Meath players experience sharply contrasting fortunes on Ireland duty
Ferguson, McGrath and Curtis all feature for Irish teams
The pain and the joy; the ups and downs.
Sport can be full of such radically different contrasts in fortunes as Meath players involved with Irish soccer teams experienced in recent days.
On Thursday Jamie McGrath and Evan Ferguson were part of an Irish team that carved out it's first victory in the Nations League when Finland were defeated 2-1 in Helsinki and what a sweet victory it was for the Boys in Green and their long-suffering supporters.
The Irish didn't have a good first-half and went in at the break 1-0 down - and it could have been a more.
Then they turned things around in the second-half with McGrath returning to the Irish team as a substitute for his 13th cap.
Ireland equalised through a Liam Scales header before Robbie Brady grabbed the winner late on.
After just two victories in the previous 13 competitive games the 2-1 felt like a big moment indeed for Ireland and McGrath.
He came on as a second-half substitute and played his part in helping to turn the fortunes of Heimir Hallgrimsson's team around.
The recall to the Irish camp was a reward for some first-rate performances for Aberdeen recently, a team who are undefeated this season so for under the new manager, Jimmy Thalin.
The game was also a personal triumph of sorts for Ferguson as he played for 70 minutes before he was substituted; a major step back from a protracted ankle injury.
Both McGrath and Ferguson could feature again for Ireland in tomorrow's Nations League game away to Greece.
Last night, however, at Turner's Cross the Irish u-21s suffered the agony of the concession of a late goal to Norway that could prove very costly in their efforts to quality for the UEFA European Championships.
Jim Crawford's team included, as expected, Sam Curtis from the start.
The young Navan man played well too and helped his team take a second-half lead with Sean Roughan finishing off a fine move.
However in the 93rd minute Norway equalised even though Irish defender Garcia McNulty clearly had his jersey pulled in the lead up to the goal.