ROBBIE BRADY hopes ending the wait can lift the weight and see Ireland kick-on now.
Brady scored a late winner as the Boys in Green beat Finland in Helsinki and earned new boss Heimir Hallgrímsson his first win in charge.
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But it was also Ireland’s first competitive win against a side in FIFA’s top 100 since September 2022, and first competitive away win against a non-minnow since October 2017.
And it was also the first time that Ireland won a competitive game that they were trailed since Kazakhstan in October 2013.
Veteran Brady – who made his debut in 2012 – has seen it all before, but he acknowledged that the poor run was affecting younger players. And last night can change it for the better.
He said: “It feels amazing. It’s frustrating, we know the results haven’t been great for the last few years. And it can weigh on you a bit, especially for the lads, it’s a young group.
“It’s good for spirit, good for belief, good for everything.
“But we have millions and millions of pounds of talent in that dressing room, it’s not like we’re all a crop of bad players.
“I try to explain to lads at different times and talking about and saying that you don’t know what an opportunity you have.
“With the group we have, I don’t see why not, why we can’t go and compete in tournaments.
“And it’s not just for us, you can see the lift it gives everybody, the whole country, it means the world to everybody.
“You don’t want to miss out on tournaments, the more tournaments that you can go and play in is incredible.
“And we’ll be putting everything we can into qualifying for tournaments going forward.”
But it was also special for Brady who is having a renaissance with Ireland having lost his place in the squad for all of 2023 under Stephen Kenny.
He returned under interim gaffer John O’Shea earlier this year, and now played all three games under new boss Hallgrímsson and hopes that remains the case in future.
Brady continued: “It means the world for me. The highlight of my career has always been playing for my country.
“And you realise when you’re not in the fold how much you miss it. I put in a lot of hard work and I feel I deserve to be in around it at the minute. And I’m glad I got to show it tonight.
“All you can do is get your head down and work hard and that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve got gametime under my belt at club level.
“I feel fit. I’ve had a fair share of injuries over the years, that hasn’t helped. But I will always continue to work hard.
“If it gives me half a chance of getting back and playing in a green jersey I’ll give everything I have.”
‘STRANGE GAME’
Brady was delighted with his goal as he arrived unmarked on the left to fire home a lovey cross from substitute Festy Ebosele, having earlier crossed for Liam Scales equaliser.
The defender said: “It was a strange game. We gave ourselves a bit of a hill to climb but Scalesy’s header, what a great header.
“And I was lucky enough to get one myself at the end. It felt great. Festy did brilliant to get the ball to me and lucky enough it went in.
“It’s just making sure it all clicks and I think the work that we’ve been doing through the week was solid, although it wasn’t perfect.
“We were under the cosh a bit during the game and we’ll look to fix that but it’s just good to get a win and get that feeling back and enjoy the feeling but push on and add more wins.
“We’ve got a game in three days, we rest and go again.”