Eamon Dunphy (not on the RTÉ panel tonight) must have been loving it.
It hasn’t been a great 45 minutes for Ireland in Chișinău this evening, but despite a late first-half equaliser from the hosts, there has been at least one positive for Irish fans.
With Jeff Hendrick suspended and Robbie Brady injured, Martin O’Neill restored Wes Hoolahan to the starting line-up, a move that went down very well indeed with Irish fans.
It didn’t take long for him to show why.
A beautiful pass to set up Shane Long’s opener within three minutes was Hoolahan’s first outstanding contribution and he generally tended to be at the heart of everything good Ireland did in the opening 45 minutes.
On social media, his contribution did not go unnoticed; fingers crossed some more magic can help get us get the right result in the second half.
Wes Hoolahan is a magician. Best I've played with and what a guy to go with it! Should have so many more caps for 🇮🇪⚽️
— Elliott Bennett (@Ebenno88) October 9, 2016
Wes hoolahan weight of pass beautiful.
— Stephen Elliott (@SleevesElliott) October 9, 2016
I'm not tweeting tonight about Weso because I've already tweeted 3263 times about him & how wonderful he is 😍🇮🇪⚽️
— Alan Cawley (@alancaw) October 9, 2016
It's almost as if Wes Hoolahan is by far our best passer of the ball and does good things when he plays
— Karl Reilly (@HistoryLOI) October 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/MolloyJoe/status/785195576686149632
1,092 minutes of a drought comes to an end for Shane Long.
Wes Hoolahan only needed 120 seconds with him.
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) October 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/Pendred/status/785190347047575552
Great move and goal. That Hoolahan fella is not bad, is he?
— Neil O'Riordan (@noriordan) October 9, 2016
Can we make Wes Hoolahan 10 years younger? The man is a genius
— Liam 🔴 🏆x19 (@LiamT_LFC) October 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/pritchxrd_/status/785196421020549120
I'm telling ye ladies and gents Wes Hoolahan is one top player.
— DaveOCKOP (@DaveOCKOP) October 9, 2016
