TV View: All hail Jim Beglin’s X-Ray specs

Well, that game raised many questions, like the one about our dodgy concentration levels after taking a hard-earned lead, but the greatest conundrum, really, was Jim Beglin’s all-seeing super powers.

Jim: "Darren Randolph has kept Ireland in the game there!"

George Hamilton: "God bless your eyesight."

Some of us couldn’t see the pitch, but Jim’s pupils pierced the haze, to the point where George and ourselves just sat back and listened to him like it was a radio commentary. Which it kind of was.

A unique night.

George: “More weather news from Tony on the touchline.” At which point the O’Donoghue man had to talk of visible masses consisting of cloud water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth’s surface, instead of tweaked hamstrings and the mood on the bench.

Some time later. (It should be on Reeling in the Years every week.)

George: “Ireland attempting to string together another attack . . . almost there, but . . .”

Jim: “They’ve scooooored!”

George: [A brief silence] "They've scored?! Robbie Brady has scored! That is sensational! Out of the gloom, the brightness shines!"

And then Jim went and said it. “Nobody saw it coming!”

The Fields

And with that our intrepid supporters broke in to

The

Fields

tune, when, really,

The Foggy Dew

would have been more apt. Gas stuff.

And we thought we’d seen it all on what has been a lengthy auld trip to France. Which of us didn’t anticipate that the penultimate stop would be at the Bilino Polje stadium in Zenica for a must-(but-very-hard-to)-see game against B&H?

But, of course, we’ve been down this playoff route once or seven times before.

“Dare we dream,” asked Darragh Maloney, before showing us a montage of our play-off experiences, the small bits of joy in Iran and Estonia, smothered by the misery of those ding dongs with Spain (ask your Grandda), the Dutch, Belgium, Turkey and Thierry.

Mood-crushing, but at least there was a lift when the panel declared itself to be quite happy with the team selection, Eamon Hoolahan especially happy to see Wes Dunphy on board.

There was no John Giles, though, management again deciding that two games in four days was too much for him; Richie Sadlier's fresher pegs chosen for the away leg.

Prediction time.

Richie: “I’d take a 2-1 defeat now if it were on offer.”

Liam: “I give us every chance of getting a draw.”

Eamon: “I’m fearful; I’d take a 2-1 defeat and run away. This is a night we have to get over.”

Gawd lads, perk up.

Kick-off.

Maybe they were right.

The most worrying moment came in the 28th minute when Jim felt the need to say: “I must admit, I was expecting more from Bosnia”. And with that they almost scored three.

Survived

Our boys survived, though, but the panel wasn’t olé-ing, not least because the B&H goalie could have spent the first half doing the crossword.

Eamon laid in to Wes for his lacklustre display. Kidding. “James McCarthy is really in a big way not doing it! You watch him in the second half because you won’t see much of him!”

That proved literally true, but it applied to every other player on the pitch.

Even Jim struggled before his superpowers kicked in.

George: “It’s very difficult to see the ball.”

Jim: “It’s very difficult to see the players who are actually kicking the ball.”

Jim: "It was a good header by Daryl Murphy. [Pause] . Although it could have been Hendrick."

Substitution time and our management team displayed their integrity and honesty when they replaced Wes with James McClean when they could have had the pair of them on the pitch and no one would have noticed.

Any way, our joy was short-lived, an unsighted Ireland conceded, but we have an away goal, which is lovely. As George put it, “the goal we couldn’t see could well prove vital!”

Back in the studio, Liam was chuffed with the result, but grateful to the elements. “Perhaps the fog coming in did us all a favour.” Tsk!

Bring on Monday. A game not to be mist.