Republic of Ireland - 1  Bulgaria - 1: Having been treated to a little exuberance by this Irish side as they wrapped up last season with a memorable win in Amsterdam there was little enough other than an abundance of effort to be admired in last night's rather run-of-the-mill draw with Euro 2004 finalists Bulgaria at Lansdowne Road. Emmet Malone At Lansdowne Road reports

Even before the kick-off it was clear that Brian Kerr's starting line-up would provide a strong flavour of the side that will face Cyprus here at the start of next month, but, by the end, matters were that little bit clearer for Andy Reid had firmly tightened his grip on a place for Saturday fortnight's opening qualifier by producing another strong performance and his first goal at international level.

Elsewhere, there were solid performances from Kevin Kilbane, Roy Keane and John O'Shea while Steve Finnan did well at both right back and, later, on the right side of midfield.

Kenny Cunningham's couple of first-half interventions were probably the team's best moments in defence while Stephen Carr reminded us of what a threat he can be when springing forward down the right after coming on in the second half.

All of which, on balance, must have amounted to a satisfactory enough evening for Kerr, even if Valeri Bozhinov's 70th minute equaliser did rather take the gloss off the result.

It could have been worse. On Tuesday, Bulgaria's new coach Hristo Stoichkov had said his first aim was to have his team score "as early as possible" but it seems safe to assume that not even the nation's rampaging superstar of the early 1990s would have anticipated the visitors taking the lead within the opening 50 seconds.

They should have, though, when Radostin Kishishev split the Irish defence with a perfectly judged low through ball that sent Dimitar Berbatov clear 30 yards out.

Finnan, who had played the young striker onside, led the chase back, but the Bayer Leverkusen player still had plenty of time to do much better than miss the target with a weakly struck shot from just outside the area.

Briefly, it suggested that all the pre-match talk about the visitors striving to make an impression on their new coach might actually turn out to be true and that this might prove to be one of the better friendly games witnessed by the Irish supporters in recent times.

Gradually, however, those hopes faded as it became clear that Stoickov's men would seek to do little more than contain their hosts while taking care not to over-exert themselves.

In midfield, the locals were given the sort of time to assess their options that would be unthinkable in a competitive game, even against teams of much less ability than this.

In defence, they were barely called upon to do much at all with the exception of a brief spell of pressure in the second half that ended with the goal, as the Bulgarians largely settled for a couple of long-range efforts on goal over the course of the first hour.

With such licence to make the running, Ireland's more creative players enjoyed a productive evening. Damien Duffposed an almost constant threat to the Bulgarian defence who found it difficult throughout to cope with his movement on or off the ball.

More troublesome still was Reid who tormented Charlton's right back, Kishishev, on his return from international exile with a succession of darting runs down the left flank. The young Dubliner, reportedly watched last night by a couple of Premiership clubs, looked particularly good during the first period when he provided evidence of both his strength under pressure while on the ball and his fine sense of timing when releasing it.

His first goal for his country, after 16 minutes, will have made this an especially memorable night for the 22-year-old, but in truth that was as much the product of good fortune as his skill, with goalkeeper Zdravko Zdravkov distracted from gathering what looked a rather straightforward free-kick by a run from Clinton Morrison who failed to make contact a few metres out.

The Birmingham City striker should have scored himself as early as the eighth minute when Duff linked up well with Liam Miller out on the right and Kilbane turned the Chelsea's winger's cross back only for his team-mate to head the ball goalwards with so little power that Zdravkov almost didn't have to make the save.

Once again his play around the area was good and there were a couple of fine crosses. Still, when he was substituted moments after he failed to react quickly enough to another clear-cut opportunity, this one primarily carved out by Steve Carr, he would surely have traded all the night's positives for the goal that would have ended what is now a 746-minute long international barren patch.

The 25-year-old made way for Jonathan Macken whose contribution over the 27 minutes that remained was more or less limited to one good ball into the area, which Reid had failed to anticipate, and a couple of decent knockdowns.

For the last 20 of those minutes the Irish were searching for a winner. The goal didn't come, though, and Kerr will have to hope that his side is a little more ruthless about putting the chances away when Cyrpus come to town in a couple of weeks.

IRELAND: Given (Kenny 71); Finnan (Quinn 71), Doherty (Breen 46), Cunningham, O'Shea; Miller (Carr 52), Keane (Kavanagh 63), Kilbane, Reid; Duff, Morrison (Macken 63).

BULGARIA: Zdravkov (Ivankov 46); Kishishev, Kirilov, Markov, Stoyanov (Topuzakov 64); Bozhinov, Yankov (Kamburov 76), Petrov, Hristov (Yanev 46), Lazarov (Manchev 56); Berbatov (Gargorov 46).

Referee: I Brines (Scotland).