This week on Premier League Live with Sky Sports, Niall Quinn became the latest member of The Boot Room, where he told Philip Egan all about his first taste of international football under Jack Charlton in 1986.
The former Arsenal, Man City and Sunderland striker was playing for the Gunners when he made his debut against Iceland in 1986. He made his full debut just a couple of days later against Czechoslovakia, which proved to be a unique experience...
This week's guest in #TheBootRoom is the one and only @NiallQuinn22, who has a cracking tale about his full @FAIreland debut. @SkySportsPL pic.twitter.com/do1LdxuURJ
— Today FM Sport (@todayfmsport) September 9, 2017
Quinn's first appearances for the Republic of Ireland also coincided with the early days of the Jack Charlton era, and he says that despite the success they went on to achieve, there were teething problems initially.
"It wasn't clear. He was doing a lot of shouting and giving out to players for doing it different ways, so you'd have the Liverpool players who used to knock that Tango around Anfield left to right all over the park, and suddenly he was getting them to lump it into the corners.
"So it wasn't straight forward. And everybody thinks Jack came on and we won a tournament in 86, we got a kick out of that and we as a team felt better that it could go places, but it wasn't the be all and end all as far as the media back home or indeed the fans back were concerned because none of them really saw it."
However Quinn says the turning point for both Charlton and the team came in 1987. After that, he says, they never looked back.
"And then we played Brazil in a friendly and something changed then, because we beat Brazil, Liam Brady scored the winner.
"Then it was different, then you're getting to taxis around Dublin and people are saying you're brilliant you beat Brazil. People forget about that match, and that was the feel good factor that transferred, that the team felt good and the fans felt good about us."
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