Northern Ireland 1-1 Republic of Ireland (WCQ - Windsor Park, 17th November 1993)

Sorry but I had two choices... create a pointless new thread or take an existing one way off topic.

Sunday is the 20 year anniversary of this game and although I remember it very well, I had a 12 years old's perception of what was going on. It was an eerie atmosphere even watching it on TV, so much hate. Was anybody on here at the match? Any stories?

I see that Jimmy Quinn scored his cracker in the 72nd minute and McLoughlin equalised four minutes later. I would have guessed fairly accurately for Mac's goal but it felt like we were behind for longer than four minutes. It really would have been horrendous to have got knocked out that night... instead it was our proudest qualification of them all. Finishing ahead of the European Champions (granted unlikely European Champions and only on goals scored) and being the only side from these two islands to have made it. Obviously the tournament being in the States added even more significance to us.

God bless you Alan McLoughlin and we can't forget a significant helping hand from our old pal.... Fernando Hierro*.


http://footballrepublic.ie/wp-conten...McLoughlin.jpg http://s3.thejournal.ie/media/2011/1...52-296x197.jpg


*Little did we realise he'd be doing his utmost to bail us out again nine years later! http://www.soccer-ireland.com/footba...spain-2002.jpg

Was it only 4 minutes? Felt like about 30! I remember being frozen with tension all day beforehand and just utterly elated afterwards. Denmark came so close to equalising in Seville in in jury time afterwards too,

Yeah that was the bit that I was really surprised about. I would have guessed at us equalising in the 78th minute and NI scoring around the hour. It was a game of really few chances if I remember correctly so it must have looked like curtains going behind with only 18mins left.

I remember my whole family storming out of the room and everyone was utterly gutted. Then i convinced everyone to go back in just as McLoughlin scored the goal. What a feeling...it's almost funny how little anyone cared when Austria scored against us in the recent game - Nobody really cared on a larger scale.

Suppose we were pretty much out already but caring would be an gross understatement when Alaba scored in Dublin. My heart still hasn't made it's way fully back from my bladder.

This was the first campaign of which I have proper memories. And great memories they are.

Some footage of and commentary on the game from The Charlton Years documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWwzjB_5Lk

4 minutes??? Felt like about 4 hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp9Bt18Rvv4

We went out to the airport last night. Great fun.

The tension preceding the match was unreal. Bad times in the North and "Billy's boys" didn't help matters. Was a good qualifying campaign tough we should of beaten Spain away.

I remember sliding across the living room floor celebrating. My knees were in bits from carpet burn for days...

Had only started travelling over to Dublin for games from the start of that campaign as an 18 year old. Three of us made the trip over for this game as well and watched it in the Working Mens club in Dublin - What a night, rolling around the drink soaked floor when a fellow Mancunian was to etch his name in to Irish footballing folklore. The wait on the FT whistle for the score from Spain/Denmark was the most agonising of them all....

This was before satellite. I listened to it on the radio, Radio Eireann on Medium Wave 567 kHz, the signal travelled at least 1500 km across the north atlantic on dry evenings/nights in the winter. I had to have the radio on the south side of the house beside a window.
That game that evening had a good signal, but I also had to replace the alternator on my car. The weather was cold. I came inside to get warm and was ready to go out again when NI scored, by the time I got back outside we had equalised. The commentator (I forget his name), the usual radio commentator, was right in the thick of a Billy Boy chorus line, which seemed to break out every 5 minutes in yet another rendition of the Billy Boys. Afair, Radio Eireann just ditched the regular menu of late evening dross (verbatim reports from the Seanad, etc) and went with the football story for most of the night.
I don't remember the wait for the result in Spain, maybe time translated differently or I had mentally switched off for a few minutes or Radio Eireann didn't follow the game blow by blow. But I got a phonecall from a family member that night who told me of how RTE flicked over to the game in Spain and the torture of those final minutes.

How long have you been in Iceland, geysir? I thought it was only a ten(ish) years ago thing...

That's ten Icelandic years, which equates to about thirty Irish years. Time moves a lot slower in Iceland than it does elsewhere; for example, check out the hair on their midfielder, Ólafur Skúlason!

http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files...8_skulason.jpg

Didnt the Spanish goalkeeper also pull of a brilliant save in injury time?
Like everyone here, I also felt the time between the goals was more, wow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SkStu

How long have you been in Iceland, geysir? I thought it was only a ten(ish) years ago thing...

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Since the last 2 games of the Euro 88 campaign - a shotgun wedding.

It's easier to do a timeline when you use as reference the qual campaigns, the Finals and other assorted games that have significance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Os8ULnMDI

This video includes the save by the replacement Spanish keeper that was as important to us as McLoughlin's goal - it was an incredible stop.

Amazing that there were so many memorable games happening on the same night, Wales near miss against Romania and the seven second San Marino goal in Graham Taylor's last match were also on the same evening. Only six qualifying groups back then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Os8ULnMDI

This video includes the save by the replacement Spanish keeper that was as important to us as McLoughlin's goal - it was an incredible stop.

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Cañizares always impressed me as a keeper. He was very agile, even in later years. Schmeichel, on the other hand, was all over the place for Hierro's goal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Cañizares always impressed me as a keeper. He was very agile, even in later years. Schmeichel, on the other hand, was all over the place for Hierro's goal.

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There was a lovely block by a spaniard on Schmeichel for Hierros goal. :)

Geysir - had you pegged as a younger grinch for some reason...