After disappointing defeats at the hands of the group's two strongest sides, the Republic of Ireland under-21s halted their slide down the Group Eight table in Valletta last night with a deserved if hardly inspired win.

The Maltese fancied their chances of beating an Irish team that has looked entirely unconvincing on most of its outings but despite their attempts to get three men forward through the opening stages of the game, it was Ian Evans's side who looked the more likely to control of the proceedings.

Evans changed the personnel and the system with his usual gusto, plumping this time for a 43-3 in which Alan Mahon, Alan Lee and Neale Fenn led the charge up front. In terms of possession and chances created the decision seemed to pay off but the finishing was again poor with the Spurs striker missing the target badly a couple of times while Lee's lack of pace scarcely helped matters.

The opening goal had a good deal of slapstick about it with Mahon's corner being headed goalwards by three different men in green jerseys before a Maltese cleared off the line only for one of his team mates to deflect it back into the net. The lucky break raised the Irish game a little, though, with Colin Hawkins and Lee both going close to extending Ireland's lead.

In the 70th minute Fenn finally did with a well struck drive from some 12 yards and after Barry Conlon had a goal disallowed for handball, Fenn touched on a Colin Hawkins shot that already looked set to make it three.

Carlo Mamo pulled one back for the locals but it had little effect on the spirit of the clearly relieved players at the end or, for that matter, on the couple of thousand strong crowd, most of whom were Irish.

Malta: Darmanin; Camenzuli, Dimech, Giglio, Grima; Licari, Holland, Zahra, Mamo; Mifsud, Galea. Subs: Ciantar for Zahra (56 mins), Galea for Holland (69 mins), Debono for Licari (72 mins).

Republic of Ireland: O'Reilly (West Ham); Boxall (Brentford), Hawkins (St Patrick's Athletic), Maybury (Leeds Utd); Quinn (Coventry), O'Brien (Bradford City), Barry Murphy (Preston North End); Fenn (Tottenham), Lee (Burnley), Mahon (Tranmere). Subs: Ryan for Boxall (58 mins), Cummins for Barry Murphy (69 mins), Conlon for Lee (82 mins).

Referee: Anton Guetzov (Bulgaria).