I posted quite a bad tempered reply to Beachcomber last night, which seems to have gone missing - no harm there.

I fully acknowledge that migrants to Dublin have contributed to the success of Dublin football over the years - I'm not sure what point you were trying to make there.

To my knowledge nobody prevented the FAI from raising funds at any stage. I contributed a reasonable amount myself to local clubs and in buying International tickets.

The Republic reached an all time low last night. I'm almost tempted to revise my earlier opinion about qualification for World Cup 2010, but there are still some promising players about. There is a need to sort out the back room problems which have lead to the recent abysmal performances in Cyprus and in Sam Marino last night.

Both John Delaney and Steve Staunton seem under pressure to resign at present. I'm not sur if that is required, but there are certainly problems that need to be addressed.

As for Croke Park (which admittededly got a reasonable input from the taxpayer into its reconstruction) it is a credit to the GAA. I think those who attend the upcoming International Rugby and Soccer matches will not fail to be impressed by the stadium. I imagine that the reconstruction of Landsdown Road will also receive a considerable state subsidy and will also result in a fine stadium.

'Croker' looked really well under lights last Saturday (on the telly at least). My only problem with what was quite a good match was the result!