THIS WAS A Perfect 10 for Robbie Brady.
Now a veteran on the night of his 67th cap, the 32-year-old scored his 10th goal for the Republic of Ireland to deliver a brilliant 2-1 win over Finland in Helsinki.
Brady has a habit of delivering moments that matter and will always be remembered.
His header against Italy in Lille at Euro 2016 was followed by a penalty in the round of 16 against hosts France.
Ireland were only there after he netted a sublime goal in the fog of Zenica when Ireland faced Bosnia-Herzegovina in a two-legged qualifying play-off. Brady also scored on his senior debut against Oman at Fulham’s Craven Cottage after Euro 2012 and, more recently, converted a penalty to edge out Armenia 3-2 in Dublin in 2022.
That was actually the last time he found the net in green and now you can a Finnish postage stamp to the memories.
“It means the world for me. Like I’ve always said, 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,” Brady 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. It’s my role, I have the licence to go forward when we have the ball and I probably would like to up there more throughout the game but the timing of it was perfect. Festy [Ebosele] did brilliant to get the ball to me and lucky enough it went in.
“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. But like I said, 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.
“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.”
This win allays fears of relegation from League B but does not guarantee safety. Greece in Athens on Sunday will be a serious challenge, especially after they topped Group 2 with a win over England at Wembley.
Brady knows as the most experienced player in the squad that the onus is on him to provide leadership.
“Of course there is, 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. And 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.
“It’s (the win) good for spirit, good for belief, good for everything. But I thought some good individual performances tonight and we showed character as a team. But we’ll be looking to build on that as a team. As I said, we weren’t perfect and we’ve got a game in three days, we rest and go again.”
And he admitted that getting the chance to be part of an Ireland squad is not something he ever took for granted.
“You never know do you when you’re out of favour with someone. But 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.
“The only way you build confidence is winning games. Like I said a few times, it wasn’t perfect tonight. But to show that grit to come back and win a game, they’re a solid team, made it hard at times, pushed us back at times. But I thought the lads dug in well and got a crucial win for morale and what we need going forward.”
