Tony O'Donoghue grabbed Dara O'Shea for a post-match interview just seconds after speaking with the man of the moment, Troy Parrott.
O'Shea, with what looked like tears brimming in his eyes, jumped at the chance to praise Parrott for his last-minute goal in Ireland's 3-2 win over Hungary in Budapest on Sunday evening.
"We stuck together and Troy Parrott, I don't need to say any more, just Troy Parrott!" the defender told RTÉ Sport.
The Ipswich Town player said this was the first time he had experienced this in his football career and hoped he would remember the feeling.
"I wish I could bottle this up because right now it just feels mental.
FT: 🇭🇺 2-3 🇮🇪
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 16, 2025
'I wish I could bottle that up because right now it feels mental, the amount of pride going through my body now for us a team and us as a country' - O'Shea
📺 @rte2 @rteplayer https://t.co/xaKTb2LBVG
📱Updates: https://t.co/TC5xt2IxRd pic.twitter.com/epAvrxgpKs
"The pride going through my body now, for us as a team, for us as a country, we're all Irish fans first and foremost. This is special, I haven't experienced anything like this before."
There has been some suffering for this group in their national jerseys, including that devastating defeat to Armenia in September, but the Dubliner says the team have grown as a result.
"We've suffered a lot as a group, we've been through a lot and we've been wrote off. I think I said earlier on in the week that this group has learned a lot of lessons.
"I think we've grown as a group and them two results, I've never been part of an Irish team that's had results like that."
The Puskas Arena was a fitting venue for the enormity of the challenge they faced. It was a stark change for the Irish squad compared to the Aviva Stadium on Thursday.
O'Shea described the atmosphere as "hostile" and admitted he felt there wasn't much going for them.
"I thought you couldn't really beat the result on Thursday and then tonight to come to a really tough place. It was really loud in there, hostile for us, everything was against us in a way," he added.
The final five minutes in particular were frantic, and it seemed for a moment that nerves may have gotten the better of the Boys in Green, but the jeopardy was building for the nervy Hungarians.
O'Shea was one of those just trying to find a way, and he had a cross-shot late on that could have gone anywhere but ended up being diverted away from goal. He says the chances only boosted their determination in the dying minutes of the game.
"I think any time we have bodies in the box, we're dangerous," he said.
"You could feel that at the end of the game, we were getting chances and that was promising. If we weren't creating chances, maybe our heads would have dropped a bit.
"But to have the persistence and the determination that we did to keep on going there and keep putting the ball in the box and getting in the right areas."
All eyes turn to the World Cup, but O'Shea knows there is a long road ahead to see the green jersey in the States next year, adding: "We haven't qualified yet, that's the important thing to realise, but we've still got to enjoy tonight.
"It's a massive result for us. We can take so much confidence from the last two games and especially tonight. Like I said, we've got to bottle that feeling up and want more of that.
"We've got a chance to get to a World Cup now in the play-offs. If you'd given us that at the start of the campaign, I'm sure we definitely would have taken that. I'm just so proud to be Irish tonight."
