He was forced to arrive economy class and perform in surroundings most charitably described as Third Division, but on this occasion Roy Keane's dummy remained steadfastly intact.

And, as eight weeks ago in the affair which casts lengthening shadows over Irish football, Bertie Ahern, the republic's Taoiseach, was again asked to intervene - albeit this time by drawing the half-time raffle.

There was even a McCarthy involved on Saturday. But the Shelbourne defender Tony was never likely to receive the kind of poisonous volley Keane reserved for the national manager Mick, which had left a question mark over the kind of reception Keane would get in what otherwise would have been a low-key pre-season friendly. If the 12,000 who filled Tolka Park were representative of the Irishfaithful, Keane's cackhanded World Cup preparations received an emphatic thumbs-up.

The 30-year-old former Ireland captain was greeted as a returning hero, albeit some 150 miles north of his birthplace. The brisk sale of T-shirts depicting Keane and the Irish rebel leader Michael Collins as "Two famous Cork leaders both shot in the back" gave a fair indication of the welcome the Manchester United skipper could expect.

A longer than expected summer break has clearly benefited a lithe-looking Keane, as it has Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy, who helped himself to one of his easier hat-tricks.

Diego Forlan scored his first goal in United colours, a mere seven months into his Old Trafford career, and there was even time for Dwight Yorke, at the opposite end of his United life, to notch an increasingly rare goal after sheepishly entering as a half-time substitute.

Close behind the impressive Giggs was another United Irishman John O'Shea, whose assured showing at centre-back suggests Laurent Blanc might be the man under pressure from Rio Ferdinand's impending arrival.

But it was another afternoon to forget in the increasingly strained United career of Juan Sebastian Veron, on this evidence £28m worth of ineffectiveness.