The rookie: John O'SheaTom Humphries on how the new boy's quiet maturity and class stoodout in an otherwise forgettable match

Poor John O'Shea. Fresh-faced and enthusiastic, he spoke during the week about the thrill and the buzz of Old Trafford. About the pleasure of just being in the international squad. Playing for your country. Every chance you get. Always a thrill. Always an honour.

A kid on the cusp. After all the debacles, disappointments and bitternesses of the last few months, it was spring-creek fresh. Nobody told John O'Shea there could be such a dull time in the old town last night.

Two average teams having an off-day? Probably. The UN should step in. Ireland and Greece should be banned from playing friendlies with each other. One hundred and eighty minutes of football between them have produced one goal, several half-chances and little else. Last night both teams played as if they needed a draw to salvage their seasons.

O'Shea emerged hair wet, gear in a large back plastic sack, and sucked in the dank Athens air. Hard night for an apprentice.

"They changed nearly all their team at half time, so it was like a new side coming out and coming at us, that was difficult. But we kept a clean sheet. It was tough for the two lads up front, we couldn't get up to them or give them enough support, so it was a dogged second-half performance really. We started brightly. I thought it would be different to the way it panned out. We started well, but it was tough, we're missing lots of players. It was a good chance to get a game."

What impresses about O'Shea is his quiet maturity. He has a boy's enthusiasm but a man's head. He sizes up the game and his part in it without gush or gasp. He didn't play especially well and knows it. Nor did he perpetrate any howlers. No need for false modesty. He just flowed on the placid surface of a game which meant something to Don Givens, something to Glen Crowe, and precious little to everyone else. A little way down the road and it will be hard to find anyone able or willing to recall this exquisitely dull affair.

"It wasn't my best performance ever, not my worst. Plenty of room for improvement. For a defender, the first job is defending and that's the first thing I'll take from it. I know I can play a lot better, distribution especially can be a lot better, but today we didn't seem to take it from the back and pass it around. Our forwards had to work off knockdowns from Big Gary (Doherty)."

There was much chatter among the Irish tyros this week about the need to make a good impression. The theory was that when the incoming manager would sit down to watch a tape of our last game, he would be unable to believe his luck at the spread of riches available. More likely he'll be warned against driving or using heavy machinery within a few hours of watching this.

A crowd of about 5,000, small potatoes to everyone except the small potato himself, David Connolly, endured perhaps the least consequential, least attractive friendly of recent times.

For O'Shea, the occasion of his second cap (which, surprisingly for a player making such progress in such a hard environment, comes 14 months after his first) will recede until it is nothing, but a trivial statistic, a brick at the bottom of an immense wall.

For now, though, he can mark it as progress. "You could say all that about the night and the small crowd, but I'm making my first start for my country. That's important for me. Kept a clean sheet. I take that from it. The referee only seemed to see our fouls, never saw us being fouled, it was tough like that. For Don, as caretaker, he'll be happy with the draw and, with the quality of players missing, we can't complain."

Mostly O'Shea spent his time picking up Werder Bremen forward Angelos Charisteas, who presented the principal attacking threat from the Greeks until he collided with Shay Given early in the second half and decided he didn't want to play any more. For the remainder, O'Shea got the more bread and butter fare offered by Dimitrous Papadopolous of Burnley.

There were moments, though, when he hovered elegantly above the mire. Midway through the second half, literally dozens of Irish breaths were held as Stylianos Giannakopolous, a sprightly local midfielder, came jinking towards O'Shea and the Irish goal. The Greek has one of those mesmerising styles that makes players look as if they have rubber ankles. O'Shea was unimpressed and just dinked the ball off his toes.

Likewise, after the break, when there was another unsuspected outbreak of drama as the Greeks careered through and Papadopolous took a cross on his chest and shaped to shoot. O'Shea, the most alert of the Irish defenders throughout, nipped it virtually off his chest before the striker could appreciate what had happened.

"I thought they pressed well on us, but we stuck together at the back and kept it out. As I say, the main thing as a defender that you take away from a night like this is the clean sheet. There are moments when you could say you did well and moments that didn't go so well and they just level each other out."

Otherwise the Greek attack was a disappointment. The old wooden horse had more guile and about as much pace. Givens singled O'Shea out as being "excellent" afterwards and noted that it was just one performance early in an international career. O'Shea's mood mirrored his manager's.

"When the new manager comes in I'm sure he'll look at all that. What people did wrong and what people did right. It was the first time I've played with Richard (Dunne), he was asked to play left back. We have to get used to each other. All that's for the future."

And one for the future walks off and joins the boys on the bus.