"The fans went away happy," is a well-worn catch-all phrase often employed by the hackery to describe an eventful sporting occasion. That, in a nutshell (another favourite), was the critical reaction to the recent European Championship match against Spain. A critic without a newspaper to write in, I walked away from Lansdowne that evening far from happy. Having listened to the boys in the press box immediately after this "3-3 thriller" I knew that another major stroke was about to be pulled on the soccer-loving public.