Ireland sharp-shooter Troy Parrott hailed his stunning injury-time winner as ‘one of the best moments’ of his life.
And manager Stephen Kenny praised the Tottenham youngster for channelling his anger in the right way.
Kenny revealed that Parrott was peeved to be left on the bench for the win over Lithuania - where Ireland had FOUR goals ruled out for offside.
But the striker pulled a result out of the fire - and brought the house down - with a moment of magic in the 97th minute.
Parrott beamed: “It’s Incredible. I’m still shaking now and it’s honestly one of the best moments of my life. I’m over the moon and to see it hit the back of the net was crazy.”
And Kenny said: “He was disappointed not to start but I spoke to him and he channelled it in the way you would want him to.
“The easy thing would be to be displeased and not have the attitude you would want.”
The Ireland boss - whose team have gone eight games unbeaten - also credited his players for showing yet another never-say-die approach.
Kenny said: “The players have shown their ability to get late goals and that’s a very important quality in a team.
“There were late goals in the games against Azerbaijan, Serbia, three in Luxembourg, Belgium and again today.
“That’s an important characteristic of a team and you can’t underestimate the value of persistence.
“It also speaks volumes of the humility of the group to keep going.”
It didn’t look like being Ireland’s night after Chiedozie Ogbene, twice, Conor Hourihane and Scott Hogan all had goals ruled out for offside.
Kenny said: “It’s a very unusual situation to have four goals ruled out. Some were late flags and you’re already celebrating and you can’t believe it.
“Frustration can get the better of you but we didn’t allow that to happen. We kept passing the ball and believing.”
Kenny felt there were good and bad lessons to carry into the summer after an abject first-half performance.
He continued: “We needed to inject a greater tempo into our build up. We had a reluctance to cross the ball when we had good opportunities.
“We never really worked it and needed to pass into the front three quicker but it’s easier on paper. But we learned a good deal from the game.”
Uncertainty still surrounds the makeup of Ireland’s four Nations League matches in June where they were due to play Ukraine twice, Scotland and Armenia.
But Kenny said: “We needed to create more chances than we did tonight but overall it was a very beneficial few days.
“The support we had has been amazing and it will bring itself into June and I think the atmosphere in the summer will be electric.”
