AS his captain made his way past and towards the team bus at the San Nicola stadium in Bari last night, Noel Hunt staked a claim to the goal that earned Ireland a famous draw with the world champions in their own backyard and kept strengthened the team's hand in the battle for qualification, writes EMMET MALONE

“I saw the ball coming down and Caleb (Folan) getting the knock down,” said the Reading striker. “Robbie was there and we both went for it but I got a toe to it and it went in. I went one way to celebrate and Robbie went the other after him (Folan).

“Eventually I had to join in with them but I was on top of Robbie shouting down at him: “It’s my goal, it’s my goal,” and he was there just laughing.

“Really, I don’t care, though, the main thing is that we got the point and through the last bit out there it rally felt as if we could go on and win it. We had them pegged back through the second half and with a bit of luck we would have beaten them. As it is, they were down to 10 men but we still had the better of Italy at their place.”

Keane, meanwhile, insisted that the Irish have put themselves right back in contention for the group’s top spot after their hopes appeared to falter at Croke Park on Saturday night.

“It was great to get the goal in the end, but we deserved it,” said the Irish captain, who still seemed to reckon he had just scored the 38th goal of his international career.

“It you go behind to the Italians you know it’s going to be tough but we stuck at it and I don’t think they could have complained too much if we’d got the win.

“We had a lot of possession even it we didn’t do much with it for spells but we got the goal and we’re still hanging in there (contesting first place in Group Eight with Italy).”