Without proper funding and smart investment, Ireland will stay way off the elite level of football

The crowd dispersed fairly quickly from Lansdowne Road on Saturday night. Little more than an hour after the Ireland players trudged disconsolately off the pitch, there were only a few stragglers walking up towards Beggars Bush.

Two supporters in a merry mood had hitched a ride on a rickshaw and began a chant of ‘Keano, Keano.’ It felt forlorn, almost a lament of better times.

It was a theme running through the day. From the lusty rendition of Ooh Aah Paul McGrath early in the afternoon to the impressive banner thanking Jack Charlton for the days up to Put ‘Em Under Pressure blasted from the stadium speakers at eardrumbursting volume moments before kick-off, much of the afternoon was being reminded of a time when Ireland met their old enemy as equals, or even their betters.

But those days are drifting further and further into the past .

Within moments of the game itself kicking off, it was clear that these two footballing nations exist on different planes now.

England came here as a side who had reached the last two finals at the European Championships and having won the last Euro Under 21 Championship, under Lee Carsley.

In the past 15 years, they have become a country who have taken the development of talent seriously and that was evident on the pitch on Saturday.

As gifted as the likes of Anthony Gordon and Marc Guehi are, they have been correctly nurtured through a proper coaching system. It is why England might even fulfil their vast potential if Carsley is allowed to take over the project.

Of course, the absurd and puerile controversy that erupted over the former Ireland midfielder not singing God Save the King proves that not everything is rosy in the English garden.

That a decent and honourable man like Carsley was dragged over the coals for such nonsense only shows for all the talent of their national football team, post-Brexit England is a very strange place.

Perhaps Carsley sitting in the wrong dug-out prior to kickoff was him, on some subconscious level, suggesting that maybe he should have taken the Ireland job. But that’s probably wishful thinking.

In taking interim charge of England, Carsley is over a team and working in tandem with an association that has a clear path of where it wants to go.

And a clear idea of how to get there. Sadly, the same can hardly be said of Ireland and the FAI. Ignore the identity of the two goalscorers and the panto booing that greeted their every touch, what transpired on the pitch on Saturday illustrates that Ireland are light years behind and football here needs a long-term strategy. Brexit means that Ireland’s old plan of farming out their best footballers to England for their talent to be developed is no longer viable.

The days of someone like Liam Brady pitching up in north London in his mid-teens are gone.

Players have to be nurtured here. In one of the few positive aspects of the weekend, eight of the U21 team that won in Turkey on Friday night came from the League of Ireland. This now has to be the starting point. We can no longer rely on England – or even English-born players, as the hurtful examples of Declan Rice and Jack Grealish prove.

For a proper and functioning academy system, investment is needed. Cold, hard cash. In fairness to the FAI, president Paul Cooke and interim chief executive David Courell used their notes in the match programme – available for the princely sum of €10 – to urge Ireland supporters to make football funding a big issue in the forthcoming election, likely to take place in November.

The Government needs to play its part in making this nation a serious football country again, because if and when that happens, Official Ireland will beat the front of the bandwagon.

‘If you see any of the politicians here to witness history in the making,’ Cooke wrote, ‘please remind them that football – Ireland’s biggest participation sport – is calling for real support now from Government, local and national, to ensure we develop the future generations who can deliver those breathholding moments.

‘No other sport can deliver on the world stage like football. Our historic games against England proved that in the past and we make no apologies for asking for Government funding to ensure more historic days in the future.’

Saturday was not one of those historic days. For all the honesty of Sammie Szomdics, the commanding presence of Caoimhín Kelleher and the threat that Chiedozie Ogbene posed on the odd break, for all the unreasonable optimism that comes with a new manager, Ireland are still a long way off the elite level.

So far off that this should be an issue on the doorsteps in the coming weeks and months. It is time that this country took responsibility for developing their best players – with top facilities and coaching.

But that will only happen with Government support. And if it doesn’t come, all we will be left with is the memory of the glory days, and chants about towering figures such as Paul McGrath and Roy Keane.

Days that are receding further and further into the past .