“It’s Stuttgart, it’s New Jersey…they’re all rolled into one!” – Another famous line from RTE’s George Hamilton, and in truth, it summed-up a historic night of football perfectly .

I like so many twenty-something-year-olds have longed for a night like last night. Not old enough to remember the heroics of 88′ and 94′, unfortunately of age to remember 2012.

YouTube has been the only source available to inform and refresh the millennial mind of Ireland’s footballing glory days. Brief clips let you know that a giant killing in Giant’s Stadium did happen, and that Packie Bonner’s gloves did indeed help send the Irish into a World Cup quarter-final.

From time-to-time I’ve wondered if I’d get the chance to dance in the streets like it’s 1990. Would there be a golden generation who would define a decade with a moment of footballing magic? Would there be a new footballing highlight on Reeling in the Years? To be honest, it never felt like that moment would come.

Everything that lead-up to that goal in the 85th minute was like something from a Hollywood script: a demoralised team coming off the back of a 3-0 drubbing, a plethora of changes to the starting line-up, the underdog’s dominance failing to reap any reward, the opponents cracking the post to jolt Irish hearts, the fans favourite midfield magician missing a sitter after being left out of the starting line-up.

The final crescendo was for Robbie Brady’s forehead to write the finishing lines to that Hollywood script, and send a nation into delirium.

But as they say, you just couldn’t write it.