SOCCER/Scotland - 0; Ireland - 2: Brian Kerr might have been upset on Tuesday evening by the timing of Roy Keane's confirmation of his retirement from international football but the Dubliner is an old master when it comes to turning adversity to his advantage. Emmet Malone reports

And after much more important games in which the midfielder's possible return and Mick McCarthy's imminent departure had overshadowed events on the field there was from the start last night in Hampden Park a welcome sense of certainty about where this team's future is going to be decided.

There had been a good deal of talk through the week of the gulf in quality between these two sides and it was immediately apparent as the Irish overwhelmed a Scottish side that failed badly even to amount to the sum of its parts.

It was effectively over as a contest after a 16-minute opening spell in which Kevin Kilbane and Clinton Morrison scored the goals that sent Kerr home smiling.

From then on the hosts enjoyed a steadily increasing share of the possession but they did little with it and the new Irish manager's assessment afterwards that his side had come away deserved winners was not something that Scotland manager Berti Vogts seemed remotely inclined to dispute.

Over the previous couple of days Kerr had hinted that he would seek to blend youth and experience, continuity and experimentation in his first team selection.

But given the limitations placed on him by injury, this could have been a McCarthy team with John O'Shea taking Kenny Cunningham's place in central defence, Dean Kiely filling in for Shay Given and Gary Doherty getting to partner Clinton Morrison up front in the absence of both Damien Duff and Robbie Keane.

Given's absence, even from the bench, came as something of a surprise but Kerr knows well the importance of playing ball with the club managers on whose goodwill he will depend so regularly during the days ahead. With Newcastle's second goalkeeper, Steve Harper, suspended during the coming weeks Kerr opted to play safe with Bobby Robson's number one. Similarly, the club's concern over Andy O'Brien's shin problems meant a place on the bench for the central defender.

In their absence Kiely had little to do while O'Shea got to start the game alongside Gary Breen in the heart of a defence that had little trouble coping with a tame Scottish attack.

Breen performed more solidly than his recent club form would have suggested but O'Shea looked the class end of the partnership from early on, the young Waterfordman demonstrating a clear instinct for when to carry the ball forward through midfield and when to look more quickly for a better placed team-mate. For the most part his passing, tackling and positional sense were everything that Kerr could have hoped for.

Like Breen, Harte started brightly and performed well moving forward.

Still, it was Kevin Kilbane whose early first-half display will surely have pleased Kerr most with the Sunderland winger finally displaying some sorely needed new aspects to his game.

His headed goal seven minutes in, only the fourth time he has found the net for the Republic in 41 appearances, was a delight in itself but the sudden ease with which he seemed capable of turning inside to either shoot or cross with his right foot were at least as significant from a man who has all too often looked a one-trick pony.

Inside him Mark Kinsella was another of the stars during Ireland's most dominant spell with the 30-year-old defying the recurring knee problems that have left him struggling to re-establish himself at Villa Park to give the visitors an edge in the one area of the pitch where the Scots must really have felt they would dominate.

By the time Kinsella was replaced 13 minutes from time by Colin Healy his influence had become greatly diminished leaving the locals with an easier time as they pressed forward towards the Irish area. Even then, as their recent record against the likes of the Faroe Islands and Iceland suggested, the Scots remained largely incapable of finishing what they had started.

Morrison, in contrast, took his chance to double the Irish lead just 16 minutes into the game with a confidence few other players could retain after a difficult initiation in the ways of top-flight English football.

The goal was a mess from a Scottish point of view with Kinsella lofting a harmless looking high ball towards Neil Sullivan from 35 yards only for the Tottenham goalkeeper to fluff an attempted clearance under pressure from Steven Reid. It then fell kindly for the Birmingham City striker, which is not to take away from the quality of his volley into the bottom left corner.

Four goals in 10 games is an impressive return from a player who still looks like he is finding his way at this level. But the Scottish defence had a tendency to leave him to his own devices and 90 seconds into the second period he might well have brought his tally to five when his firmly struck shot on the turn flew just wide of the left-hand angle.

Steve Carr then forced substitute goalkeeper Paul Gallacher into the best save of the night with a fierce angled drive from 30 yards after which he and the Irish team began to ease up. By then the pattern of the game started to become blurred as first Vogts and then Kerr embarked on a series of substitutions.

Several of the home side's more influential figures had departed by the midway point in the second half, among them Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson. In their absence the Scots plodded on and their opponents coasted, a couple of scrambles around the Irish area as close as the hosts came to putting a gloss of respectability on the scoreline.

"Are you watching Roy Keane?" sang the jubilant travelling supporters as the Dutch referee brought the game to an end and the locals booed their players off the pitch.

_{SCOTLAND: Sullivan (Tottenham) (Gallacher, Dundee Utd, half-time); Anderson (Aberdeen), Caldwell (Newcastle Utd), Dailly (West Ham); Alexander (Preston North End), Ferguson (Rangers) (Cameron, Wolves, 65 mins), Lambert (Celtic) (Gemmill, Everton, half-time), McCann (Rangers) (Smith, Celtic, 65 mins), Naysmith (Everton) (Thompson, Rangers, 65 mins); Crawford (Dunfermline Athletic), Hutchison (West Ham) (Devlin, Birmingham City, half-time).}

_{REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Kiely (Charlton Athletic) (Colgan, Hibernian, 82 mins); Carr (Tottenham Hotspur), Breen (West Ham) (O'Brien, Newcastle United, 90 mins), O'Shea (Manchester United) (Dunne, Manchester City, 82 mins), Harte (Leeds United); Reid (Millwall) (Carsley, Everton, 77 mins), Kinsella (Aston Villa) (Healy, Celtic, 77 mins), Holland (Ipswich Town), Kilbane (Sunderland); Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur) (Connolly, Wimbledon, 74 mins), Morrison (Birmingham City).}

_{Referee: E Braamhaar (Holland).}