Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton expressed his delight after his young team earned a 1-1 draw with Ecuador in New York this morning.

Kevin Doyle's 44th minute diving headers cancelled out Christian Benitez's 13th minute opener as Staunton sent out seven debutants and added four more to the mix as second half substitutes at Giants Stadium.

Up to 25 players had withdrawn or were unavailable for the two game tour of America, leaving Staunton with only nine capped players in a 21-man squad.

"This was very, very pleasing. There were some excellent individual performances and overall it was a good team performance," said Staunton.

"We started a bit shaky, especially at the back but that was  understandable as the lads have only got together a few days ago.

"In the second half I thought we coped much better and overall I thought  we could have won the game. I'm delighted, especially as it was a difficult surface."

Staunton added that his youngsters, led by 78-cap veteran Kevin Kilbane, had equipped themselves admirably against a South American  team warming up for next month's Copa America.

"I think Ecuador will be taking quite a number of those players to the Copa America and most of them played against Sweden in January so they have a lot more experience that we've had.

"I'm delighted with our lads because it just goes to show it doesn't matter who comes into the squad, they get on with it, give it their all and that's all they can do."

The Ireland boss said he was impressed by the way his side had fought to get back on level terms after Ecuador had sprung a disjointed offside trap to take an early lead.

He was also pleased with the goal itself that came just before the half-time break.

"The move was very good. It was a great ball in by Daryl Murphy and Doyler's done what good strikers are supposed to do, get across the line for a good header.

"It shows the character of the side, coming back from one-nil down."

The Ireland squad will today leave their New Jersey base of the last five days and head to Boston ahead of Saturday's friendly against Bolivia at Foxboro's Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.

Reading striker Doyle was one of the players taken out of the action in the second half as a precaution along with Wigan midfielder Kilbane  and left-back Stephen O'Halloran, with the Aston Villa defender being subbed soon after making an excellent sliding tackle to deny Benitez a scoring opportunity in the 69th minute.

"To be honest (O'Halloran) was just knackered," Staunton said, "and I  took Kevin Doyle off with the Bolivia game in mind, particularly as it was a sapping surface and he's had a hamstring injury.

"Kevin (Doyle) needs to get a lot of football and we'll have to assess what the  injury situation is with Kevin Kilbane for Saturday."