Sleep that night had been all but sundered by a frustrating 2-2 draw with Poland. To reach the 1999 European Championships in Sweden, his U18s would have to overcome Russia in the last of their group games, at Tolka Park, two days later.

The Russians had already seen off the Poles and, like Ireland, accounted for Cyprus in a group tasked with identifying a play-off opponent for a strong Northern Ireland side. And, in Vitali Grichina, they had a player who had bent both of their games to his will.

Kerr had other issues to mull through besides. Expectation had shot through the roof following the U16 and U18 European titles claimed the year before, key striker Graham Barrett was suspended and defender Jason Gavin injured. But neutralising Grichina was the key.

Willie McStay helped pick the lock.

Head of Celtic’s academy, McStay had taken in the draw with Poland at Richmond Park. Colin Healy, on the books in Glasgow at the time, played midfield that evening and McStay mentioned to Kerr that the youngster had been doing a decent job for him at right-back.

That prompted thoughts of another chap from Ballincollig.

Liam Miller had been a driving force in midfield for the Ireland U16 side that secured the European title in Scotland the year before and McStay had been telling Kerr about how the man from Kilcrea in Ovens was breaking the club’s senior eight-minute run record in training.

Miller was still a year underage for the U18 grade — and only three years on from his first organised game of soccer back in Cork — but Kerr had his answer. He felt sure that Miller was the man for Grichina and that Healy could be accommodated at the back.

Time wasn’t in their favour. It was early Thursday morning when Kerr slipped a note under McStay’s hotel room door asking for Miller to be flown over from Glasgow. The Russian game was kicking off on the Friday evening.

I kept putting the training session back because I wanted to have a look at him training ... I had it in my head that I needed somebody to stop [Grichina] and I put out an 11-a-side training match. Liam had no boots so I lent him me boots and I had a picture for him,” said Kerr with a smile widened by fond memories of a hunch paying off in spades.

“I just told him to stop whoever it was I had lined up for him in the training game and told him not to let him play. Five minutes and I knew he could do that job. We won the match one-nothing. Colin Healy scored a brilliant goal. Stuck one up in the top corner. They came at us in waves. They were happy at nil-nil but Liam was brilliant.”

That batch of Kerr kids would finish third in the finals in Sweden the following year, losing what was effectively a semi-final group game to Italy 2-0 after Miller had been sent off for what the Dubliner describes as a surfeit of enthusiasm against players bigger and older than him.

It was a rare blot.

Kerr first heard whispers of Miller’s promise when the latter joined up with Vincent Butler’s U15 Irish side. A fringe player then, Miller blossomed so quickly that he would hold the centre of the Republic’s midfield alongside Shaun Byrne for the U16s’ continental triumph in 1998.

Kerr’s fondness for the youngsters who served under him during that golden era of underage football for this country endures and there was a wistfulness as he spoke of the boys who did the business for their country in Perth 20 years ago.

The names of Miller, John O’Shea and Andy Reid stand out for obvious reasons now but Kerr invariably kicks off his reminisces of those times with hat tips to a Jim Goodwin, a Joe Murphy or a Keith Foy and the bonds formed among them evoke as much pleasure as the results.

The fact that Byrne, the side’s skipper and a player of huge promise at West Ham United at the time, didn’t manage to fashion the sort of career that his displays in the green shirt had promised highlighted again just how tough a climb it is from such mezzanine heights to the senior ranks.

And how good a player Miller was to have made it.

Liam, when I saw him, I saw a very quiet lad, almost shy, but he could run and move extraordinarily well and was very balanced and composed in possession although he was very small. And I could see that little bit of toughness about him. When he went for the ball he was very determined.

“There was a bit of an N’Golo Kanté about him, if I can describe him in modern terms,” Kerr explained ahead of tonight’s tribute match in Cork.

“He was sharp in to win the ball and very unfussy and just played it. Sometimes he ran with it but other times it was, ‘I’ve got it, I’ll give it to someone else and go back into that position’.

“I was developing this 4-3-3 thing at the time where he was the centre midfield player. The holding position. The Makelele position, in many ways. I was doing that before people were talking about it. I had always liked that idea that we shouldn’t get outnumbered in the middle of the field in international football and we should have people to pass the ball to. Liam was the ideal one.”

Miller was low on maintenance and high on dependability, his keen tactical mind ensuring that he knew what to do and how to do it.

Kerr loved him for that and retains a deep respect for the impact the former Celtic and Manchester United man had on his own career as a manager.

Kerr would continue to have an influence all the way through to Miller’s move to Perth Glory seven years ago: the Australian club’s CEO Paul Kelly was one of the many youngsters to have featured at underage for Kerr with Ireland.

And it was Kerr who gave Miller his senior debut, against the Czech Republic, in 2004.

“It had been in my head when I got the senior job that I wanted to bring him in,” he explained in recent weeks.

And John O’Shea and Colin and Andy Reid. But, I needed the other fellas not to be good enough and at the time they were still good enough.

“Then he did make his debut and there was a match against Georgia in which he was outstanding, and Colin, and we won two-nothing in a home match. Right through my international career, Liam was part of this, part of that and part of that.

“When I was gone, Liam was still there and he was only really starting to become possibly a main man.

“He played through Staunton and some of Trapattoni without being a main man but sometimes players are better with a certain manager, with somebody they know they can trust and doesn’t give them too much instruction.

“I like to think that I was like that with Liam, but maybe I wasn’t.”

Miller’s dream team

In June 2013, Brisbane’s Courier Mail asked Liam Miller to pick his best team from footballers he had played with.

In the XI, Miller selected eight of his Manchester United teammates: Edwin van der Sar; Gary Neville; Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

There is a place for centre-back Bobo Balde, who played with Miller at Celtic, as well as Parkhead legend Henrik Larsson, who played for both clubs.

There is no place in the team for Roy Keane, who loses out to a surprise selection in Steven Gerrard, who Miller played with in a testimonial game in Glasgow.

In the same piece, Miller names Scholes as the best player he has played with.

In another interview around the same time, he was asked to recount his proudest moment in football.

“Making my international debut for the Republic of Ireland. Winning the Under-16 European Championship with my country was great too.”

And what advice would he give to young players: “First and foremost, enjoy it. Dedication is massive. When I was a kid I had a ball tied to my feet. Just practise and practise.”