I was listening to Mark Lawrenson when France scored their extra-time aggregate winner against Ireland this week, bleating on about a blatant handball.

And while explaining to my partially-deaf father what Lawrenson was banging on about, I mimed an exaggerated handball, as if Henry had rolled the ball down his arm like Curly from the Harlem Globetrotters and swatted it to William Gallas. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that was what happened.

I watched England’s “hand of God” defeat to Argentina in Ireland with relatives. I protested in vain that England had been robbed and cheated out of the competition.

My relatives said England were second-best – Maradona against Peter Reid, anybody? And Irish newspapers claimed the handball was something for “England to hang their hat on.”

It was different in Paris. The likeliest consequence of Gallas’ goal being disallowed was a penalty shoot-out, giving lie to oft-repeated suggestions that Ireland were cheated out of a finals place.

They were cheated out of a genuine 50/50 chance of such a place, though with the quality of the two goalkeepers and the lack of quality of the forwards, the shoot-out could still be 0-0.

The media predictably aired their “big teams get these decisions” theory, though a far easier “big team” decision would have been a France penalty moments earlier when Anelka went flying in the box, somewhere vaguely near Shay Given?

But…well…such is life. The disappointment of the moment was extreme, and understandably so for people denied by human error and human nature (who wouldn’t have stuck out a hand in Henry’s position?).

But Ireland did get a valuable lesson for their future. Trappatoni’s 4-4-2 system is too rigid for some. But it’s what got Ireland to Paris, and what brought them to extra-time while they were there.

4-4-2 does work, with the right attitude…and the right midfield maestro. Not Stephen Ireland, for the sake of his remaining grandparents. And, once France are sent home from South Africa - hopefully by a wrongly-awarded penalty for handball against Thierry Henry – the real winner from Paris will emerge.