With O'Leary out in the cold, the Liverpool lads would have to be put through their paces as Beglin recalls.

"The season had begun and the main squad were all summoned to Lilleshall," he explains.

"Basically, I felt it was like they were concentrating on the Liverpool boys because in Iceland we'd missed out a lot on what he liked to do on set pieces.

"At Liverpool, we would just get instructed before we went out as to what we were doing. We didn't spend hours doing this and that on set pieces.

"But Jack was into it a bit more. So we had a bizarre session down at Lilleshall where myself, Mark Lawrenson and Ronnie Whelan had to familiarise ourselves with all the various set pieces, where to be and when.

"And while we were doing it, and Maurice Setters was involved in it, Jack was off practicing his golf swing or his fishing stroke. He had some sort of stick and he was just basically letting us get on with it. He just wanted to bring us up to speed on everything.

"But I always remember when we played that first qualifier in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, myself and Ronnie, we were left on the bench.

"But luckily for Ronnie and I, and I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here, we were brought off the bench and we made a difference."

Ireland would start that Euro 88 qualifying campaign with a two–all draw against a strong Belgium side thanks to Liam Brady's stoppage time penalty.

A home draw with Scotland would follow the next month before Lawrenson's crucial winner in the return fixture in Glasgow in February 1987 put Charlton's squad in a promising position.

The rest as they say is history as Ireland reached the promise land of a major tournament for the following year.

Sadly, Beglin could not play his part from 1987 onwards due to a horrible injury suffered at the start of that year, although he followed the team's journey from afar.

But for those who went to Iceland, how crucial do they view the few days spent there in the grander scheme of things that happened in the years to come?

For Houghton, while Iceland was helpful, he sees the major shift forwards as the aforementioned Scotland qualifier away from home.

"For me, the big change and where it really changed for us was Scotland away in the Euro qualifiers," he says.

"When we beat Scotland up at Hampden, for me that's the definitive game. If I look back, that was the one that changed it for me."