The celebrations had scarcely started and already the air was heavy with talk of resignations. "There's only one thing for it," beamed Brian Kerr after he had handed back the European Youths' Championship trophy to one of the players who had just helped to win it, "we'll have to get out while we're ahead".
Kerr, having already shown himself to be capable of walking on water, appeared to be strolling on air as he took in the atmosphere at the New Zenon stadium in Larnaca. The best part of 2,000 Irish fans were wandering out into the warm night, high after another Irish success.
Eleven weeks ago it was the Italians who were trounced by Ireland's under-16s in Scotland; now the under-18s had beaten Germany to complete a spectacular double. If Kerr wants to get out when the going was good, then last night was the time to go.
He, the team's technical staff and the supporters were forced to wait until the bitter end for victory last night. Alan Quinn had given the boys in green the lead in the 71st minute of a game the Germans had dominated for long spells. With just 10 seconds of normal time remaining, Andreas Gensler prolonged the agony by snatching an equaliser. Extra time passed without event and Kerr found himself giving pep talks to five of his exhausted players before they stepped up to take spot kicks.
When it came down to the kick of Liam George, there were plenty in the stand who couldn't bear to look. "We were just saying," said George's striking partner Robbie Keane with a grin afterwards, "how Liam [a dreadlocked 19-year-old whose father is from St Lucia], looked just like Dave O'Leary in Italy as he went up to hit it".
That might have been stretching things a bit, but then so was any suggestion that Brian Kerr would be going anywhere other than next year's World Championships.
