The day Diego lit up Lansdowne - 'We knew he was going to be something special'

It took Gerry Peyton a minute to take down from the wall of his study a framed photo and show it to his son, who is now 11.

"That's Diego Maradona just after taking a free kick. Look who is saving the free," Gerry says, producing a black and white snap of him denying Maradona in a friendly international, played on this day in 1980. "Conan just looked at me and said, 'you played against Maradona?'".

Peyton played with, against and coached some great names in a career which took him to his current base and home, Shizuokam, Japan.

But Diego Maradona - who passed away in Buenos Aires on Wednesday at the age of 60 - was different.

"A photographer that day offered me a print of the save against Maradona and the fact that I took it, and always kept it with me after that, shows how much that day meant to me. And how good Maradona was," says Peyton.

"I still think of that photo. A packed Lansdowne Road, Ireland at home to the world champions, me saving a free kick from Diego Maradona, no gloves on."

For others, dealing with Diego was also a career highlight. "I was just a lad from Sligo, so to have the career I had, to win 15 caps and play at a decent level in England and in Ireland, is something I am proud of," says Paul 'Ski' McGee.

"But to say I played for Ireland against Maradona, twice, and won the ball off him, where we did well in the two games, against one of the best-ever players in the world. That's something to stand over."

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Argentina's trip to Dublin in 2010 for the first international match at the new Aviva Stadium was about formality, money and the corporate world, all security and laminate passes.

The visit here of the then World Cup holders in 1980 was more chaotic. Their stay started with Maradona storming around their base at the Burlington Hotel, unhappy with the level of intrusion and angrily telling the reporters hanging around the lobby to cough up £2,000 if they wanted an interview. It finished with the Argentina squad making a public appearance in the sports department of Arnotts the morning after their game in Dublin, Argentina then moving on to Vienna for the third and final match of a European tour. But the young man had make an impression.

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Irish football had already been exposed to Maradona's genius by the time he came to Dublin for the second, and final, time on this day in May 1980.

He was in Ireland for the first time in May 1979 when Argentina played what was effectively the full Ireland international team but the game, in front of a crowd of 27,750 in Lansdowne Road, which ended in a 0-0 draw, was a fundraiser for Unicef and was not classed as a full international by FIFA so caps were not awarded. Maradona was a half-time sub for Argentina in that one.

Maradona (19) had Irish opposition for a second time, but on home soil, on April 30 1980. A League of Ireland XI managed by Tommy Jackson had been sent on a five-game tour, first up a game against Argentina in the River Plate Stadium.

Accounts from the game in the Irish newspapers are sketchy - the Republic played Switzerland at home the same evening, Alan Kelly in charge as caretaker in the first game of the post-Giles era so all the media focus was on Dublin, not Buenos Aires.

The Irish Independent reported that, despite fielding four of the World Cup winning squad of 1978, plus relative newcomer Maradona, Argentina laboured against the League of Ireland boys, with Maradona scoring the only goal of the game after 12 minutes, in front an estimated crowd of 65,000. Names like Liam Buckley, Martin Lawlor and Terry Eviston got a mention for the Irish side.

Argentina had used that home match against the LOI XI to tee up a three-game tour of Europe, against England, Ireland and Austria. It was a time of change in Irish football. John Giles had stepped down as manager, Alan Kelly took over for one game (a home win over Switzerland) but, due to pressure from his employers Preston, he was unable to take the job, and Limerick manager Eoin Hand, who had been Kelly's assistant for that match, stepped in.

"I wasn't officially appointed until later, it was a case of taking the Argentina game and sorting it out later," Hand recalls. Eager to put a stamp on how he wanted to do the job, Hand prepared as well as he could, studying the video of Argentina's 3-1 loss to England at Wembley three days earlier.

Hand was missing some of his key players: the four-strong Arsenal contingent were absent, playing in a league game on the night of the Argentina match (amazingly, just two days after the Cup Winners' Cup final as the Gunners played seven games in 18 days that month).

As if the pressure of taking over the national team, while double-jobbing with Limerick, wasn't enough for Hand, he was asked to take on the world champions with a squad weakened by withdrawals.

Argentina came to Dublin with Maradona, Tarantini and Passarella. Hand had tried to call up Grimsby Town player Joe Waters but failed to do so as he was on an end-of-season club holiday in Spain.

There was chat, but not mania, about Maradona. "None of us really knew who Maradona was, we just knew there was this wonderkid coming out of Argentina," says Peyton.

"He was supposed to be a bit of a player but he was only a kid. We had experienced guys in our squad like Steve Heighway and Gerry Daly, I was 24. We were hardened pros. If someone says 'watch out for this 19-year-old' you laugh it off.

"We were more concerned about the World Cup stars like Passarella and Tarantini. But ultimately the star of the game in '80 was Maradona, no shadow of a doubt," Peyton added.

A 3-1 England win over his Argentina side was a glimpse. "We'd seen him play in Wembley a few days before they played us, even though Argentina lost he was the main man," says McGee.

"And then he came from Wembley to a bumpy Lansdowne Road, the pitch was never great in May as there'd been so much rugby on it. The grass was high and you could do your ankle easily. But Maradona was all about the touches, you couldn't get near him."

There was only a slight buzz around the city for the visit, a front page story in the Irish Independent claiming that Maradona was demanding a four-figure cash sum to speak to reporters.

And in the interregnum between Giles and Hand, public interest was lukewarm: the newspapers on the day of the game had FAI advertisements telling fans that tickets were available: Ray Treacy Travel had them on sale up to 6.30 on match-day, 30 minutes before kick-off. In the end a decent crowd of 30,000 turned up.

New to international management, Hand had to give an unenviable task to full-back Dave Langan: keep Diego quiet.

"Dave was assigned to look after Maradona as much as he could. I asked Dave to try and get close to him, You'd probably need two players to mark someone like him but you can't do that," Hand recalls. "It wasn't a case of telling Dave to follow Maradona all over the place, as Maradona mainly operated from the left side, but I told Dave to go tight on him whenever he was in your area, try and get some tackles in, and Dave gave it his all.

"But it was a tough job and it was a balancing act, how far Dave could go to mark Maradona as you couldn't leave it wide open, I just said get as close as you can. And it certainly wasn't a case of asking Dave to hurt Maradona, and when it came to the rough stuff they gave as good as they got. That was the only concession I made to them, asking Dave to mark Maradona."

Forty years have not dimmed the memory for 'keeper Peyton of how hard Langan's job was, Peyton one of just four players to play in both games (1979 and '80) against Argentina, along with Tony Grealish, Don Givens and Paul McGee.

"Maradona didn't start in the game in Dublin in '79 so he didn't do a lot but I can still remember one thing he did in the 1980 game. Dave Langan ran to challenge for the ball with him. Maradona, with his first touch, jabs the ball with the front of his laces and puts a spin on the ball, like chopping the ball in mid-air," says Peyton.

"Dave ran towards the ball, the ball goes a foot away from Maradona and off he goes. I'd never seen anyone do that before, he put a spin on the ball, on the volley, spun it back to him. Some of the things he did in the game, you knew he was special."

McGee has a memory of his own battle with Maradona.

"In one situation the ball went up in the air, myself and Maradona went for it, and I flattened him, we shouldered each other but he was smaller than me, I knocked him over and won the ball and on I went. This week I dug out the old video, I showed that clip to the kids, there's Maradona and there's me," laughs the former striker, now working as a driving instructor in Galway while coaching Barna's U-14 side.

When the final whistle blew, Argentina had won 1-0, Hand pleased with the efforts of a patched-up squad. "We had chances to equalise but the result didn't really matter, we'd played well," Hand recalls.

One battle remained: who'd get Maradona's jersey? Peyton wasn't interested, as 'keepers always swap with 'keepers. "I changed shirts with Fillol, their World Cup-winning 'keeper, that's a shirt I still have and still treasure," Peyton says.

"After the game a few of the boys made a beeline for Maradona to get his shirt, I recall Dave Langan and Gerry Daly trying to get it, I think they knew then that this boy was special. It wasn't his reputation, it was what he did on the field that day."

McGee swapped with World Cup winner Passarella, a shirt he still has: "He was the toughest player I ever played against, by a mile, I don't think the Argentina players believed in friendlies."

Accounts from the time show that Don Givens, the senior statesman in the Irish side, nabbed Maradona's jersey.

Diego and Argentina moved on, beating Austria in Vienna five days later, thanks to a Maradona hat-trick. But those who saw him in Dublin knew a star was born.

"People knew about Maradona, his name was out there already but he wasn't yet the global star, it probably took until 1982 for the world to wake up to Maradona but he was special. He was very strong, that's what people forget sometimes, it wasn't all skills and passing, he was a huge physical presence," says Hand.

McGee enjoys his status as one-time opponent of a true great.

"You do look back and think yeah, I played with lads of that standard," he says. "He was the best player in the world, one of those guys you come up against who is just streets ahead of everyone else, playing for the world champions, in Dublin," says McGee.

"The great players, like Messi and Ronaldo now and Maradona then, they have this awareness about them," adds Peyton. "It's like the ball is part of their body, like they own the ball, you can't get it off them, they read your movement as you come at them to get the ball and they can deal with that. He was special. I came off the pitch that day knowing that.

"We had dinner back at the team hotel that night and I think the whole chat was, we had just seen one of the best players in the world, this guy was going to be something special."