 2001

5.  Eire v USSR 1988

6.  Italy v Eire 2016

7.  France v Eire 2009

8.  Eire v Germany 2015

9.  Estonia v Eire 2011

10.Turkey v Eire 1991

My top 10 games based on footballing performance alone

1. Eire v Italy 1994

2. Eire v USSR 1988

3. France v Eire 2009

4. England v Eire 1991

5. Turkey v Eire 1991

6. Eire v Croatia 1998

7. Eire v Yugoslavia 1999

8. Spain v Eire 2002

9. Holland v Eire 2000

10. Poland v Eire 1991

I watched the Holland game the night before. Great win but rode our luck with the Dutch coming close a number of times and Shay Given getting away with dragging down Van Nistlerooy after Staunton's mistake.

Is there a schedule of other games coming up? Would like to see WC2002 again particularly the Spain match 

A lot of games on Eir sport. Rte showed 1 hour highlights on Thursday night as part of the Rte sports classics. TG4 have full games on Friday night.

Obviously didnt watch it closely enough or the replays.

Given never laid a hand on him.

Obstruction at best, clumsy at worst.

Eir changed this and deleted the games but I have had a look and now there are more games there  again   https://www.eirsport.ie/gold" rel="nofollow - https://www.eirsport.ie/gold  

Ire v Spain  21st of June

FrankosHereNow wrote: ProudAndLoud wrote: Given blocks his run with contact penalty all day  There’s no doubt it should have been a penalty. We were blessed.

We should have lost that game 3 or 4-0.  Bit like the Germany 2015 game.  They missed everything and we took our chance.  We played better in 2001 compared to 2015 though.

I forgot how close they came to scoring at the end. Hamilton didnt seem too bothered by the ball just missing the post by a geehair from Kluivert and Hasselbaink I think it was in injury time.  We had an awful habit of conceding late goals under McCarthy. I was convinced it was going to happen again even though it would still have qualified us for the playoff.

Still would of went down as one of the great days in Irish football  

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So what you are saying is we were absolutely nowhere near topping the group

Bizarre post

What about the games before the 94 World Cup:

Beating the Germans 2-0 in Germany.

And the Dutch 1-0 away.

We only drew 0-0 with Montenegro and the Italian game your referring too was Cyprus not Georgia if Im not wrong. Crazy times my aul lad paid 300 quid for himself and my bro to go to the Italian game this was before the ST and you had to buy tickets for both games together and practically nobody showed up for the Montenegro game but the FAI already made there money. Martin Rowland came on in the Italian game and I remember saying who the fook is he and where is Andy Reid. 

That was a good campaign for us and small things cost us (and Henry the cheating so and so)

A powerful performance.We steamrollered them. The game was over by half-time. I think Staunton scored directly from a corner.

I watched highlights from the 0-4 Euro '96 qualifier against the north recently, and every goal was down to a goalkeeping error. I believe Paul Kees, a part-timer and coalman by day, who played for Ards, was in goal for them.

Flattered us.

Being friendlies I didn't include them.  Brazil 1987 too and Holland 2004 etc...

 

Indeed. And yet they finished level on points with us, and a point better off than Austria who tonked us home and away. If they'd equalised at home to Latvia they'd have qualified directly, I think I'm right in saying.

Yeah that's right.  I think that says more about our radical collapse rather than their good form although they did tank Austria which was bizarre.

After that England friendly things went completely off the rails.  Drawing to Northern Ireland in Lansdowne was a disaster.  Injuries didn't help too for the rest of the campaign.  Roy Keane seemed to miss every match.

At the time and for years afterwards I assumed Jack was going to step down in Feb 1996 but was sacked before he got to 10 yrs exactly.   But it seems he was definitely thinking of staying on and havig a go at the World Cup qualifiers. (Certainly before Anfield anyway).

Whatever about how Ireland's form deteriorated in the latter days of his reign, Jack was treated disgracefully at the end, as he described in his autobiography. He'd earned the right to leave on his own terms. And there were no upcoming competitive matches for months.

You're right about injuries. Roy Keane missed 8 of the 11 qualification matches - including the playoff - and played for United in, I think, 7 of the matches they played immediately afterwards.

Yeah he deserved so much better from the FAI.  Yeah Keane never seemed to miss many games when he was at Forest but went missing frequently when he went to United.  At least that's my recollection of it.

Wonder what would have happened had he stayed on for another campaign and brought in young players.

His last game at Anfield he had 4 full backs in the team and 2 aged strikers up front.

The game had moved on significantly by his standards. He was clinging on to the jobs (method wise) due to the fact the stalwarts were still there. Houghton etc. 

It was a massive rebuild and he was a total spent force by 96. 

Houghton and/or McAteer should have played, however.

Yeah it probably would have ended in a Trap, MON-esque style last campaign.  But I maintain that we would have qualified for Euo 96 had Keane et al been available.

I remember Ronnie Whelan captaining us in 1995 against Liechtenstein.  We seemed to have only semi retired lads to pick from for a number of games.

Jeff Kenna, Alan Kelly never seemed to fit in.

Who would have come through for Jack in 1996 had he stayed?  Breen, Kennedy, Cunningham..

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Toni fooken Polster

I think it can be forgotten that the decline was rather gradual, and it didn't come as a bolt from the blue when we started losing games. Although the US Cup 92 wasn't really serious, it was the first time we lost games for some time that had any sort of competitive edge. Then there was the 3-1 defeat to Spain in Dublin, and the Denmark game in 1993 could have gone the same way given the manner in which the game panned out after their goal. While the Italy game in 1994 was breathtakingly brilliant, USA 94 was a fairly disappointing time, and we were very much "also-rans" in the tournament, even though we did well to break the group. If you watch the game in Windsor Park in November 1994 one of the major differences was the performances of both keepers. Apart from Sheridan's goal, you'd have backed Alan Kelly to save the other three goals we scored, which seemed to go through the keeper, and Kelly made several good saves when we were two goals up. The Portugal win proved to be a dead cat bounce, and after that the difficulties that cropped up two years previously against Spain, became the norm.

Funny, I think Charlton did have an eye on the future. He was actually engaging a rebuild of sorts, with the "Three Amigos", Kenna, and Kennedy. Alan Kelly also became the starting keeper in lieu of Bonner. He also had a relatively young Roy Keane available, which was seven players on which to build a team. The difficulty was, as has been said, the ongoing involvement of the more aged players (who incidentally, generally got a run with McCarthy (McGrath, Aldo, Cascarino, Houghton, Bonner all got capped by McCarthy, as did lads like Liam O'Brien). Charlton may have found it a little more difficult to dispense with them. Also, the draw against Lichtenstein should be construed as a product of the tactics employed, where 4-4-2 was persisted with, when there was an argument to be made for at least going 4-3-3, or if you were particularly forward thinking 3-4-3. If the same tactics were persisted with, it didn't necessarily matter who the players were, as the tactics might undo good work, anyway.

Also, what is forgotten is, is that it was a different time in management, and often it required 'amicable' discussions with managers to part ways, and you wouldn't suffer a few bad results, lose your job and be frogmarched from the building with a cardboard box of your things and a plant in a pot. Famously, Maurice Setters didn't agree that because Jack was going, it automatically meant he was gone too, and there was an ongoing dispute that went to the EAT in November 1996, and was settled. As such, I'm not sure what difference would have been made by waiting for an apparent inevitability, which may not have happened. While there was no competitive fixtures for several months, McCarthy got to test out his methods over 10 or so games, and against a large number of teams that were going to Euro '96, and at a time where friendly matches still had a slightly competitive edge. I also think, the extent of the needs of the rebuild only became clear during 1996-1997, and an extension of the Charlton years may not have started that as quickly as it needed. McCarthy deserves a lot of credit for identifying the needs of the team, and to an extent seeing that Charlton's plans for revolution, in terms of players, were not necessarily the way things ought to be.

Jack brought so many special days to Ireland, and put Irish football on the map, while engendering a very special love of the beautiful game in the country, but my recollection of events, 25 years ago, was the the consensus was the end of the line was reached. That being said, all should have been done to ensure that his exit was as mutually amicable as possible.