Euro 2009 Under-21 Qualifying championship/Republic of Ireland 0 England 3A first-half collapse condemned the Republic of Ireland's under-21 side to a heavy defeat to England at Turner's Cross last night.
Two goals by West Ham midfielder Mark Noble in the first 17 minutes and another from James Milner nine minutes later handed England the victory.
Stuart Pearce's side's record in Group Three now reads four wins from four. The Irish have yet to pick up a point.
It was an unfortunate final score from an Irish perspective as they were to blame for all three goals with sloppy defensive play.
Anthony Stokes and Owen Garvan had led the home assault early on, but they found Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart in top form.
Noble, who was once asked to play for the Republic due to his Drogheda-born grandparents, opened the scoring in the 10th minute.
Irish goalkeeper Darren Randolph was culpable as he dropped a Milner cross under pressure from Matt Derbyshire.Londoner Noble reacted first and lobbed the ball into the unguarded net.
Don Givens' young side looked to rally and Stokes was denied within two minutes after cutting inside Nedum Onuoha. Hart got down low to save.
Noble made it 2-0 in the 17th minute when he swept the ball home from 10 yards after Gabriel Agbonlahor capitalised on poor defending by Richard Keogh to tee him up.
Stokes was unlucky to see a powerfully struck free-kick from the edge of the box deflected narrowly wide in the 22nd minute. The game really needed an Irish goal at that point.
What it didn't need was Milner making it 3-0 four minutes later. Agbonlahor sent in a left wing cross and Milner controlled before turning and firing home via a deflection off Darren O'Dea.
Hart kept the English goal intact in the 29th minute when he dived full length to push away an Adam Rooney strike after clever play from Garvan.
And Rooney was denied by Hart once more three minutes before the break after the striker turned well on a Stephen O'Halloran cut back.
After the break, the English were content to attack on the counter and Noble almost bagged his hat-trick in the 58th minute after linking with Tom Huddlestone. Randolph did well to save.
Ireland's ill luck was summed up by a dreadful miss by Garvan nine minutes later. He knocked over from a matter of yards and was relieved to see an offside flag raised to spare his blushes.
And Hart continued his defiant denial of the Irish on 72 minutes when he kept out a close range attempt by Stephen Quinn.
Noble should have claimed the match ball four minutes later after bursting into the Irish box, but a desperate sliding block by O'Halloran somehow knocked the ball over the bar.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Randolph (Charlton Athletic); Nolan (Blackburn Rovers, O'Dea (Celtic), Keogh (Huddersfield Town), O'Halloran (Aston Villa); O'Brien (Celtic), Garvan (Ipswich Town), Stephen Quinn (Sheffield United); Anthony Stokes (Sunderland), Rooney (Chesterfield), Clarke (Ipswich Town). Subs: Powell (Bohemians) for Rooney (66 mins); Gleeson (Wolves) for Clarke (88 mins).
ENGLAND:Hart (Manchester City); Cranie (QPR), Steven Taylor (Newcastle United), Onuoha (Manchester City), Andrew Taylor (Middlesbrough); Walcott (Arsenal), Noble (West Ham Utd), Huddlestone (Tottenham Hotspur), Milner (Newcastle Utd); Derbyshire (Blackburn Rovers), Agbonlahor (Aston Villa). Subs: Moore (Aston Villa) for Derbyshire (66 mins); Johnston (Watford) for Agbonlahor (75 mins); Wheater (Middlesbrough) for Onuoha (77 mins).
Referee: Andrea De Marco(Italy).
