Dunne's heroic efforts put him a cut above the rest

THERE MAY have been some controversy brewing among the locals about how easily Richard Dunne could have been picked out through the latter stages of last night’s game given he played with a faintly-visible number five scrawled upon his back.

In the mixed zone afterwards, though, the Russians found it easy enough to spot the big centre back with the bloody scars on his cheek and chin ample evidence of the battle he’d just been in.

Dunne just had one of those nights when one player’s performance writes the history of a game in the memory of his side’s fans.

None among the small band of Irish supporters in the stadium will ever recall it in the slightest detail without his name springing to mind.

The Dubliner’s determination to haul the back four through a test of concentration and endurance that seemed certain to break them was heroic.

The sight of him trying to get back on to the pitch after receiving four stitches to the cuts on his face persisted afterwards.

“I got the bang in the face, the doctor fixed it and I went back on, that was about it,” he recalled as he made his exit. “I was just a bit dazed for a bit but alright. I think there was blood on one jersey and then the other jersey didn’t have a number so I had to come off again. Then Alan Kelly just drew a number on it and so I got back on again. That was alright then.”

His head cleared to allow him play his part in the tail end of what was an astonishing rearguard action but the 31-year-old said he was acutely aware of the stakes and anxious, like so many others on the pitch, to take whatever was there from the game after the deep disappointment of last Friday night against Slovakia.

“We felt we probably could have got a win on Friday night but the fact is we didn’t and people were left wondering whether we’d blown it.

“To come here and turn in a defensive performance like that, hopefully it’s put us back into the group.”