THE LAST TIME Tipp won an All-Ireland, Ireland were in group two of qualification for World Cup 2002.

Andorra were the opponents for the Boys in Green on the twenty-eighth of March, in their fifth qualifier. Ireland were on a four match unbeaten run which included draws away in Amsterdam and Lisbon.

The ‘minnows’ (the patronising term de jour for the Pyrenees nation) were steamrolled 3-0 away in the adopted home of Barcelona. Andorra finished bottom of that group- a recurrent theme. Andorra are officially the seventh-worst team in the world, according to Fifa rankings.

Their goalkeeper works in an  Argos in Derbyshire after his club, Eivissa-Ibiza, were expelled from the national league. The player regarded as the greatest Andorran soccer player of all time is Ildefons Lima, a thirty-year-old defender playing for Bellinzona in the Swiss league. Lima is also Andorra’s record goalscorer with seven goals from defence in sixty one caps.

Lima scored a goal in the old Lansdowne road in 2001 to put Andorra ahead in the second-ever meeting of the two sides. Ireland promptly won 3-1, but that goal is still talked about fondly in the streets of La Vella.

The national side has only ever won three matches. Ominously, one of them was against Macedonia- their opponents next month in the Euro 2012 qualifying group.