What started off as a dream day out for 14-year-old Robbie Keane ended with a trip back to Tallaght, still shaken by what he had witnessed.
Ahead of this afternoon’s match between Ireland and England, Keane has shared his memory of the last time the two footballing nations met in Dublin.
The Irish captain, who will return home this week from club duty with LA Galaxy, attended the game, in February 1995, as a football-mad teenager and a decent prospect to one day wear the green jersey.
It was six months before Wolverhampton Wanderers would sign him from his schoolboy side, Crumlin United, and two years before his first team debut, at the age of 17.
David Kelly opened the scoring for Ireland in the 1995 friendly but the game was abandoned after 27 minutes when England fans rioted, broke up seats and fired debris at Irish supporters sitting in the stands below them.
Here was Keane’s optimistic post on Facebook today:
We back those sentiments, 100%.
