An enjoyable night on the village green

AH, LAST night's fun. A drizzle of rain and a blizzard of goals in a madcap game which illuminated the old cathedral. For most of the night Poland outplayed Ireland. It went loosey goosey at the end for two Irish goals. We went home entertained and, for the most part, happy.

"We had a very good evening," said Poland's Dutch manager Leo Beenhakker. "Well, for 85 minutes we did. In the end we had to suffer a little bit and that wasn't necessary. Anywhere we play in Europe, though, we get great support, an atmosphere more like a home match. We are very grateful for that."

If you were old enough to remember the scent of those hard times which are just coming back around to us on the next train, well, last night in Croke Park would have brought back a Proustian flood of sentiment for the joys of recession and emigration.

Our Polish friends, huddled here in bedsits and flats as we all huddled once in the London of the 1980s and early 1990s, gathered in the famous stadium just as we Irish had filled Wembley back in 1991 for a friendly game like this. Nobody celebrates home like those separated from it.

One genial Kerryman in the pressbox noted that there was enough red and white in the house to spook any citizen of the Kingdom, and indeed we damp natives looked drab and lost amidst the favours and the flares as we grumpily refused to join in the merry Mexican waving.

Still, throw in an Italian manager, a Dutch manager, a Brazilian goalscorer and an Icelandic referee (now there's hard times. Capital of Iceland? Three euro 75 cent) and we had a hot time in the old town anyway.

The Poles were drifting into Croke Park from late afternoon. The Irish, as is customary, waited till five minutes before kick-off. The stadium would have 30,000 empty spaces but a happy hum of anticipation.

And lo! After just three minutes Mariusz Lewandowski obliged the occasion by heading home a cross which evaded those emperors of the air John O'Shea and Caleb Folan, and suddenly the evening was alive and fizzing. Only the old Italian could forbear to smile.

Giovanni Trapattoni may be a genial old duffer but he's an Italian duffer and the concession of goals causes him the sort of wincing pains associated with angina. By the time Poland had scored their third Giovanni was in full cardiac arrest mode.

"We decided before which players would mark who, but for the first goal one stayed behind and one came," he said. "We made a bit of a mistake. It is a big problem.

"In Italy on Sunday I saw something similar. Still, we had a good direction."

The second half had hardly begun when Roger Guerreiro, Poland's Brazilian import, beat Shay Given with as fine a shot as Croke Park has seen in its brief era as a soccer venue.

"We had the worst possible start to both halves," Trapattoni added dolefully, reflecting on his first defeat as Irish manager. "If you score in the first minute it is easier, but we had a very good reaction.

"After we lose I am sad normally, but this evening I am not sad like normal because it is a friendly game and I saw something in a few players which pleased me.

"They were strong but we had a good direction. We had a great chance with Duff. We believed for 90 minutes that we could score. I said to the players in the dressingroom, sure we have lost but it is better to lose a friendly game than a qualifier. With the same performance and the same mentality we can start again in 2009 with great trust."

Trapattoni, who cheered up as he became more expansive in his fractured English, nominated Kevin Doyle as his best Ireland player on the night.

"He was always important. Every game he grows.

"And always is somebody who was a good surprise was Caleb Folan. He played very well with Keogh and Doyle. We don't really know him in Ireland but he was good. And in the second half, Stephen Hunt made good. In future if we have more opportunity we will have a good team."

Shay Given was phlegmatic about the evening's events. "It was a hectic finale to the game but I think we gave away disappointing goals. We had the worst possible start to both halves, being 1-0 down after a couple of minutes is not the best. They got lucky breaks for the second and third goals but they are a good side and they took their chances well.

"On another day we would have got an equaliser at the death."

It was one of those nights, though, when soccer did as only soccer can do, the game created a sort of village green for two tribes to mix on. Maybe the Poles are getting their deposits back and going home to leave us to the hard times ahead. If so, last night's fun was a splendid parting gift.

As for us natives, regressing from pampered to paupered at the speed of light, sure, we only sing when we're winning.