By all accounts, O'Brien tormented the Northern League part-timers, making two goals in a 4-2 win. It's just as well he performed on the night because the 90 minutes against a side obviously tired out from their day jobs was to be his only action until he came off the bench in Nicosia eight days ago. In the build-up to the Cypriot nightmare, a groin injury ensured he hadn't kicked a football meaningfully for a month.

Following his 11-minute cameo at Lansdowne Road last Wednesday night, the 21-year-old earned a unique distinction via his fourth cap. He has now played more competitive football for the Irish international side than for the Newcastle first team. His five competitive outings for his club have been substitute cameos totalling one hour. Counting the half against the Netherlands in August, he's already clocked up 83 minutes in an Ireland shirt. In the space of a few weeks, he's acquired the status of one of Staunton's favoured subs. At St James' Park so far this season, he has failed to add to a nine-minute runout against Lillestrom in the Intertoto Cup back in July.

Even in an era when the bizarre has become commonplace around the Irish international set-up, the rapid elevation of O'Brien is particularly strange. The manner in which he came from nowhere to become a fixture in the squad is the most off-kilter selection in recent memory. Having impressed Pat Devlin, his former adviser and current Ireland B team manager, with his performance as a substitute in a pre-season friendly against Villarreal, he made the cut for the Dutch game. When news of his call-up reached the Newcastle squad at the luggage carousel in Riga Airport, many, including O'Brien himself, figured the story to be some sort of elaborate prank.

Why would anybody have thought otherwise? In four years, the longest run-out Newcastle have afforded O'Brien is 28 minutes against Blackburn Rovers nine months ago. Out on loan to Carlisle United this time last year, he started just two games and featured as a sub thrice more. When the Irish under-21s squared up to Azerbaijan for the two-legged European Championships play-off back in May, Don Givens didn't think him worthy of a place in the squad for either match.

Between then and his surprise halftime introduction against Holland, he'd added precisely nine minutes of firstteam football to his portfolio.

Those who have worked with him every day for years at Newcastle have never thought O'Brien good enough for a regular seat on the bench at a midtable Premiership outfit. According to Staunton and his scouts though, he's up to the task of trying to unhinge the Czechs or the Germans late on in qualifying matches. Does anybody else think this a little strange? We are told again and again about his pace but if he was that fast and/or that good, wouldn't clubs more ambitious than Wolves be hot on his trail? Not to mention that surely an ardent suitor might by now have come in with something more concrete than an offer to take him on a three-month loan.

The really curious thing here is that there are Irish players knocking around Premiership first teams that can't get a sniff of a place in Staunton's squad. Reading's Steve Hunt came off the bench and garnered more topflight football experience in the month of September than O'Brien has managed in his entire career.

The Waterford-born 25-yearold also boasts more than 150 firstteam games in the Championship. What qualifies one wide left player for inclusion ahead of another? Is O'Brien's pace that much of a differential? Do displays in competitive cameos for Reading not count for as much as run-outs against Spanish opposition in pre-season?

Since O'Brien is merely on the bench, some may regard all this as much ado about very little. Yet in the last three games, he's been one of the trusted few to be charged with the task of assisting the Irish cause in times of crisis. This is why his continued selection matters and deserves further examination. Whatever method of addition is applied, something doesn't quite add up.

From time to time, Staunton's predecessors as Ireland manager have been forced to pick established players during spells when they were languishing in their clubs' reserves. To this point, O'Brien is a career reservist. You have to go back to Mick McCarthy bringing Ian Harte (four first-team games into his time at Leeds) off the bench for a friendly against Croatia in 1996 to find any precedent for this sort of thing.

In O'Brien's defence, he was apparently brilliant for the Newcastle second string last season, especially prominent in their winning of something called the Northumberland Senior Cup.

Obviously not brilliant enough to be trusted with significant first-team playing time or to be rated ahead of Charles N'Zogbia by the people who matter at St James' Park. And definitely not brilliant enough to persuade them against signing Damien Duff to play wide on the left. "Relatively untried" is how the Newcastle press described him at the start of this campaign. Exactly the sort of description that still applies four games into his international career.

Curiouser and curiouser.