Republic of Ireland 1 Serbia 1: Giovanni Trapattoni lauded Andy Keogh's two-goal contribution in Portugal and the Wolves striker repaid the compliments when he came off the bench to brighten up a dour home debut for the new manager with a 90th minute volley that earned a draw against Serbia.

The presumption when the Italian succeeded Stephen Staunton was that, while success was a possibility, excitement was never guaranteed. Initial signs indicated that theory might not be far from the truth.

The manager provided most of the entertainment in the opening half, gesticulating and pleading with officials in the technical area while his players failed to inspire on the pitch against opposition who looked as disinterested as their hosts.

A goal from substitute Marko Pantelic looked to have settled the tie in the 30th minute of a slightly more entertaining second period, but Keogh's third in as many games offered a sparsely populated Croke Park something to cheer about.

In training games against Portuguese local sides Portominense and Lagos, Trapattoni was at pains to eradicate the needless wasting of posession that has blighted Irish international football for some time now. Nonetheless, early possession was wasted with some time-honoured punts over the byline.

Kevin Doyle and debutant Damien Delaney attempted to inject some bite with a reckless challenge each and the first bit of danger was averted by a timely intervention from the latter after Serbia captain Ivica Dragutinovic attempted to find right-winger Stefan Babovic in the box.

The crowd were awoken in the 22nd minute when Damien Duff's right-footed cross was misjudged by PSV Eindhoven's Rajkovic whose header deflected to Stephen Hunt at the back post.  The Reading winger did well to nod it down to Keane and the skipper did everything right only for his effort to be scrambled clear by Rajkovic.

Delaney was again on hand to thwart Babovic and Kelly stopped Sasa Ilic with a covering tackle after Richard Dunne lost his footing, but there was still little to suggest that either team was at the races.  In fact, it was only when Dragutinovic took it upon himself to pick up the ball claiming it was not match fit for play, that passions were roused.

The apparent apathy on the pitch was beginning to find its way into the crowd and, perhaps aware of it, both sides emerged with a little more purpose in the second half and forced two corners each, one of which had to be hastily cleared by debutant Glenn Whelan in the Irish box.

Whelan and central midfield partner Liam Miller had hitherto been bypassed by much of the game and the latter passed poorly when on the ball, while Hunt was a shadow of his usual self on the left wing.

Duff continued to provide most of the attacking threat but was afforded little protection from referee Nigel Owens and was ruthlessly marshalled, at times, by Milan Smiljanic and Antonio Rukavina.

Daryl Murphy replaced Keane with 20 minutes to go and Danko Lazovic - having just been beaten to a lazy Paul McShane backpass by Dean Kiely - made way for Pantelic.

The Hertha Berlin striker wasted no time in livening up proceedings when he exposed a gaping hole between McShane and Dunne to control Dragutinovic's 40 yard ball before lifting his shot past an exposed Kiely.

Duff looked again to provide the spark, first on the left and then on the right wing, but after doing the hard work the Newcastle winger's final ball was not up to scratch and he offered his strikers little to work with.

With nine minutes to go Keogh replaced Hunt and was unlucky not to have got the break of the ball in the box after he tenaciously forced a scrambled clearance from Branislav Ivanovic.

Ivanovic was then exposed by the pace of Shane Long, who replaced Doyle with four minutes remaining, but not for the first time a set-piece was wasted by the home team who looked all out of ideas, having used very few.

All looked lost deep into injury-time but Keogh took his opportunity to pounce on Murphy's flick on to fire a volley past Vladimir Stojkovic and ensure the new manager had something smile about after a long night of frustration.

: Kiely, Kelly, Dunne, McShane, Delaney, Whelan, Miller, Duff, Hunt (Keogh 81), Keane (D Murphy 70), Doyle (Long 86)

:  Stojkovic, Rukavina, Ivanovic, Rajkovic, Dragutinovic (capt), Smiljanic, Kzmanovic, Jankovic, Babovic (Markovic 81), Ilic (Kacar), Lazovic (Pantelic 70)

: Lee Evans