Only time will tell whether Wednesday's game against Ecuador in the Giants Stadium is remembered as another Olomouc, the Czech Republic town where the likes of Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Graham Kavanagh all made their international debuts in March 1998.

Or will it be another Linz, the venue in Austria in 1971 where Liam Tuohy was obliged by the unavailability of better players to field what was effectively a League of Ireland selection, most of whom were making their debuts and few of whom featured again for their country after the 6-0 defeat.

What's certain is that with 11 Irish players having played at senior international level for the first time this week in New Jersey there is plenty of scope for at least a couple to go on to better things and so make this trip look, with hindsight, a worthwhile venture.

Of the starting line-up pictured here, only four - Kevin Kilbane, Stephen Kelly, Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt - had ever been capped before and at one point in the second half Kelly was the only Irishman on the field to have played a full 90 minutes for this country before.

Despite conceding early on, Birmingham City goalkeeper Colin Doyle emerged from the contest with his reputation enhanced, as did Darren Potter, the Wolves midfielder who started the contest strongly, appeared to lose his way for a while and then played a key role in central midfield as the Republic dominated the second half.

Aston Villa left back Stephen O'Halloran made some enterprising runs and produced some memorable passes but looked as shaky defensively at times as the rest of a back four that had never played together before - it's worth remembering that many of these players had never even met before the middle of last week. Reading's Alan Bennett, having looked nervous and out of his depth in the first 45 minutes, found his stride in the second half and might well have rounded off his first game at anything like this level with a goal.

Of those who came from the bench Joe Lapira (Notre Dame), with his long red hair and beard, stood out and became the first amateur and full-time student to be capped by Ireland since the middle of the last century, while Cork City's Joe Gamble showed, as he had done in last year's B international, that the league back at home is finally starting to equip players to cope with the pace of the international game.

"A lot of people can come in for their first cap and freeze," observed Kilbane afterwards, "I know I certainly did.

"But it didn't happen out there, there were five or six or seven lads tonight who did themselves a lot of good and a lot of them gave themselves a good chance of coming in for the big games now, which is what they want to do."

- Emmet Malone