OUR SECRET WEAPON

But Paddy McCarthy may find it hard to avoid limelight now

- BY GARRY DOYLE

MEET the secret weapon behind Irish football's revival.

This is a man who never seeks headlines - even though he deserves them.

Because not only is Paddy McCarthy the best player never to win a senior cap for Ireland, he is also arguably the best Irish coach working in England right now.

From Monday to Saturday he works long hours with Crystal Palace's first-team.

Days off are rare - international breaks the only time coaches and managers can switch off. Except that is when McCarthy double-jobs and jets off around Europe with Heimir Hallgrimsson's Ireland.

You may not even know his name but last weekend Hallgrímsson name-checked him, placing the Dublin man in rare air.

"Sometimes I look at them - Paddy and (fellow assistant coach) John O'Shea - and think, 'Why am I the head coach? Why am I not the assistant to them?'" Heimir laughed.

"I can't give them enough credit."

The joke was warm, the message sincere.

Yet McCarthy, as always, slipped quietly out of the frame.

That's his instinct to stand behind the spotlight, not in it.

But if you want to understand the shift in mood around the Irish camp, the man whose set-piece drill led to the first Troy Parrott goal against Portugal, then you need to know about the man Hallgrímsson keeps referring to.

Paddy McCarthy has lived a football life. His mentors read like a Hall of Fame roll call: Hodgson, Keegan, Pulis, Warnock, Royle, Freedman. Great football men. Better men still.

"I've had front-row access to all these great football people," McCarthy once told me.

"You always looked at how they dealt with players, and even though they carried themselves with a lot of confidence, it didn't stop them being humble. Roy has managed England, Liverpool, Inter Milan; he's been in the game over half a century, yet his work ethic is unbelievable.