Former Republic of Ireland international Jason McAteer has revealed that his goal against Holland in 2001 was down to 'pure instinct' rather than sublime technique. The 52-year-old played 52 times for his country, but many people will remember McAteer's wonderstrike in Lansdowne Road in 2001.
For context, not many people backed Ireland to beat the Dutch in Dublin on September 2001, and that became even harder when Gary Kelly was shown his second yellow card early in the second half.
Despite being down to ten men, Ireland rallied. Steve Finnan whipped a cross in from the right, and McAteer swept the ball home on the half-volley. It remains one of the greatest moments in Irish footballing history. Ireland would then finish second in their group and make it to the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan.
McAteer was speaking to BoyleSports about Premier League betting and opened up more about how the goal came about.
"At club level, it wasn't really going well for me. I had left Liverpool and was now at Blackburn, struggling under Graeme Souness. I hadn't really expected to play, but you have a week's training where you can impress the manager, and that's what happened.
Mick decided to play me, so I wanted to give something back, work hard, and take a good opportunity if it came. That opportunity came in the second half.
"We were down to 10 men and managed to get a corner. I remember putting the corner in, being on the left-hand side when obviously I should have been over on the right.
Despite scoring one of the country's most iconic goals, the scouse-Irishman believes to this day that you can't plan for that type of goal. He put it down more to instinct than ability on the day.
"I sort of lingered around as we won the ball back, and it got recycled out to Steve Finnan. The referee played a good advantage when Roy Keane was brought down. Then Finn managed to dig one out, and I just found myself open at the back stick," he added.
"Players will tell you, 'Oh yeah, I watched the ball come, I'd positioned myself, and I knew exactly what I was going to do, and I connected really well.' That's a load of rubbish. It comes to you in a second, and instinct takes over, all your training just kicks in. I had no idea what I was going to do apart from letting instinct take over, which was hitting it first time. It sat up lovely.
"Obviously, the technique was to try and get a bit of topspin on the ball and just whip it into the top corner. That was one of those moments where probably if I had another 20 goes at it, 18 would have gone over the bar.
"It was my perfect moment, it was my moment, and we held out, we won one nil, which took us to a play-off, and we qualified."
Ireland's players will be hoping they can produce their own bit of magic this evening as Ireland plays the Netherlands at 7.45pm. Team news will follow shortly.
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