Heimir’s B Specials can take a leaf out of Alan McLoughlin’s book

Grenada wannabes should take a trip down history lane

For Harvey Vale, read David Kelly. For Jack Moylan, read Alan McLoughlin. For Grenada, read England. For Turner’s Cross in Cork, read the Enrique Roca Stadium in Murcia.

For the Republic of Ireland training camp in 2026, read the B Specials in 1990 and a friendly thumping of the Old Enemy’s second string at a jam-packed Cross in the People’s Republic.

Such was the nature of the Irish B team’s 4-1 win, over an England side captained by Tony Adams, in the March before the World Cup heroics in Italy, that many people got carried away, both then and afterwards.

Indeed the Cork Examiner, as it was in those days but known as the Irish Examiner by the time the 30th anniversary came around, even claimed that the footballing highlight of 1990 occurred in Cork and not Genoa. And they were, by their own admission, only half joking!

So what you are wondering has any of this got to do with the Heimir Hallgrimsson squad and the start of the post-Prague era for Irish football?

Well, Ireland are off to the Spanish city of Murcia on Thursday week for a 10 day training camp that will include a friendly fixture against Grenada. This is a B international in everything but name.

The most famous B international in Irish football history was that 4-1 win against England in 1990, a game that offered future options to Jack Charlton in the guise of the aforementioned McLoughlin, Terry Phelan and Denis Irwin.

Of those three, McLoughlin made the squad for Italia ‘90 as a last minute replacement for Gary Waddock. That late decision was made by Big Jack after McLoughlin’s match winning performance when Swindon won the Division Two (now the Championship) play-off final against Sunderland at Wembley. Macca scored that day and convinced Jack that the promise he had seen in Cork was no fluke, even if it meant ditching Waddock rather cruelly.

Likewise, Niall Quinn and David Kelly were already established as fringe players before they joined McLoughlin on the scoresheet in Turner’s Cross. Their performances that day, against Tony Adams and Andy Linighan, merely confirmed their seats on the plane to Italy.

There’s no World Cup on the horizon when Ireland touch down in Murcia on Thursday week, May 7th. There will also be no players from the Premier League, the EFL play-offs or the Scottish Premier for example so Heimir’s squad, to be announced next Tuesday, will be dominated by Championship and League One players, like Vale and Moylan.

Vale has already worn the Irish shirt and will do so again in Spain. Moylan, an Aviva Stadium season ticket holder for Ireland games as a kid, will surely do so against the so-called Spice Boys of the West Indies who represent Grenada.

They won’t be playing for World Cup squad places after the disastrous defeat in Prague but they will be playing for their international futures, on the training pitch as well as in the Enrique Roca Stadium.

With so many senior players not available until the June games against Qatar and Canada, the likes of Vale and Moylan have 10 days to prove to Hallgrimsson and his staff that they should be around when the Euros kick-off in the autumn.

QPR’s Vale has done enough in the Championship this season to edge him towards the squad for those Euro qualifiers. Lincoln’s Moylan has suggested, via his League One form and goals, that he deserves this chance to become a September springer.

Murcia is their Cork. Grenada is their England. This is their opportunity. Now it’s up to them.