Wes Hoolahan received a lot of love for his first-half performance

Robert Redmond

Eamon Dunphy isn’t on punditry duty for RTE tonight, but you could probably guess what his half-time analysis would be.

Wes Hoolahan, his favourite Republic of Ireland player since John Giles, has had a brilliant 45 minutes against Moldova.

The Norwich midfielder played a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Shane Long after two minutes for Ireland’s opener.

The Southampton striker will be relieved to have netted his first goal since May, and he would’ve broke his duck sooner had he been getting passes like this.

Here's that Shane Long goal https://t.co/4kIoDy2UEI

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 9, 2016

Hoolahan’s performance on his return to the team, and that pass, went down very well with Irish fans. And the team will need him to continue playing well as Moldova equalised on the stroke of half-time.

It's almost as if Wes Hoolahan is by far our best passer of the ball and does good things when he plays

— Karl Reilly (@HistoryLOI) October 9, 2016

1,092 minutes of a drought comes to an end for Shane Long.

Wes Hoolahan only needed 120 seconds with him.

— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) October 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/GaryTraynor1/status/785192950091440128

I'm telling ye ladies and gents Wes Hoolahan is one top player.

— DaveOCKOP (@DaveOCKOP) October 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/barryomahony4/status/785190694843510786

Wes, Wes, Wes… A class above… Well done Shane Long too 👏🏽👏🏽 #COYBIG

— Niall McGarry (@MrNiallMcGarry) October 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/lisafallonsport/status/785192962934308873

Wes hoolahan weight of pass beautiful.

— Stephen Elliott (@SleevesElliott) October 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/ericlalor/status/785190193783533568

I wish Hoolahan was ten years younger. Every time I watch him play makes me more angry at Trapattoni for not utilising him more.#COYBIG

— Stephen McAleer (@stephenmcaleer) October 9, 2016