The Republic of Ireland v England: Highs and Lows

The Republic of Ireland v England.

The Guardian's Barney Ronay has described it as "an unlovely fixture for as long as anyone cares to remember".

Though for a glorious period between 1988 and 1991, it brought Irish football fans only a sense of joy, relief and historical score-settling. Here are the highs and lows from this most contentious of footballing fixtures.

HIGHS

The contentious quiz question

21 September 1949: England 0-2 Ireland

We trust that this match has launched many a post-pub-quiz altercation in the UK, especially when an Irish team was involved.

No, the first foreign team to beat England on English soil was not Ferenc Puskas' and his Magical Magyars, no matter how much you want it to be. It was Ireland, four years earlier. Look it up.

The game was on 21 September 1949, five months after Ireland had officially left the Commonwealth and declared itself a Republic.

England were preparing for their first tilt at the World Cup qualifiers, having finally deigned to enter the competition.

The FA had snubbed the World Cup in the pre-Second World War era partly on the grounds that the whole edifice called into question the FA Cup's status as the greatest footballing competition on the planet.

For their first home match against the Republic of Ireland, they were without Stanley Matthews but Billy Wright and Tom Finney - the latter having scored the only goal in the first ever Ireland (FAI)-England game in Dalymount in 1946 - were involved.

Ireland would be captained by Manchester United's Jackie Carey, who a few months earlier had been named as the second ever Football Writers' Footballer of the Year in the English league.

The English press was serenely confident of victory, with Henry Rose of the Daily Express