Scotland U-21 2 Rep of Ireland U-21 0
On an evening dominated by news of Roy Keane's international retirement, the Republic of Ireland's future stars were turned over by their Scottish counterparts in Kilmarnock.
Celtic's Shaun Maloney stole the plaudits with a stunning first-half strike before midfielder Simon Lynch wrapped up the win in the 68th minute.
But Don Given's men had the Scots on the rack in the first-half and could have taken the lead as early as the seventh minute when WesHoolahan's corner broke to John Thompson, but his low shot was saved by Derek Soutar from eight yards.
The home side were again let off the hook, however, in the 29th minute when a mistake by Scottish defender Brian Kerr was jumped upon by Andy Reid, but with two men with him he screwed his effort wide.
The young Scots were again fortunate two minutes later not to concede a penalty when Stephen Hammell clearly brought down Thomas Butler in the area.
Ireland's Clifford Byrne was the first to be shown a yellow card in the 40th minute for a reckless tackle on Canero 25 yards out, and it was well within Maloney's range.
The youngster had done very little in the first-half, but he stepped up to curl a David Beckham-like right-foot shot over a rooted Stack and into the top left corner of the net.
Scotland began to look stronger after the break and they should have doubled their lead in the 55th minute when Caldwell headed a corner straight at Stark from eight yards.
Don Givens introduced Dunfermline's recent signing Noel Hunt moments later for Thompson and he was looking to make an impact in front of Jimmy Calderwood and Jimmy Nicholl.
But the Scots were handed a glorious chance to increase their margin on the hour when James McFadden was fouled in the box by substitute Sean Thornton, but the Preston target stepped up himself to blast his left-foot shot just past the upright.
Former Celtic youngster Simon Lynch, however, did find the net at the second attempt a minute after coming on for Kyle following good work from Canero to secure the victory.