ALL EYES WERE on the Lansdowne Road end as Jon Walters lined up his penalty.
But one Irish fan needed to make a tactical reshuffle involving James McClean to make sure he could see last night’s opening goal.
McClean and the Irish subs were warming up on the sideline as Walters prepared to face Asmir Begovic.
Twitter user @Niall_Sterio posted this video of him urging McClean to get out of the way, and the winger quickly obliging.
The reaction of McClean, Stephen Ward and the entire Aviva Stadium once the ball hit the back of the net was pretty special.
And if there was any doubt as to what it all meant to the Derry man, he made his excitement perfectly clear on Twitter after the final whistle:
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McClean also shot back at the trolls who taunted him when qualification appeared to be out of the question:
Good to see Aspas off the mark, hopefully gets a few more now.
Gota just keep winning,
Assidi has been great for Stoke recently cant play against us tho!
Doing better than Moses
Apples and oranges
Doesn’t sound like any of the other fringe players put their hand up today
Have you something against pink balls ?
Stoke away next…biggest game of the season!A serious test for the team
Hopefully united (if they scrape through somehow) in the 5th round. Handy 4th round draw as do that lot. Will hop off Stoke next wknd
That wasn’t Aspas’ first goal for Liverpool