Emmet Malone was there as Sunderland supporters found their voices, giving it up for Keane, Drumaville and disco pants
It was Ireland's day at the Stadium of Light, but in the press box a lone Japanese man had crashed the party and was initially at a loss to figure out exactly what he had gotten himself into. As photographers clustered pitchside to grab a picture of a certain Corkman quietly slipping in to take his seat in the stand and supporters on three sides of the ground chanted the name of "Keano", our man from the east politely inquired what all the commotion was about.
"It's Roy Keane," he was told, "he's just become the manager." The intercontinental journalist nodded but offered no outward evidence of appreciating the significance of this news.
Within seconds he had gone back to mapping out team formations in his notebook and towards the end of a game in which Sunderland defied expectations by giving West Brom something of a hammering he actually fell asleep. This sort of indifference, make no mistake, is the true cost of coming home early from World Cups.
There may have been one person in the press box who was unimpressed by Sunderland's performance in this, their sixth competitive game of the season, but the general feeling was this might be a turning point for a side that had not won with such conviction nor played with such confidence in a year or more.
Seasoned observers of this troubled team would happily have told you before kick-off that half or more of the first-team squad needed to be replaced if serious progress was to be made at a club paying the price for several years of under-investment in its on-field assets.
By the end there was general acclaim for a good many of the winning team with the likes of Dean Whitehead, Grant Leadbitter and Chris Brown singled out for praise afterwards by their outgoing manager.
In the stand the man who takes over the role this morning must have been impressed too by the showings by Irish players, with Stephen Elliott, Rory Delap and Kenny Cunningham all doing well and Daryl Murphy making a positive impact after coming on 12 minutes from time.
As Keane watched he was, needless to say, cheered although he was not the only Irishman feted by the locals in song. For long periods of time they alternated between chanting his name and celebrating those most notorious of leisurewear items, Niall Quinn's disco pants. Later, they would not settle even for those two and began to single out members of the Drumaville Consortium for adulation.
On the pitch, meanwhile, a goal in each half, the first from Whitehead, the second from Neill Collins, secured a 2-0 win that was richly deserved and with it three points that lifted the club to the dizzy heights of joint second from bottom in the Championship table.
This should not, one suspects, be a cause for celebration in the book of Keane but celebrate they did. Still, when the Irishman addresses them today for the first time and asks them to believe they can be something much better than a side that scrambles for safety in the game's second tier they'll do that too and with just as much enthusiasm.
Sunderland, it's clear, has been waiting for a man to follow and to judge by the acclamation at the end it's fair to say they reckon they've found him. It's a case of "today West Brom, tomorrow the world" for Keano's new red and white army. And this time around that definitely includes Japan.
