The exuberance of youth – and one youth in particular – appeared to have rubbed off on ebullient Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley when he reflected on his side's fantastic 1-0 win over Molde in Norway in the first leg of their UEFA Conference League knockout tie.
Prior to kick-off at the Aker Stadion, many fans would have been unfamiliar with Michael Noonan, or at least the football incarnation of the name.
But in the 57th minute of the contest, the forward rewrote the record books as he became the youngest player to score in the modern era of European club competition at 16 years and 197 days old on his senior debut.
The only person who may have seen that coming was the Shamrock Rovers boss, who said of his decision to include Rovers' newest boy wonder in the starting line-up: "I made the decision probably two weeks ago after watching him up close in training.
"You get a feeling. You understand where the player is and you get a feeling of what the dressing room is feeling, in terms of that level of respect, and you have to earn that as a young boy and you could see very quickly that Michael had that.
"We played games in training, and he was against Pico [Lopes] and Lee [Grace] – top centre-backs – and he was causing them real problems.
"You can tell this boy is ready, so I made the decision very early to play him.
"I didn't tell him until late because I didn't want it playing on his mind, but he's the type to just deal with it. He was excellent.
"If you've watched him, which I have from a young age, from 10 or 11 years of age, he scores goals.
"When you have the attitude and character to go with that, which he does, as he lives, breathes and sleeps football, he just wants to be a football player and when you have that attitude and combine it with the ability, then you have half a chance and he's definitely got half a chance."
Bradley's charges got their tactics spot on against their Norwegian opponents, although their task was made considerably easier when Valdemar Lund saw red in the 42nd minute for a rash sliding tackle on Noonan.
"We knew how they play and we knew they were very open in transition," Bradley said of Molde.
"We knew we could cause them real problems in transition and we felt that from the first minute.
"We felt that from when we watched them against St Pat's, AIK and Hammarby.
"You could see how they play in possession, you can see clearly what they want to do, but also out of possession you can see how to really hurt them.
"We felt if we got that bit right that we could really hurt them, especially with the pace of Mikey, and Danny [Mandroiu], and Dylan's [Watts] guile to see the pass."
Mandroiu, Watts and Daniel Cleary picked up bookings in the victory, with the latter two players set to miss the second leg.
And that was the only blemish on an otherwise splendid night in Scandinavia.
Ahead of the return leg at Tallaght Stadium, Rovers' immediate focus must shift to Aviva Stadium, a top-tier opener against bitter Dublin rivals Bohemians and a record crowd for a League of Ireland fixture.
"This is what we want, this is what this club is about, this is what we're here for," Bradley enthused.
"Domestically last year, the first part, we let ourselves down. We were nowhere near good enough.
"We know that if we do that again this year, that we're out of it.
"How we ended up in a title race last year, I'll never know.
"If we bring that form into this domestic season, we'll be nowhere near it this year.
"We know that, we know it wasn't good enough.
"We have to enjoy tonight, winning away in Europe, they're special nights.
"You've got to enjoy them and we will, but I said to the players that once we step off that plane in Dublin tonight, it's all focus on Bohs. We're not going out celebrating."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
