Martin O'Neill was in good form last night as he attended the RTE Sports Person Of the Year awards.
Given that he was in the building where the usual panel of pundits present their coverage of the national team's exploits, O'Neill decided that he would give a few words of criticism back.
He stated that, if he'd been listening to the punditry team, he would have given up all hope of qualifying and thrown in the towel. "Thankfully I didn't listen to them," he said, "particularly a couple who should be possibly looking for other jobs now, because they get it wrong so often".
"They're not even here tonight, at least I've turned up and I'm the one that's been the butt of the criticism for the last 14 or 15 months!".
O'Neill was in the running for the manager of the year award, but the accolade instead went to Michael O'Neill, who guided Northern Ireland to their first ever Championship finals.
