"I must have bumped into Brian Kerr somewhere this week and something's rubbed off," joked Irish under-21 manager Ian Evans after this, his team's first win in "quite a long time". Kicking off this week's triangular tournament with a win against the Scots in Ballybofey last night had clearly pleased him and he reflected with considerable contentment on a fine team performance in what was potentially a tricky encounter.
With David Connolly scoring the opening goal, Ian Harte helping the side to keep a clean sheet and the likes of Kevin Kilbane, Alan Maybury and Alan Mahon all doing enough to enhance their reputations, it was almost as productive a night for Mick McCarthy as for Evans. However the Welshman will have learned much that will be of benefit as the European Championship qualifiers approach, not least from the debut of Connolly's striking partner, Daryl Clare.
The new arrival worked tirelessly alongside his better known team-mate and while the Scottish defence clearly had an idea what to expect from Connolly, the young Grimsby player, who returns to England today to prepare for his club's promotion playoff final, was clearly a surprise to them and one they didn't enjoy very much at all.
They weren't too thrilled by Maybury either. The full back's willingness to get forward down the right and then skip through challenges as he cut inside repeatedly tied his opponents in knots, even after Kilmarnock's fine young winger Alex Burke was drafted in at half-time to give him something to think about. That, to some extent at least, he did. But on those rare occasions when the Irish central defence was under pressure, it was largely self-induced. Colin Hawkins and Harte contributed a howler apiece over the course of the game, neither of which was punished as it might have been.
Behind them Derek O'Connor seemed more likely to be tested by Scotland's medium-range shooting. Barry Ferguson and Gavin Strachan went close from 20 yards either side of an even better effort from Lee McCulloch, which O'Connor did well to tip over the bar.
Once Kilbane had set up Connolly for the opener after just 13 minutes, though, the home side always looked to have the edge. Their overall movement, on and off the ball, was superior to that of the somewhat less experienced Scots, while they constantly looked more threatening around the area.
They might have scored more and there certainly should have been a penalty early in the second period when Mahon was dragged down by Strachan. Still, Hawkins's close-range strike from a corner after 69 minutes and Stephen Grant's somewhat more polished score in the 86th minute, after good work by Niall Inman and Clare, were enough to wrap up a well-earned win.
