Saints supporters will be pleased to hear that Shane Long has played for the Republic of Ireland this evening and has come through the game unscathed.

Shane Long came on as substitute for the Republic Of Ireland against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Dublin this evening and helped his country qualify for the European Championships in France next year.

The Irish were leading from the 24th minute when Jon Walters scored from the penalty spot, Shane Long made his entrance in the 55th minute with the game hanging in the balance.

It was Walters again who gave the home side breathing space when he netted again in the 70th minute.

Long had a chance to effectively kill off the game five minutes later when he hustled his way through to a one on one chance with the keeper, he put the shot wide although he was claiming he was fouled by the chasing defender as he tried to get his shot away and in fairness he did have a point.

But the Irish hung on in the final stages, Long himself was booked with 8 minutes to go as Bosnia pushed forward and it took some heroic defending and the bar was rattled, but the Republic held on and join England, Wales & Northern Ireland in France for the tournament in the summer of 2016.

Saints fans will hopefully be seeing a fair few of the squad in action next summer, but they will be more concerned with seeing Shane Long back in action soon for Saints and hopefully he will suffer no reaction from this run out and will be in contention for a place on the bench against Stoke City on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

SaintBrock added 13:14 - Nov 17 I guess "coming through unscathed" means he didn't touch the ball our get anywhere near it
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