It was not a team sheet Martin O’Neill was looking at - more like a script for that Father Ted episode where Craggy Island’s priests met Rugged Island in an Over-75s grudge match.
It was November 14, 2017. The World Cup play-off Ireland v Denmark in Dublin.
That was the night the Lions were fed to the Christian - Denmark’s Eriksen scoring a hat-trick to end Irish hopes of going to Russia.
If the present looked grim, the future seemed worse.
Not only was the starting X1 inadequate, but the alternatives on the Ireland bench that night were aged 33, 32, 36, 32, 34, 31, 35, 27, 27, 25 and 22.
That was it, the future of Irish football resting on Bristol City winger Callum O’Dowda’s shoulders - the only member of the match-day squad yet to celebrate his 25th birthday.
A rebuild was needed but what we got wasn’t quite Dermot Bannon ... more Dermot Morgan.
A year later came another hammering, this one a 4-1 drubbing by Wales when the Irish starting X1 contained eight of the squad who’d been outclassed by the Danes.
Of the remaining three, Seamus Coleman was 28, Jon Walters, 33, and Ireland’s goalscorer that night was their sub, Shaun Williams. At 31 we weren’t going to see much more of him.
Nor did we see much more of O’Neill.
He was sacked four games later, his year of experimentation post-Denmark ending with John Egan getting just two starts from eight games, Matt Doherty just one, Robinson three, Enda Stevens two.
To his credit, the manager did hand international debuts to a number of players including Michael Obafemi and this defender-cum-midfielder from West Ham called Declan Rice.
Whatever became of him?
When change finally arrived at the end of 2018, Mick McCarthy returned, the new manager bringing 36-year-old midfielder Glenn Whelan back into the starting team, a case of out with the old, in with the older.
Certain things went well, Ireland losing just one of McCarthy’s 10 games, faith shown in the underrated David McGoldrick. There was also an upgrade in Enda Stevens’ status and eventually Egan’s but still by the time McCarthy was finishing up, only one player in his final starting X1 was under 26.
That’s where Irish football was, paying big bucks for managers to deliver results, the FAI making it clear to McCarthy, O’Neill and before them, Giovanni Trapattoni, that the bottom line mattered.
In this context you can’t blame managers for following their brief and taking the safe option, either with their team selections or their tactics.
But nor can you blame fans for leaving the Aviva Stadium in their droves half an hour from the end of the 5-1 Danish game.
You need to understand this for what has followed under Stephen Kenny, the patchy results, the up-and-down performances.
That’s what you get when you invest in youth.
If consistency is what you want, the 1-1 draws with the late headed goal from Shane Duffy, then you go back in time.
You don't appoint a reformer but choose a manager who’ll load the team with steady-Eddies.
Irish fans had 12 years of that, and clearly had a thirst for something different, otherwise they wouldn’t have sang Kenny’s name with gusto following home draws against Portugal and Serbia.
They’d have demanded his head after defeats to Luxembourg and Armenia.
But they have stayed with him.
They’ve seen that 16 players have made competitive debuts under this Ireland manager and that a dozen of those were 24 or under when handed the responsibility.
They have noted how the discarded or forgotten have been remembered: Cullen winning 20 of his 22 Ireland caps under Kenny; Egan 22 of his 30; Robinson 22 of his 34 and Doherty 24 of his 33.
They have looked closely at the age profile of his squad. Keepers Gavin Bazunu, Caoimhin Kelleher and Mark Travers are 21, 24 and 23 respectively; defenders Dara O’Shea, Nathan Collins and Andrew Omobamidele are 23, 21 and 20; midfielders Jason Knight and Jayson Molumby are 22 and 23; strikers Troy Parrot, Adam Idah, Obafemi and Evan Ferguson all 22 or younger.
Would they all have been capped as often under previous regimes paid to deliver short-term manifestos?
Possibly.
But would a 20-year-old keeper (Bazunu) have 13 caps by now when an established alternative (Darren Randolph) was in situ?
Would Collins have as many 10 caps, O’Shea 16, Obafemi 13, Knight 17, Parrott 17, Kelleher nine, Omobamidele five?
Most likely not.
That’s why the last two years, the experimental selections and inconsistent displays have been worth it.
We had our fill of booting the ball long, of low-risk football and celebrating 1-1 draws as if we’d won the World Cup.
The truth is that Irish football was disconnected with fans who were turned off by an ageing team that was harder to get out of than into.
A revolution was needed and Kenny has delivered it.
We now have our youngest and most exciting forward line in a generation with 18-year-old Ferguson ready to spearhead it, supported by 22-year-olds Obafemi and Idah, 21-year-old Parrott and comparative veteran, 25-year-old Chiedozie Ogbene.
That doesn’t give the manager a free pass forever.
The onus is on him now to finish off the job he started.
But look where we were. The old system was short-term focussed, built around seasoned pros in the 25-to-35 age bracket.
But the last two years have delivered a team who’ll be around for the long haul earning Kenny the right to this contract and this campaign. What happens next will determine if it’ll be his last or the belated beginning of something special.
Either way, the leap from old stagers to young hopefuls was worth it.
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