To understand the significance of tonight’s World Cup Qualifier for the Republic of Ireland in Glasgow, you need to go back to the 15th of November 1989, almost 33 years ago, and a stadium in the Maltese capital of Valetta.
That was the night that John Aldridge scored in the 30th and then from the penalty spot in the 68th minute to secure a place for the Republic of Ireland in our first-ever World Cup Finals.
Seven months later Italia ’90 lit up the country in a sporting context like had never been the case before.
Emerging from the ravages of economic hardship we celebrated as we watched Jack Charlton lead Ireland against the world’s finest and bring us to a Quarter Final after a penalty shoot-out that is as alive in the memory today as if it were yesterday.
There are some who argue that it kicked off the economic revival that brought Ireland to the country it is today. If that doesn’t feel like much of a boast you need to have lived through the 1970s and 1980s.
Fast forward more than three decades and you have a game tonight that stands to be of equal importance. Managed by an overseas coach who has formed a real bond with their adopted home, with a team that has been building momentum, and a goalscoring penalty taker playing at the highest levels of English football, the comparisons are striking.
That Irish team went into the game in malta off the back of a five-game unbeaten run in qualification, sparked by defeat to the eventual table toppers and an inspirational victory over them back in Dublin. They had not conceded a goal in those five games.
Fast forward again to the present and this team is unbeaten in seven games, conceding only one in the last five and having come to life after a defeat to the eventual table toppers, in this case, Sweden.
The hold that this team has over the country has grown from football fans and schoolchildren, from young and old. They have been supported by commercial backing from Sky Ireland, Cadbury and Aviva in particular which has amplified the winning personality of the team and the coach in a way that has hit every mark.
Now Scotland stand in the way of the next step. If qualification is secured it will mean eight months of celebration of this group of players and the manager. Vera Pauw said yesterday that it will change lives and she was not overstating it. The power of sport has always been there for boys. For girls, it is only in recent years that it has been as clear as it is now.
This team has the power to normalise the support of a women’s team and to take a huge step forward in equality of respect, support and place in the national sporting psyche. They can emulate Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington, Sonia O’Sullivan, Ellen Keane, Leona Maguire and Rachael Blackmore who have done it in their individual sports.
This can be a very special night for Irish sport, the most important in 33 years. Come on You Girls in Green.
