'AS SOON AS IT HIT THE NET I KNEW IT WAS GOING IN'

Kevin Sheedy recalls his pride as Republic of Ireland shine at Italia '90

- By CHRISTOPHER BEESLEY

KEVIN Sheedy describes Ireland’s World Cup opener against England at Italia '90 as feeling like “a real derby game”.

And there was certainly some Merseyside needle when he netted his country’s first ever goal in the tournament.

Sheedy, who won two League Championships and the European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Everton, found himself up against plenty of familiar faces for the fixture in Cagliari.

Sheedy first arrived on Merseyside in 1978 when he joined Liverpool from Hereford United but he had to wait two-and-a-half years for his debut and after just five games and two goals, he crossed Stanley Park in 1982.

While his educated left foot would ensure he went on to become an Everton legend, one of his team-mates during his first campaign at Goodison Park, Steve McMahon, departed the following summer and after a couple of seasons at Aston Villa, had been one of Sheedy’s local rivals playing for the Reds for the past five years by the time the World Cup came along.

Over three decades on, Sheedy is still able to paint a vivid picture in his head of how his goal came about.

Speaking in 2022, he told the ECHO: “I still remember it well.

“I tried to play a pass through to Tony Cascarino, Steve McMahon had just come on as a sub and he intercepted it and tried to play a square pass to Gary Stevens which I then intercepted with the first touch and as soon as I hit it, I knew it was in past Peter Shilton’s bottom left-hand corner.

“All the players knew each other inside out and had former team-mates like Gary Stevens, Trevor Steven, Gary Lineker and even Steve McMahon.

But scoring was a great moment for myself, my family and everyone who had helped me along the way.”

Playing under England 1966 World Cup winner Jack Charlton, Ireland had already beaten their manager's home country on the big stage a couple of years earlier so despite being underdogs, Sheedy insists there was no inferiority complex in their camp.