It’s only been two years, but Robbie Brady’s debut in London seems a long time ago. The young Dubliner ran riot for spells that night and looked set to make a major international impact.
It took until last night, though for him to add to the goal he scored in London and, perhaps, prove there is potential for him to play more than one role for Martin O’Neill.
The Hull City winger played at left back here and still scored twice. Giovanni Trapattoni used never to tire of telling us how he wanted his wide defenders to attack but this performance from the 22-year-old might have ended his Ireland career once and for all. Brady hopes that the new man might just see what he been looking for.
“It’s difficult,” he said, “I don’t normally play there but he was very positive in there now about me. I know there’s some stuff I can brush up on at left back and of course I’ll try to do that, I’ll try to work on that in the few months that I’m away but he’s happy with tonight and so am I.”
It would hard not to be after the way his second goal flew into the top right corner. The defensive side of things could, without doubt, do with a bit of work but his performance was one of the biggest positives on a night when several of the starters may have passed up their opportunities to press their case.
“They’re my first home goals and I’m over the moon about that,” said Brady of the second half strikes, “but the main thing was just to get over the bad result that we had the other night. It’s good to finish the year on that good result and hopefully we can get ourselves together now and get the points that we need in a few months time. It was a big deal to turn in a decent performance.”
Positive impression
The debutants, he reckoned did well, with David McGoldrick making a particularly positive impression.
“I think he was brilliant. He had a big role in the first couple of goals, I thought he was excellent. I also thought that Cyrus Christie didn’t put a foot wrong at right back tonight; I thought he was excellent too. The two lads have been great in training all through the week and they brought it into tonight’s game. . . I thought they were very good.”
The game, though, will be remembered most for his own performance and especially that late free. Asked if they puts them in like that on the training ground, he laughed. “I try,” he said. “I try to hit them all the time but I haven’t hit many like that this week so I was glad to see it go in.”
In terms of his prospects of nailing down a more regular place next year, though, it might be his ability to impress in the role he played last night that will stand to him.
“It’s different but not all that different to where I’m playing at my club. I have more of a forward role there and I think I was out of position a couple of times tonight, it took me a little while to get to grips with it but hopefully the more I play it the more it’ll come to me. I enjoyed it all in all and if that’s where he needs to play me at any stage I think I’ll be happy to do it”
