Balls, heart, resilience. Not everyone has that. Not everyone even comes close to it.
Paul McShane has never been Ireland’s most talented defender, he’s never proclaimed to be. Anything he has won for his country, he’s won it through pure, steely determination. He’s earned it with passion. With work. And, whilst it might be insulting to a footballer Alex Ferguson saw fit to sign in 2004, he’s earned everything he has with his unrelenting attitude and his refusal to give up.
For 10 years now, he’s been in and out of the national team and, for 10 years now, he’s been the subject of scorn and derision – at the very best, division.
And yet he keeps going. He comes back at his country’s call and he just keeps going. It isn’t easy being the fall guy of a nation. It isn’t easy being Paul McShane and having your own supporters question your every move – hearing them up in arms at your mere selection. But time and again, Paul McShane sticks his neck out for everyone and anyone to take a swipe at it and he does it for Ireland. He does it because he never gives up. He keeps going.
On Tuesday night, the 2-2 draw with Slovakia probably upset the Reading player’s chances of making the 23-man squad for Euro 2016. He dove in on the left wing for the opposition’s opener. His man nicked in ahead of him for their eventual equaliser – which was originally thought to be a McShane own goal.
In hindsight, in TV analysis, he was trying to cover for Whelan who seemed to leave a space that McShane decided to attack – however ill-advised. And the second Slovakia goal looked to be a hand ball too. It wasn’t a great night for him though by his own admission and, coupled with Shane Duffy’s impressive performance against Switzerland on Friday, the feeling was that Paul McShane might’ve missed the boat to France.
So it would’ve been easy for him to duck out and avoid the questions. It would’ve been the most understandable thing in the world if he just wanted to jump on the bus and not talk about the game or his waning chances.
But Paul McShane fronted up. One by one, he stood with individual media groups and he answered every question they had to ask him, chest out, chin up. He spoke about his own disappointing performance and his own chances of making the Euros, however slim.
He spoke of how he’ll keep going. That’s what he does.
“It feels disappointing, yeah. I thought we were in control of the game and the two goals were definitely disappointing. That’s all I can say,” he was dejected but unbowed.
“It’s going to be difficult,” McShane pondered the idea of making the final cut for the final tournament. “It’s going to be very competitive – there are a lot of lads going for my position so it’s definitely going to be difficult but I’ll just keep going.”
In a friendly where Ireland played with little fear and tried to attack the Slovaks, the makeshift defence was exposed quite often. Paul McShane was left with wide open spaces to deal with at times but he wasn’t looking for excuses.
“Maybe… They’re a good side, Slovakia. They’re a good international side and they’re clever – you can tell they’ve got some clever players. They did catch us on the counter attack a few times but maybe we could’ve dealt with it a little bit better. The two goals were definitely avoidable.”
Having travelled to the Euros four years ago with Giovanni Trapattoni, the 30-year-old might count himself lucky to be amongst Martin O’Neill’s final plans this summer.
“It was great to be back on the pitch,” McShane said. “It was my first start in about three years I think and I was just trying to get on the ball as much as I can and play as much as I can and try to enjoy it.
“I’m sort of disappointed in the overall game but it was good to be back on the pitch after so long, good to start the game and I’ve just got to crack on now, get back to club level and concentrate on that – just keep going.”
Just keep going.
