When Edin Dzeko said the night had been all about one man he meant the referee, but for most of the 50,000 at the Aviva stadium, Jon Walters is the one who is bound to be indelibly linked with accounts of this play-off victory when it is recalled in the years ahead.
He, though, was having none of it. The 32-year-old striker quietly but firmly spread the credit in the wake of a tremendous team performance.
“We’ve got there, we’ve got there, we’ve done it in the end,” he said in the stadium mixed zone with just the hint of a smile. “It’s a team, it’s a whole squad and the staff; it’s for each and every one of us. We got there in the end; it’s not just about one person.
“There were some great performances all over the pitch, the likes of Richard Keogh at the back. There were some real shifts put in. It was a difficult game, it was a tense second half, it was backs against the wall but we’ve done it.
Still, he had to admit, the story of the part he played in this campaign will be worth retelling when he hangs up his boots. Already hailed by Martin O’Neill as the team’s outstanding player on more than one occasion, he returned last night from suspension to get both of the goals that handed Ireland victory and their place at the finals.
“You couldn’t write it really,” he admitted ever so briefly before adding: “but it’s not about me scoring the two goals, it’s unbelievable stuff from everyone.
“We knew there would be ups and downs; Scotland was a bit of a low. People were saying we were not involved in the group halfway through after that game, but we always knew at the back of our minds that it would come back to bite them and it did.
“It’s difficult coming away, you are away from your families, everyone is, and we are a really good group and we are very close. We’ve qualified, we’re in France next year and I can’t wait for it.”
He took some time afterwards to get out on the pitch by himself to look for his family in the stands.
Then there was a moment when he reflected on the reason he had ended up playing for Ireland in the first place, his mother Helen Brady from the Clonliffe Road in Dublin.
“My mum passed away when I was 11 and I made the decision at a very young game to come and play for Ireland. I was asked when I was 16 or 17. She was smiling down on me tonight, I’m sure.”
