Dion Fanning: How Ireland can exploit England’s true cultural heritage

When Hallgrimsson said this group “deserves a little luck”, he was delivering an understatement. There have been so many dark nights that two wins in three competitive games could easily be mistaken for a golden age.

If Hallgrimsson can pick a side close to the one that started on Thursday, he may be hopeful that Ireland could aspire to a result at Wembley. He has stressed the need to pick a settled side but it is harder when the games come so quickly.

Kelleher and Ferguson are the players who gave Ireland the platform for a win on Thursday night. Ferguson’s edge will return with every game he plays. The partnership with Sammie Szmodics is a glimpse of how things might be and nights like Thursday could be critical in its development.

Kelleher’s decision to stay at Liverpool has been justified, even if he was eager to become a number one goalkeeper in the summer. He has developed into an outstanding goalkeeper, demonstrating a concentration that is essential for a high level side as well as the ability to make critical and extraordinary saves. Those gifts have matured at Liverpool but he is now suffering for being a familiar face when the new is always prized. Liverpool have a new goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili arriving and Kelleher is likely to leave, but staying has served a purpose. It is clear now he should be leaving for a club that has aspirations for the Champions League, not one that hopes to stay in the Premier League.

These players will hope to prosper. There are aspects of Hallgrimsson’s management that remain baffling but his calmness and clear-eyed purpose are assets to Ireland right now. Continuity becomes easier with a couple of victories, even if the prospects of defeat at Wembley are high.

England, of course, are suffering from their own neuroses. “A night of redemption for Lee Carsley,” was how the BBC described their victory in Athens on Thursday night. England and its commentators had appeared to have found some equilibrium in recent years but it has vanished in the last few months.

Since Lee Carsley announced he would be alone with his own thoughts rather than sing ‘God Save The King’ the old forces have returned to English football. Carsley was described as a “closet Irishman” who should be sacked on the morning of the game against Ireland for this act of treachery.

“Better surely to at least have someone calling the shots who is in a valid position to exhort the troops to greater effort in the country's cause,” one writer insisted, seemingly under the impression that it was the job of a manager to sing ‘God Save The King’ to his players.

This, he added, was “more of a betrayal than when England turned to foreign managers”.

He didn’t have long to wait for that old betrayal. Thomas Tuchel’s appointment sent England spinning wildly as they talked about their darkest day and the betrayal of that cultural artefact otherwise known as the coaching pathway. “I really believe in British culture, I believe in the coaching pathway,” Tuchel dutifully announced when appointed.

Nobody had thought of the poor coaching pathway when appointing Tuchel. It may be that one day the coaching pathway becomes an object to be fought for, an issue of repatriation like the Elgin Marbles, but for now the failure of English managers would seem to be a crisis caused by lots of people. Apart from Thomas Tuchel. Henry V had been invoked when Carsley’s refusal to sing the anthem was condemned, but it seemed the England manager required a purer English bloodline than many of their monarchs.

Tuchel does not take over until January 1 so Carsley is being afforded the shot at redemption, with some now wondering after Thursday night’s win why he wasn’t made manager permanently.

These mood swings have been part of English football culture for generations and are certainly more a part of their heritage than the coaching pathway.

For some of us, there is a certain comfort in these outbreaks, a warm blanket of nostalgia for how things used to be.

Those of us who remember Ireland at Wembley in 1991 will find it all familiar. Back then, Graham Taylor was the manager struggling with the expectation and the reality.

Ireland gave a nod to the old days with a 4-4-2 formation on Thursday. At Wembley on Sunday, that extraordinary night in March 1991 will seem a lifetime away. It is half a lifetime away.

The stories of that night illustrate how much has changed on and off the field. Hugh Callaghan, one of the Birmingham Six who had just been released, was at Wembley the day before the game having travelled to the ground with the squad. The viral clip of Ireland’s extraordinary period of pressure on the field is a reminder of that golden if rudimentary age.

"The Irish will play the long ball but we musn't try to beat them at their own game,” Taylor, who desperately wanted to play Ireland’s game, said beforehand. Ireland should have won but Niall Quinn’s goal earned a point for a side that was Jack Charlton’s team reaching a peak.

Everything has changed. England are one of the countries for whom these international breaks are a drag. They learn little, even in their defeats, and their presence at the major tournaments is assured (Taylor stumbled into qualification in 1991 and missed out on the World Cup two years later).

Can Ireland make the game on Sunday a contest? The chances would seem to be slim given that they are facing a country which has maximised its means of production. The list of talented English players — and former Irish ones — is daunting. Ireland are hoping the promise of Kelleher and Ferguson can see them through.

The stories from history, from long before they were born, are only stories to them now.

Having scored for his country at Wembley, Quinn would end the night on stage in the Galtymore in Cricklewood. His Manchester City manager Peter Reid had warned him he would be sacked if he didn’t make training the day after the game. Quinn made it, returning to Manchester in a Jaguar he had won playing Kalooki in a north London snooker hall, driven by the man who had lost it.

Wembley today is a different place, a true piece of cultural heritage destroyed when the FA rebuilt it in a modern forgettable style. Ireland are playing a different game now against different opponents. But Ireland might be able to capitalise as some of the old neuroses remain. They are a cultural heritage that won’t ever disappear.