James McClean's vital goal against Wales shows what a dominant and decisive player he is for the Republic of Ireland

The strike represented McClean’s fourth goal in nine appearances throughout this group, with three of them match-winners. He is arguably now Ireland’s most important player

McClean scored a superb winning goal against Wales (Getty)

In trying to sum up the goal and the night in Cardiff, James McClean’s long-time friend and teammate Shane Duffy summed up the man himself.

“I’m delighted for him,” the Brighton and Hove Albion centre-half laughed. “He doesn’t do it the simple way!”

Those words were this time in reference to the way McClean won Ireland’s crucial World Cup qualifier away to Wales on Monday, with a 57th-minute effort that was on the volley, at an awkward height, at a fast pace and on his wrong foot. It was still in the back of Wayne Hennessey’s net.

“I didn’t know he had a right foot like that!” Duffy added in delight. The effort was divinely struck. It was sweet. It was momentous.

“It was” - according to McClean - “my best goal for Ireland so far.”

That is actually debatable, given the sweeping brilliance of his finish almost a year ago to beat Austria in Vienna, but that alone puts something else beyond debate: McClean has matured into a dominant and decisive player for his country. He is arguably Ireland’s most important beyond injured captain Seamus Coleman, and someone - according to Harry Arter - “we miss if he doesn’t play”.

James McClean celebrates his second-half strike for the visitors (Getty)

The 28-year-old is certainly Ireland's most important goalscorer, and that is all the more important for a team that has struggled to create.

The strike against Wales represented McClean’s fourth goal in nine appearances throughout this group, with three of them genuine match-winners. He also struck twice in Moldova, to add to the goals on Monday and against Austria.

Manager Martin O’Neill was predictably asked after the match whether McClean is Ireland’s Gareth Bale. While that would be taking it a bit far, the question alone shows how far McClean has come, how much he’s matured - something that some who have worked with an occasionally abrasive figure wouldn’t necessarily have always expected. The vast majority of them, however, have always liked him.

The winger gathering such positive attention and praise was all the more timely given that we are about to enter the nonsense of poppy season, when he will gather a lot of negative attention from some crowds and media over his refusal to wear one.

Many might say this is another example of McClean making life unnecessarily hard for himself, but that would be to grossly misunderstood an issue that is by no means simple - even though a basic look into his past would make his stance much easier to comprehend. From the Creggan estate in Derry that mourned six funerals after Bloody Sunday in 1972, he simply couldn’t wear something so intrinsically connected to the British armed forces.

McClean has for his part felt that he “was hung out to dry by the press people at Sunderland” over that entire issue, and that it wouldn’t be one today if they’d handled it better. When he first came across the custom in 2012 and explained his own stance to a sympathetic O'Neill, the club put out a statement that said it was his decision alone and that they were behind the appeal. McClean thereby felt he should at least publicly explain his position amidst so much growing abuse, only for Sunderland to dissuade him. "I felt that was more for the club's benefit than mine." It has lingered ever since then, only someway diluted by a thoughtful and very fair letter he sent to his chairman Dave Whelan when at Wigan Athletic in 2014.

McClean felt he was 'hung out to dry' at Sunderland (Getty)

That is the thing with McClean, too. The very fact he is even thinking about such issues and acting upon them marks him out from a generation of players that seems so depressingly apolitical. He has the moral courage to take a stance, to take the time to consider something, even if it does result in what he accepts are some entirely unfiltered words. While McClean is known to believe he should often have reined in his social media use, he also believes in fairly blunt honesty.

That has also manifested in a more frustrating bluntness in his game. In the build-up to this international week, Irish assistant manager Roy Keane lamented McClean’s willingness to so forcefully throw himself into tackles rather than being a bit more calculated.

The Manchester United legend said he wanted to grab McClean and talk to him after he offered one such challenge in West Brom’s recent match with Watford, resulting in Tony Pulis’ side dropping a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2. He almost did it again in the desperately tense dying minutes against Wales, committing a needless foul to give away a dangerous free-kick close to the Irish box. He doesn’t do it the simple way.

McClean's tackling had Roy Keane worried (Getty)

The dilemma and further difficulty, as is often the case with such players, is that negatives like that are the necessary other side of the positives of his game; of the qualities that managers like O’Neill and Pulis genuinely love. There is just such an enthusiasm to McClean, an energy that sets a pace and a tone and gets his teams going. It is also something that has a deeper resonance and importance with this current Irish side, and the supporters.

Knowing their limitations, the players also know that they have to compensate with a club side’s impetus and effort. That itself has all the more power because it feeds into an Irish footballing identity that was famously captured in the squad song for their first World Cup in 1990, titled ‘Put em under Pressure’. This is what McClean does, puts them under pressure.

Irish supporters similarly sing that they’d want “a team of Gary Breens” and even if that is reverentially tongue in cheek, the likelihood is that they would really want a team of James McCleans, because of the effort of their game; because of the honesty of it. He reflects and embodies a supporter's willingness, as Arter stated.

McClean is popular with the Irish fans (Getty)

“I think he epitomises what we’re about as a whole team, and as a nation,” the Bournemouth midfielder said on Monday. “His passion for us is incredible but alongside that he’s scored massive and important goals for us this campaign, obviously this being one of them.”

And that’s the other thing. He’s shown there’s so much more to his game than running and energy. There is now a mature incisiveness, a decisiveness, a willingness to take responsibility. He is honing that energy.

To paraphrase Jack Charlton’s words in that 1990 song, as well as Duffy’s on Monday, McClean doesn’t make it simple for the opposition either.