IanC,

If Roy Keane did call McCarthy an English so-and-so, it was the most damaging thing he could do for the cohesion of the Irish football squad.

Basically it would have been telling McCarthy he didn't belong in the Irish camp in spite of having two Irish parents and playing more than fifty times for the team. There are about a dozen players in the Irish squad with a similar background to McCarthy's. What were they to think?

Spaw, Ireland had a difficult game in Dublin recently against USA but won it. Portugal were in our qualification group and were awesome. I didn't expect your guys to do so well today. Well done.