An evening that started promisingly but ended in familiar, bitter disappointment. Ireland were out-thought and outclassed in the end by the Netherlands, and lost 2-1. Barring a miracle with playoff qualification, the result essentially means the end of Ireland's Euro 2024 dream.
It must spell the end of the Stephen Kenny era as well. Even Kenny's most ardent supporters would agree that the performances during this campaign have simply not been up to the standard of his predecessors. Allowing for the big absences and the elite opposition, the defeats keep piling up.
While there will be much (deserved) hand-wringing about this latest Ireland defeat, the end of the Kenny era must not inspire a kneejerk return to the prehistoric football Ireland specialised just four years ago.
'Throw Duffy up front'
We found the dynamic between Darragh Maloney and Ronnie Whelan in the RTÉ commentary booth tonight quite fascinating.
Maloney had (professionally) parked his objectivity and was feeding off the wild atmosphere in the opening 15 minutes. Whelan was cagier and as the Netherlands got a grip of the game, had a sharp eye on the key mistakes being made by the Irish players.
It was around the 70th minute, with Ireland stifled and trailing by a goal, that Ronnie Whelan first called for Shane Duffy to be thrown up front as a centre forward as a tactical switch. Maloney played devil's advocate. Ronnie wasn't convinced.
He mentioned it again in the final ten minutes, and when asked for his thoughts after the grim final whistle, Whelan bemoaned again Kenny's decision not to employ the Derry man as a centre forward.
Bowing to Whelan's vastly superior knowledge of the game, it must also be said that it was the wrong idea.
This is not to knock Whelan as an analyst. No doubt there were many, many others who thought similar. Duffy's seven international goals made him Ireland's top goalscoring threat.
Also we can't say Kenny's own ideas were at all inspiring. While we eventually switched to 3-4-3, there was something inevitable about the result after Weghorst's introduction at the break. Sure, Ireland don't have the players, but we never seem to make the decisive tactical switches either.
Regardless, for very important philosophical reasons, Ireland can not going back to deploying a centre back in a centre forward role for a campaign-defining twenty-minute period, as suggested.
Not tonight; not ever, really.
While the Kenny years have tested the depths of the optimism of anyone who believes in the beautiful soul of Irish football, the manager's vision of a football team that sets out to play football must surely be the only way forward.
Do we need better ideas for creating goal-scoring opportunities? Yes. Do we sometimes find ourselves pining for 4-4-2 kitchen sink approach when watching Ireland get toyed with by vastly superior technically sides? Yes. Do we love the sight of Shane Duffy heading into the opposition's penalty box? Yes, yes, yes. But there is no going back.
Ireland has good young footballers, and there may be harder days to come. But considering where Ireland came from five years ago, it is better lose tonight than revert to the familiar way.
History will be kind on Kenny. He was handed an impossible job with the organisation in tatters and he blooded a whole new generation of talent. He has had no luck.
The Kenny project might be effectively dead, but its spirit has to guide whatever comes next.
