Paul Fennessy

THESE DAYS, IRISH victories against top international sides away from home aren’t exactly commonplace, which is part of the reason why Troy Parrott’s winner in Budapest last November was so special.

But in the 1960s, they were even rarer.

Incredibly, the Boys in Green’s 2-1 1967 triumph over Czechoslovakia was just the fourth competitive away win in the team’s history and their first-ever in a Euros qualifier.

It ended a 10-year wait for success on the road, having previously beaten Denmark 2-0 in a 1958 World Cup qualifier in Copenhagen.

Their other victories were in a 1954 World Cup qualifier, when they beat Luxembourg 1-0, and a defeat of Bulgaria by the same scoreline at the 1924 Paris Olympics in the country’s first-ever official match.

It’s fair to point out that the Irish side played far fewer competitive matches in that era, but still, the team did not travel to Prague with high hopes.

A selection committee picked the starting XI, although Charlie Hurley was the nominal manager and the team captain.

Alan Kelly played in goal, while Joe Kinnear, John Dempsey and Mick Meagan joined Hurley in defence. Ahead of them were Oliver Conmy, Jimmy Conway, Eamon Dunphy, Eamonn Rogers, Ray Treacy and Turlough O’Connor, with Leeds’ John Giles and Man United’s Tony Dunne among the notable absentees.

Ireland had lost their last three qualifiers against Spain, Turkey and at home to Czechoslovakia, after a promising start in which they drew with the Spaniards and beat the Turks at Dalymount Park.

The team could no longer qualify and so had little but pride to play for when they made the trip out for their final group game.

By contrast, the Czechs needed only a draw to pip Spain to the sole Euro 1968 qualification spot.

Turlough O’Connor had established himself as a top striker in the League of Ireland and recently moved to Fulham in what would prove to be an unhappy spell in London, where he made just one senior appearance.

Nonetheless, the Athlone-born striker received a late call-up for the squad and ultimately made the most of his opportunity.

Ireland trailed just before the hour mark as Dempsey scored an own goal.

But the visitors rallied, with Treacy scoring the equaliser shortly thereafter and O’Connor on target for a late winner.

It was a major scalp — the Czech team had made it all the way to the World Cup final five years previously, and their captain that day, Ján Popluhár, had played in the famous 3-1 defeat to Brazil.

“I will always remember afterwards sitting down with Charlie Hurley and myself and Jimmy Conway, and he said: ‘You’re only starting out, but I don’t care how long that you play, you’ll never have a better win than we had today,” O’Connor, now 79 years old, tells The42.

“To hear somebody as good as Charlie say something like that was amazing.

“At that particular time, [the Czechs] would have been up there with some of the great teams, because they were a bigger country.”

O’Connor, who was making his international debut, continues: “I was shocked to have got the call-up. It was a real opportunity.

“I didn’t know until the day before that I was actually going to start. I was thrilled. You were playing with guys you had read about, names only that you hadn’t met before.”

And there was one player in particular who made an impression on O’Connor.

“The one and only Eamon Dunphy was in midfield. He was very outspoken. In the room, you knew Dunphy was there. But he was a good enough player as well in his time; he had a good career in England. He was a young fella [back then].”

Eamon Dunphy was part of the Irish team that beat Czechoslovakia in 1967. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

O’Connor remembers the victory as a smash-and-grab for the Irish team.

“They only needed a draw to qualify, and there was that bit of pressure on them. They got a goal, and we were certainly under the cosh a bit.

“So they threw everything at us, and that’s why we got to nick the goals.

“They panicked a little bit anytime we attacked them, especially towards the end, because they had so much to lose.”

O’Connor recalls the late Ray Treacy — who won 42 Ireland caps and whose former clubs included Charlton Athletic, West Brom, Preston North End and Shamrock Rovers — as being instrumental in the winning goal.

“Popluhár had the ball, and Ray got his foot around it, took the ball off him.

“I anticipated that Ray would get it into the box. But it was a beautiful little cross, and I got my head to it. That was in the 86th minute.

“Since we got that game that’s coming up [against the Czechs], I looked back and read some of the [newspaper] cuttings that my father kept. He’s passed now. But I was able to look back.”

The Spanish were naturally jubilant as the victory meant they were one of only eight teams to advance at the Czechs’ expense.

They sent the Irish squad a crate of wine as a sign of their gratitude.

“Well, it went to the FAI,” O’Connor remarks ruefully. “I don’t think the players saw much of it.”

Meanwhile, in his 2013 autobiography, ‘The Rocky Road,’ Dunphy wrote of the historic win: “Victory over the Czechs gave the [FAI] Blazers notions. On the journey home, a crazed consensus seemed to form; commitment to the shirt was what mattered. Did Ireland really need Giles, [Noel] Cantwell and Dunne, who turned up for duty when it suited them? Maybe not.”

But unfortunately, the memorable win would prove an anomaly. The Irish team would have to wait another two years for the end of the selection committee era, and a de facto manager in Mick Meagan.

Another 13 years would elapse before their next competitive away victory, as a John Giles-managed side beat Cyprus 3-2 in a 1982 World Cup qualifier in Nicosia.

Ireland also do not have a great record against the Czechs since then. Their record reads: seven losses, two draws and four wins. And all of the victories have been non-competitive games (unless you count the Iceland Triangular Tournament).

O’Connor would win seven caps overall between his debut and 1972, having thrived once more in the League of Ireland following the ill-fated stint in England.

His only other international goal came in a 3-2 win over Ecuador in Natal. Though the competition was described as the Brazil Independence Cup, the Irish team effectively made the summer trip to South America for a series of glorified friendlies.

A Liam Tuohy-managed side lost their subsequent games against Chile and Portugal, with O’Connor’s winner, in which he lobbed the goalkeeper, a rare highlight.

So, does the Bohemians legend believe Ireland could have achieved more with the many talented footballers they had in that era?

“Individually, we had very good players, but as a nation, we weren’t taken seriously, I don’t think, as regards qualifying for tournaments.

“That’s why, when Jack Charlton was managing the lads, to do what they did was magnificent, really.

“And even now, it’s very difficult to qualify for any tournament because of the population, and you have to have many quality players coming through at the right times together.

“Maybe what’s coming through now could be the start [of something].

“If we did qualify again for a major tournament, it would be fantastic for the game here.”

O’Connor, who turns 80 in July, went on to enjoy a hugely successful domestic career — he is fourth on the list of League of Ireland all-time top goalscorers.

He had some remarkable achievements as a manager too, guiding his native Athlone Town to the only two league titles in their history, while he was also in charge of two of Dundalk’s triumphs.

Nonetheless, it is that goal in Prague, which usurps everything in O’Connor’s eyes.

“Definitely, in my whole career, that stands out,” he concludes.