He still revels in being the man who put the ball in the England net but as Ireland’s first game in Wembley since the drawn European Championship encounter back in 1991 looms large, Ray Houghton admits his miss that night still haunts him.
England took an early lead that night through Lee Dixon after an error by Stephen Staunton but Ireland levelled just short of a half-an-hour when Niall Quinn finished after Houghton and Andy Townsend had combined to get Paul McGrath into a position to cross for the striker.
With 10 minutes to play, however, Houghton could have sealed the win when McGrath’s through ball was turned perfectly into the midfielder’s path by Tony Cascarino. With David Seaman to beat, the now 51-year-old tried to place it just inside the left-hand post only to see it fly wide.
When the campaign ended that autumn, Jack Charlton was characteristically blunt about how his side had missed out by a point to England for a place at the 1992 European Championship finals.
Houghton's miss
"We made some errors along the way," he observed, "but looking back on it now I think it was Ray Houghton's miss in the closing stages of the game against England at Wembley which did the real damage."
Speaking yesterday in Dublin where he was promoting the FAI Junior Cup final between Kilbarrack United and Sheriff YC at the Aviva stadium on June 2nd in advance of the international friendly against Georgia, Houghton still held vivid memories of both the incident itself and Charlton’s reaction afterwards. “It was one of the worst misses of all time,” he said. “I don’t think I ever missed an easier chance.
"I remember coming back to Liverpool a couple of days later and Ronnie Moran saying: 'How did you miss that? All you had to do was pass it into the corner.' But I tried to be too precise – I should have smashed it home.
Almighty telling off
"Jack gave me an almighty telling off after it but he didn't do it in front of the lads; he did it up in the bar, in front of my wife. He told me I could have been a hero again, but I messed it up. That's the polite way of saying it.
“I thought I’d got away with it, but he certainly let me know. It wasn’t only that I missed a chance to score against England again, the bigger point was the Euros. We needed to beat them, and if we’d beaten them we’d have qualified for Euro 92 – so it was a huge miss. One of the bad days.”
His and the rest of the team’s misery was compounded by the fact Ireland had been so superior for long stretches of the game, with McGrath and Quinn, along with Houghton himself, all outstanding.
There won’t be quite so much at stake this time around but Houghton maintains the match will still have plenty of meaning to the players as “there’s a great rivalry there,” and because Wembley, has a “mystique” about it.
Houghton is not surprised Robbie Keane has worked to secure his release from LA Galaxy for the game: “Playing at Wembley, against England; it’ll be another tick on the box . . . it’s great the club have given him the opportunity.”
