It's not over.
Yes, Saturday has us feeling dejected and we're getting ready to whip out the post-mortem clipboard and pour over everything that's wrong with Irish football, but there'll be none of that until we're sure there's not still a bit of life in us.
It's not over.
Italy on Wednesday. A weakened team, eyes on the quarter final and a pitch that, judging by last night, will ensure the Italians are not able to play us off the park. One way or another, they shouldn't be able to because (a) we shouldn't allow them and (b) they don't have the individual talent of the Belgians anyway.
It's not over and we'll keep saying it as long as it holds credence.
One thing's for certain, the bandwagon is not going to derail anytime soon. As long as there's another city to invade, Ireland fans are going to keep the spirits high. This was the scene outside the now famous (infamous?) Connemara pub in Bordeaux on Saturday and if we're like that when we're dejected, it's no wonder the French public are coming around to our way of thinking.
There's been enough comparisons between Irish fans and the hooliganism on show in Marseille and Lille but one more won't do anyone any harm. Some may scoff at the 'aren't we great' nature of it all but when you see stories like this, it just goes to show how much the reputation of Irish fans precedes us all at times like this.
Warren Reidy shared this great story with the Euro 2016 Facebook group.
French media has been awash with plenty of stories of Irish fans in all their glory and it would certainly seem it's being carried across to the general public. Karma may well be on the way to those two good samaritans but it's great to see how our fans' behaviour is being received and returned back to them with gestures like this.
We may all be bit jaded and cynical at times when it comes to Irish football but as Warren Reidy put it himself, 'one good deed deserves another' and with all the cleaning up and general ability to generate some much needed good news, Irish fans in France are certainly seeing that in action.
And if there was any doubt about the influence on the French public, they're even taking their shoes off for the boys in green. We can ask for no more proof of good karma than that.
