There was plenty for Don Givens to ponder as he attempted to gauge the strength of his panel at Belfield last night but for followers of the Irish under-21 game the result had a familiar ring about it.

As it happens the defeat, after Ireland had taken an early lead through Gary Doherty, was somewhat harsh as Givens' team contributed a great deal to a remarkably open and entertaining game of football.

Had the Republic's finishing been better there might easily have been a couple more goals but the Czechs should also have done better with the chances that came their way.

The visitors, though, have been almost as impressive as their seniors over the past couple of years and the fact that players like Alan Quinn, Liam George and Martin Rowlands all coped well will have given Givens some cause for satisfaction.

The Irish struggled with the pace of Libor Sionko who was an influential figure throughout.

The Sparta Prague player was central to both of the visitors' goals, starting the neat string of passes that set up the first for Thomas Dosek and picking out Milan Baros seven minutes from time to set up the win.

As the hosts started to slip back towards the end the closest they came to finding the net again was through Rowlands, but his attempt to catch the Czech keeper out of position was several metres wide of the mark.

Republic Of Ireland: O'Reilly (Northampton); Heary (Huddersfield), O'Brien (Bradford City), Dunne (Everton), Clarke (Stoke City); Partridge (Liverpool), Rowlands (Brentford), B Quinn (Coventry City), A Quinn (Coventry City); George, Doherty (both Luton Town). Subs: Ferguson (Coventry City) for Heary, Barrett (Arsenal) for George, Murphy (Blackburn Rovers) for Clarke, Delaney (Everton) for O'Reilly (all half-time), Baker (Shelbourne) for Partridge (64 mins), Healy (Celtic) for A Quinn (78 mins).

Czech Republic: Drobny; L Dosek, Lengyel, Petrous, Cupr; Sionko, Heinz, Ujfalusi, Simak; Lukes, T Dosek. Subs: Chvalovsky for Drobny, Grygera for Cupr, Jarosik for Ujfalusi and Farbarek for Simak (all half-time), Baros for Lukes (64 mins), Sedlacek for Heinz (75 mins).

Referee: M Ross (Northern Ireland).