THE Republic of Ireland Under 21 team can thank their goalkeeper, Brendan Murphy of Wimbledon, far this draw on a windy night at United Park. Murphy's handling in the difficult conditions was superb and he made one brilliant save from Andres Lund in the closing quarter.

The Irish boys opened well, with Steve Carr breaking down the left, to give chances to Rory Delap and Dominic Foley up front.

The Norwegians however, with the wind at their backs, soon settled down and Murphy was called into action early to make a good save from Steffen Iversen. However, there was little the Irish keeper could do about the goal scored by Iversen on 30 minutes, which went in at the post.

Ireland had a break after the interval when a corner kick taken by Stephen Finnan of Birmingham City went directly in to the net in the 48th minute.

Ireland played with a lot of confidence after this goal and might have gone in front, with another good shot from Finnan and some fine play by Kevin Kilbane, but towards the end they tired a little.

It was at this stage that Murphy showed his worth in the Irish goal, making a number of fine saves and keeping the Norwegians at bay.