But as media speculation grew about an imminent statement from the FAI and rumour spread around the ground, a section of the supporters on the opposite side began singing ‘Cheerio’ across the pitch in the direction of a solemn-looking Delaney, who it’s fair to say, would have been finding very little to pleasantly distract him in the fare on the pitch, as Mick McCarthy’s team struggled to see off the Group D minnows.

For a time, then, it seemed that both manager and CEO might founder on the Rock.

Incidentally, during his post-match media duties, McCarthy had declined to be drawn by a question about the rising speculation concerning the chief executive, preferring to wisecrack about the fact that he himself had been on the receiving end of abuse from someone in the crowd who “kept telling me I’d be sacked in the morning and that I was a wanker.”

Then, shortly after McCarthy left the press conference room, came the confirmation, via a lengthy statement, that John Delaney was in fact now no longer the chief executive, stepping down “with immediate effect” after holding the position since 2005, a period during which, for good and ill, he became easily the most high profile administrative figure in Irish sport.

Or perhaps, as the official line would have it, that should be stepping aside.

Those mocking goodbyes from the stand, it turned out, were premature in the sense that, on foot of a review of the association’s senior management structure, Delaney has not left the building, instead moving to a newly created position of Executive Vice-President where he will have, according to the FAI, responsibility for a range of international matters and special projects on behalf of the FAI.

So this was Delexit, alright, but not the sort where he crashed out.

Nowhere in the statement was there any explicit reference to the €100,000 bridging loan John Delaney had confirmed he gave to the FAI in 2017 and which had brought his position under intense media and political scrutiny in the run-up to Saturday’s end of era announcement.

However, the outgoing CEO did acknowledge that the “this past fortnight has been very difficult for me on a personal and professional level” and he said he wanted to thank the board, work colleagues others “from the world of politics and sport” for their support.

But with his departure as CEO, Delaney hasn’t left some of the more contentious issues of his stewardship behind him.

That €100,000 loan, and what it appeared to imply about the state of the association’s finances at the time, will be one of the items on the agenda when he is part of the FAI delegation who will be quizzed by an Oireachtas Committee.

Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer Rea Walshe has been appointed interim CEO while the recruitment process for a new Chief Executive Officer gets underway.

The FAI say that they plan to unveil the new CEO at their 2019 AGM in Trim, by which time they will no doubt be hoping, if hardly expecting, that the temperature has been dialled down a notch on one of the hottest seats in Irish sport.