THURSDAY, June 25 marked 25 years since Ireland v Romania at Italia 90.
After a goalless 120 minutes, Jack Charlton's side made history by beating Romania on penalties to reach the quarter-finals at their first ever World Cup.
A quarter of a century on, we take a look at the Irish players who featured that day and find out what they've been up to since – from selling Cornish pasties to releasing albums…
Packie Bonner
One-club man Bonner spent his whole career at Celtic, and with 642 games for the club is fifth on their list of all-time appearances.
Bonner kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 win over England at Euro 88, his eighth consecutive clean sheet, and was also in goal for the historic 1-0 win over Italy at the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
After playing he was goalkeeping coach for the Ireland squad and also technical director at the FAI during Brian Kerr’s reign.
Chris Morris
Fellow Celtic player Morris played every minute of Ireland’s Euro 88 and Italia 90 campaigns.
He retired in 1997 after five years at Middlesbrough and took over the running of the family business in Newquay, Morris Cornish Pasties.
Morris — whose mother hailed from Co. Monaghan — has handed over the reins to his son, and is now a full-time football coach at Bodmin Academy in Cornwall, and also coaches part-time at Exeter City’s Centre of Excellence.
Mick McCarthy (captain)
After spells at Barnsley, Manchester City, Celtic, Lyon and Millwall, Yorkshire man McCarthy moved into management with the Lions.
He succeeded Jack Charlton as Ireland manager and after missing out in the playoffs for France 98 and Euro 2000, led Ireland to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
He probably hasn’t had the credit he deserves for his work with Sunderland, Wolves and Ipswich, having won promotion to the Premier League with the first two and narrowly missing out on repeating the feat with the Tractor Boys this year.
Had a bit of a spat with Roy Keane once…
Kevin Moran
Defender Moran had already won two All-Ireland SFC titles and three Leinster SFC titles with Dublin before signing for Manchester United as a 21-year-old in February 1978.
In 1994 he was one of the founders of Proactive Sports Management, along with Jesper Olsen and Paul Stretford and has since worked for John Grant Sports Agency and as a pundit.
Steve Staunton
Now 46, Staunton was the youngest member of Ireland’s squad at Italia 90 and holds the distinction of being the only person to play in every one of Ireland’s games at World Cup finals, having been in the squads for USA 94 and Japan & South Korea 2002.
Staunton finished his playing career at Walsall, where he was also assistant coach for six months, seemingly making him qualified to take over as Ireland coach in January 2006.
His reign as “the gaffer” started well with a 3-0 friendly win over Sweden, but despite some creditable results in Euro 2008 qualifying, the campaign was overshadowed by the embarrassing 5-2 loss in Cyprus and he was sacked before the last qualifier away to Wales.
After a stint as assistant manager at Leeds, he endured a poor five-month spell as Darlington manager in the 2009/10 season.
Staunton also worked as a scout for Middlesbrough, Wolves and Sunderland and set up a foundation in his name to raise money for charitable causes.
Ray Houghton
In their opening game of USA 94, Ireland faced Italy, who had eliminated them four years earlier.
Houghton’s looping shot after 11 minutes was enough to seal another memorable World Cup win.
After his playing career ended, he took up an ambassadorial role with the FAI and was on the three-man team charged with finding Steve Staunton’s successor.
A prolific pundit, he was part of RTÉ’s commentary team for the 2014 World Cup.
Paul McGrath
Regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest ever players, Paul McGrath has fought a long-running battle with alcoholism and has had some run-ins with the law, including an arrest in 2013 over an alleged public order offence,
The former Manchester United and Aston Villa defender retired in 1998 but had a spell as director of football at Waterford United in 2004.
In 2006, he released his frank autobiography Back from the Brink to critical acclaim.
His dedication to Ireland's cause — often playing through the pain barrier — was never in doubt.
Oh, and in 2011, McGrath released an album. Seriously. Handle with Care is available on iTunes.
Andy Townsend
Like Staunton, Houghton, McGrath and Tony Cascarino, Andy Townsend is another Aston Villa alumni and won the League Cup twice with the Midlands club (1994 and 1996).
He has forged a successful media career and spent 15 years with ITV Sport until his contracted ended recently.
Although often derided for his clichés and ability to state the obvious (last year he topped an Independent poll for least favourite TV co-commentator with 37 per cent), his enthusiasm is never in doubt.
As Alan Tyers wrote recently in the Telegraph: “Whatever else you say about Andy, that guy really likes watching football. Not many other expert summarisers mutter ‘go on’ as a player nears the goal.”
Townsend was recently seen resorting to bar work (although it was just an FA Cup publicity stunt for Captain Morgan).
Kevin Sheedy
Welsh-born midfielder Kevin Sheedy qualified for Ireland through his father, who was from Co. Clare.
The former Evertonian saw out his career with spells at Newcastle and Blackpool, before working as an assistant manager at Tranmere and Hartlepool.
Sheedy returned to Goodison Park as an academy coach and led Everton’s U-18s to the Premier League title in 2014 before narrowly missing out on retaining the trophy this season.
He was successfully treated for bowel cancer in 2012.
John Aldridge
Prolific striker John Aldridge scored 476 goals in 889 appearances for Newport, Oxford, Liverpool, Real Sociedad and Tranmere.
At USA 94, TV cameras captured his expletive-ridden rant as officials took six minutes to substitute him on in the group game against Mexico.
His goal in the 2-1 defeat ensured Ireland progressed to the next round courtesy of goals scored.
Aldridge managed Tranmere between 1996-2001, reaching the League Cup final in 2000.
Perhaps a duet with Paul McGrath is on the cards, with Aldridge winning the charity version of RTÉ’s You’re A Star in 2006.
Niall Quinn
Niall Quinn would miss the 1994 World Cup due to injury but the 6ft 4in striker travelled to Japan & South Korea in 2002, where he set up Robbie Keane’s famous late equaliser against Germany.
He headed the Drumaville Consortium that took over Sunderland in 2006, installing himself as chairman and manager, but after four defeats in his first four games he appointed Roy Keane as boss.
After leaving Sunderland in 2012, Quinn became chairman of an Irish satellite broadband company and also works as a pundit for Sky Sports.
Renowned for his generosity, he donated his 2002 testimonial fee to charity and in 2007 paid £8,000 to take home 100 Sunderland fans from Cardiff by taxi.
The fans had been thrown off the plane for singing Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants — a song created by fans of former club Manchester City after they spotted Quinn dancing while wearing just a pair of cut-off jeans during a 1992 preseason tour of Italy.
David O'Leary (for Staunton, 94')
David O’Leary was a fateful 94th-minute substitute for Steve Staunton in the Romania game, his only game time at the tournament.
After 18 years with Arsenal (making a club record 722 appearances), he ended his career at Leeds in 1995, before becoming George Graham’s assistant at the club a year later.
He was made manager two years later, leading them to third in the Premier League in 1999-2000 and to the Champions League semi-finals a year later.
Indifferent spells at Aston Villa and UAE side Al-Ahli followed, but he hasn’t worked in management since leaving the latter in 2011.
He has done some occasional Premier League punditry for Al Jazeera and BT Sport.
Tony Cascarino (for Aldridge, 22')
Having lost his starting spot at Italia 90 after drawing a blank in the first two group games, Cascarino got an early taste of the action against Romania after an injury to John Aldridge.
In his autobiography in 2000 he claimed that he was never eligible to play for Ireland as his mother was adopted, however both the FAI and FIFA confirmed they had no concerns over his eligibility.
He retired after a 20-year career that included spells with Celtic, Chelsea and Nancy in France, before becoming a semi-professional poker player.
We relive the magic of Italia 90 here
