It's 11 months and one day since James McClean slammed home the winner against Wales in Cardiff to send the Republic of Ireland into the World Cup play-offs.
Oh what fun we had.
The Derryman's terrific goal ended the hosts' hopes that night and sent us on our way to a two-legged showdown with Denmark - widely accepted in the minutes after the draw as a kind pairing for Martin O'Neill's men. It's doable, we told ourselves.
A goalless draw in Copenhagen set up a huge night at the Aviva Stadium. With a ticket to Russia up for grabs, it was time to go all in.
Shane Duffy nodded the Irish ahead, the stadium jigged and reeled with delight, dreams were had, songs were sung.
Eighty-five minutes later, as the rain poured down and substitute Nicklas Bendnter converted a penalty to make it 5-1 to the Danes, the cold grip of reality seized us by the lapel and refused to let go.
We have since watched the following unfold:
- The manager being heavily linked to the Everton job
- The manager being heavily linked to the Stoke job
- The manager signing a new contract with Ireland - but only after failing to agree terms with Stoke
- Reading midfielder Liam Kelly rejecting the chance to join up with the Ireland squad
- Declan Rice playing three times for Ireland before pulling out of the squad ahead of a potential competitive debut due to interest from England
- Harry Arter withdrawing from the squad after a fallout with assistant Roy Keane
- A hammering in Cardiff against Wales in our opening game of the Nations League
- The manager being forced to address a leaked WhatsApp audio, allegedly of Stephen Ward, detailing a bust-up between Arter, Jon Walters and Roy Keane
It's been a rough year.
In fairness O'Neill has met the last fortnight's spate of controversies head-on. Forced to deal with some awkward questions at his pre-match press conference on Monday, he did not try to hide the extent of the fallout.
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On voice note-gate, he said: "First of all I don’t think Stephen was there. Stephen wasn’t actually there so I think he is just picking up on things, something we (O’Neill and the media) talked about at the beginning of the week.
"There probably isn’t anything more to really report. There was a confrontation with Jon and a confrontation with Harry. Jon is absolutely fine. Harry is perhaps not so fine."
Then, he revealed he himself had a bust-up with David Meyler on Friday.
"I have got the utmost regard for him as a person, as I said to him I might have a difference of opinion about his ability, but that’s not the point.
"Sometimes, as I said to you before, while the game has changed a little, hopefully it hasn’t changed that much that there is some things you can say to a player, and maybe used a little bit industrial heavy duty language at the end of it all."
And finally he took full responsibility for the in-fighting that's plagued the camp.
"Let me tell you, this is my responsibility. I will take full responsibility for what has happened."
All that before dealing with the small matter of an international friendly tomorrow night.
With Seamus Coleman (ankle) joining Robbie Brady, James McCarthy, James McClean, Shane Long, Rice and Arter on the absent list, the Poland clash reeks of 'damage limitation'.
It was a smart move by O'Neill to call up Ronan Curtis. The Portsmouth attacker has been playing well in League One [five goals in six games] and shone for the Under-21s in Kosovo last Friday night, drilling home a fine leveller to earn an important European Championship qualifiers point.
He's suspended for the qualifier against Germany in Tallaght Stadium tomorrow night so he will links up with the seniors and may well get a run at the Stadion Miejski in Wroclaw.
Curtis's inclusion gives Irish fans something of a lift - the 22-year-old ex-Derry City man is yet another graduate of our domestic league to the full senior set-up.
Wolves' Matt Doherty is another. The former Bohs defender should get a rare run from the start now that Coleman and Ward are both out.
He's one of just six players in the panel who currently play in the Premier League - Cyrus Christie (Fulham), Shane Duffy (Brighton & Hove Albion), Ciaran Clark (Newcastle United), Kevin Long and Jeff Hendrick (both Burnley) are the others.
Daryl Horgan can feel confident of getting more minutes in a green shirt, while Preston clubmates Graham Burke and Callum Robinson may get another chance to strike up an international partnership.
Really though this is a game O'Neill will just want to get through without suffering another hiding.
The Welsh humbling was damaging for a few reasons. Yes, O'Neill was missing important players - Brady, McCarthy, McClean, Long, Rice and Arter - but the performance merely followed a worrying trend.
One-dimensional, dreadful in possession, disorganised without it, lacking in imagination, composure and belief. It was the same in Paris, and similar in Turkey last February. Even against a weakened USA team Ireland looked jittery and nervous.
The feeling is that this group is regressing under a management team who are not getting the best out of what they have. And it's a feeling that's been growing for at least a year.
Our hosts will be in good spirits at least. Robert Lewandowski is in line to win his 100th international cap, and even if manager Jerzy Brzeczek was keen to guard against complacency in a celebratory atmosphere - "we know that Irish people are very proud, very belligerent" - you can bet the Bayern Munich hitman will fancy adding to his 55 international goals.
Poland had a poor World Cup. They went out in the group stages after losing their first two games to Senegal and Colombia, a failure that cost Adam Nawalka his job.
Brzeczek took the reins and his side impressed in their opening Nations League clash against Italy, earning a deserved draw in Bologna.
They have some quality players and this will not be an easy night for the visitors.
A heavy loss would crank up the pressure on O'Neill and Keane ahead of Ireland's next Nations League game against Denmark - now fully stacked with their main men after the futsal lads' saved the day when that standoff between the Danish players’ union and national federation over commercial rights boiled over.
O'Neill insisted that morale has not been damaged despite the the voice note "sideshow".
"These two confrontations took place four months ago, are surfacing now and we are going through all of that.
"And, you know what? I will be astonished if there is not a confrontation between now and November time," he said, adding with a smile: "If there's not, I'll start it myself."
For everyone's sake, let's hope Ireland start doing their fighting on the pitch.
