The Republic of Ireland were swatted aside by a high-quality England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, led by two men who once wore the green jersey: Jack Grealish and Declan Rice.
Lee Carsley - capped 40 times for Ireland as a player - was in the visiting dugout to oversee a comfortable 2-0 win in his first game in charge as interim boss.
The was a chastening experience for Ireland, and the English media were largely content with how things panned out.
In The Sunday Mirror, Andy Dunn highlighted Grealish, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon for special praise, though it came with a caveat: Ireland aren't that good at the moment.
"This encouraging England performance - albeit against an extremely limited Irish team - felt like a fresh start for three players who, over differing lenghths of time, never truly convinced Southgate of their worth," said Dunn.
"Let's talk about (Alexander-Arnold's) pass to Gordon that should have given the Newcastle forward his first England goal - and Trent the assist of the season - but did lead to the Declan Rice opener anyway. Even in Alexander-Arnold’s repertoire of Hollywood balls, this beauty was a thing of wonder, a 40-yarder fizzed with a hint of slice that mocked Irish attempts to intercept. No other English footballer can hit that sort of pass."
Irish journalist Miguel Delaney, writing for the Independent in the UK, echoed some of that, pointing out that Ireland's frenetic start was only ever going to get them so far against a side with the quality of England.
"... Ireland did start sharply under their own new manager in the Icelandic Heimir Hallgrimsson," he wrote.
"That was no doubt driven by the emotion of a fervent crowd but, as often happens in such situations, feeling can't really counter quality for long. Even Grealish quickly got over an early abrasive challenge and all the boos to suddenly cut through the Irish defensive structure on a few occasions.
"This was an immediate foreshadowing of how the game would go. Hallgrimsson’s preparation for the game had focused on making Ireland tough to play against and keeping a clean sheet but the five-man backline soon just left acres of the pitch to English movement, while offering up a lot of space inside."
For The Daily Mail, Ian Ladyman described Ireland's efforts to unsettle their rivals as being "brutishly naive".
"Ireland were outclassed and outplayed for long periods and didn't help themselves," he penned. "They were too open and desperately vulnerable to quick England counters when they lost the ball, which was often.
"Equally their attempts to physically unsettle and intimidate Grealish were brutishly naive. Did they not think Grealish will have encountered that before? His response was to keep accepting the ball, keep winning free-kicks and, as a particularly welcome bonus, scoring a goal."
In The Observer, Jacob Steinberg offered his take on the pre-match furore over Carsley admitting he would not be singing God Save The King.
"It had, of course, been another stunning effort from the unremittingly silly circus that likes to use English football as a way of keeping the culture war relevant," Steinberg said.
"This was from the same playbook as previous episodes - the row over taking the knee, the fury over the woke rainbow kit - and it was impossible not to marvel at the fury reaching such a pitch that one article even argued that the only proper course of action for the Football Association would be to fire Carsley moments before kick-off at the Aviva Stadium.
"Sadly, who would take the team in that scenario was unclear. Nigel Farage? An actual British bulldog? Certainly not the woke socialist Keir Starmer, who had made the trip to Ireland to watch Carsley begin to press his claim to take over from Gareth Southgate on a permanent basis."
In the same publication, David Hytner argued there were glimpses of a new style under Carsley. "England had been infamously stodgy under Gareth Southgate at Euro 2024, albeit as they reached the final, and, if anything, Carsley needed a performance here more than a result," he claimed.
"He certainly got that in the first half. A new era has its foundation stone."
Meanwhile The Sun on Sunday's Dave Kidd suggested that Ireland could have put up more of a fight, despite their lowly ranking: "The farcical pre-match sight of Carsley sitting on the Irish bench, then being tapped on the shoulder by an official who reminded him that he was on the away side now, was nothing more than a comedy meme.
"Perhaps Carsley had simply been 'too focused on the match'.
"While the Irish were poor, their FIFA ranking of 58 sees them only six places below Slovenia - with whom England bored out a turgid goalless draw at the Euros before Gareth Southgate was pelted with beer cups by Three Lions fans."
And TalkSport's Adrian Durham, though impressed by some of what England delivered, wasn't totally convinced by Carsley, giving him 6/10 in his ratings.
"It was a terrific first half against a poor side," he said. "But he didn't respond to the Ireland substitutes quick enough and England lost control in the second half."
