There’s David Kelly’s hat-trick against Israel in 1987, but not too many players can claim to have topped Robbie Brady’s senior debut, where a goal and major roles in two more of the Republic of Ireland’s four against tonight’s opponents two years ago appeared to confirm the young Dubliner’s reputation as a rising star.
It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means, with Brady looking a little like that kid who is used to being the best player in his underage team. However, his willingness to take on players and beat them and then his deliver at set pieces marked him out on the night as somebody special. The pity then he is still some way off getting his tally of caps out of single figures.
Injuries are the main reason, with the 22-year-old in and out of the Hull City side last season, when he needed surgery on two occasions. It kept him out of the international scene too and his only previous involvement with Martin O'Neill was when he swung by the new manager's first session in charge for a sort of meet-and-greet session, then headed back to England to redouble his efforts to get fully fit again.
Nearly there
Brady feels he’s nearly there now and is “almost touching 100 per cent” and hopes another meeting with Oman might present the opportunity to make a second first impression on the man who has succeeded
Giovanni Trapattoni
since he last kicked a ball for his country.
"Yeah, it was good, I could not wait to make my full debut and when I did get the goal it was obviously a bonus," he says quietly after a session putting kids through their paces at an eFlow-sponsored FAI Summer Soccer Schools Golden Camp in Gannon Park, Malahide.
“I’ll remember this crowd (Oman) for the rest of my life. I’m looking forward to playing against them again and hopefully getting another goal.”
Brady’s frustration at the setbacks he endured last season is entirely obvious. He looked to be on the verge of establishing himself as a big player at Hull but never got anything like the run of games that he wanted.
“It was just numerous things with my hips and groins,” he recalls with the sense of a man who fears just talking about the subject might prompt some sort of reoccurrence.
“When one thing seemed to be getting better, another thing was going and I had a couple of operations but I feel solid now. I feel as if everything has cleared up. Touch wood, no more problems,” adds Brady.
At club level, new players came in but the manager was at least aware of what he could do. With Ireland, there was almost as much upheaval amongst the players but the change of manager has left him needing to start over, and he is anxious to do it sooner rather than later despite having missed much of the club's pre-season and only played competitively for the first time last weekend.
In that game against Aston Villa he came on and reckons he did well. The talk afterwards, though, was more about Jack Grealish and how Hull had chosen to "deal" with him.
“I didn’t touch him personally,” says Brady with a slightly mischievous grin, “but Quinny (fellow Ireland international Stephen Quinn) wouldn’t have done us any favours.”
Out to impress
His aim now is to do himself one, if given half the chance, with the 22-year-old midfielder out to impress tonight in order, he says, “to cement my place in the team”.
Others might settle for just making the plane to Georgia after such a long lay-off but Brady has that sort of impatience about him that young players on the way up so often do.
He’s obviously taken with the idea of the trip to Tbilisi and even with the likely hostility of the home support, insisting that most of the players “would rather play in front of a crowd like that”.
“Yeah, I believe it’s a rough place to go but we won’t be going there for a draw,” he says, his quiet confidence showing again.
“I think it’s one we’ll look to win, hopefully get a few goals and set us up for the group. It will be a good game. It’s been a big gap and we’re all raring to go.”
