SOCCER:THE GAME itself might have been tight but there was element of "everyone's a winner" in Malahide last night as the full Irish training squad that has come together over the past few days was invited to stick around for next week's friendly internationals after they recorded a 1-0 victory.

The decision follows the loss of Richard Dunne, Kevin Kilbane and James McCarthy, which had threatened to leave Giovanni Trapattoni seruiously short of bodies ahead of games against Paraguay and Algeria in the RDS.

Kilbane and Dunne have been withdrawn from the squad on the basis of injuries while Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is said to have requested during a conversation with Marco Tardelli that McCarthy be allowed to rest after a long and draining season. “There will be other opportunities to look at him,” said Trapattoni.

Looking ahead to next week, the manager first suggested that his decision to keep everyone around was based on how impressed he has been with the performances in training since Sunday. In reality, however, the maths of the situation have obliged him to retain the services of all the younger players with just eight of the more established members now due in at the weekend. In the circumstances, he ended up admitting, he needs every available body simply to have enough players for a proper training game.

The one player who may depart is Shane Duffy, the young Everton defender who turned in an assured performance last night. The Derryman is not yet eligible to play for the Republic and Trapattoni suggested that he might be allowed to leave as he cannot be involved in the games.

While clearly indicating that he was viewing last night as an audition for next season, however, the 18-year-old former Northern Ireland youth international also revealed that his status might change by the end of this week. “I don’t know the actual story but I’ll find out on Friday. So far the international clearance hasn’t come through, though, so hopefully I’ve impressed enough there to earn a call-up for next year.”

Trapattoni, as he generally does, was upbeat in his appraisal of all the performances although he did mention that Keith Fahey had struggled a little in central midfield due to the strength of the League of Ireland team there.

Stephen O’Donnell came in for particular praise from the Italian who hailed his “strength and mentality”. The Galway United midfielder, who captained the locally-based side, had been impressive throughout and looked set to be one of the very few of Paul Doolin’s men to complete the 90 minutes until he picked up a knock close to the end, forcing Ronan Finn to return to the action.

Another to get an honourable mention was Billy Dennehy, the Shamrock Rovers winger, who caused a couple of Trapattoni’s players some problems during the first half of the game.

It was that half that produced the only goal of the night although it came at the other end with Anthony Stokes handed a fairly straightforward attempt to side-foot home from 15 metres or so after Cillian Sheridan had done well down the left.

A few more might have added to the entertainment for the crowd of scarcely 100 spectators who had braved a surprisingly cold evening to watch what they hoped would pinpoint the next generation of Irish stars in action.

Whether this proves to be another Olomouc, with a string of senior internationals in years to come able to point to a nippy night in Malahide as the kickstar to their Irish careers remains to be seen, but Trapattoni was certainly keen to emphasise that he had been impressed by the likes of Sheridan, Paul Green, Greg Cunningham and Shane Long.

“It was important for us to see these players. They were good and Cillian Sheridan gave me a pleasant surprise. It was an important game for me and now we must monitor their progress for the future.”

Doolin said he was pleased with the performance turned in by a team that had only come together yesterday morning. “For a bunch of fellas who had only trained together once, I thought we did well at times,” he said.

Last night’s opponents will get their next chance to impress on Friday when the Irish Junior team, drawn from the amateur leagues, will provide the opposition back here in Malahide.

For quite a few of them, it seems, that will be a final dress rehearsal for full international debuts over the course of next week.

Republic of Ireland Seniors:Westwood (Coventry City); McShane (Hull City), Duffy (Everton), O'Dea (Celtic), Cunningham (Manchester City); Stokes (Hibernian), Fahey (Birmingham City), Green (Derby County), Long (Reading); Sheridan (Celtic), Best (Newcastle United). Subs:J Murphy (Scunthorpe United) for Westwood (h/t), Lawrence (Stoke City) for Sheridan (58 mins), Foley (Wolverhampton Wanderers) for Fahey (66 mins).

Republic of Ireland Under-23s:Quigley (Sporting Fingal); Kelly (Dundalk), Browne (Sporting Fingal), Mulcahy (Cork City), Powell (Bohemians); Sheppard (Galway United), O'Donnell (Galway United), Finn (Sporting Fingal), Williams (Sporting Fingal), Dennehy (Shamrock Rovers); Faherty (St. Patrick's Athletic). Subs:Duggan (Shamrock Rovers) for Quigley, Bermingham (Shamrock Rovers) for Powell, Bolger (UCD) for Williams, Chambers (Shamrock Rovers) for Finn, Gaynor (Dundalk) for Sheppard, McCabe (Sligo Rovers) for Dennehy (all at half-time), Amond (Sligo Rovers) for Kelly and Madden (Bohemians) for Faherty (both 60 mins).


Referee:Dave McKeon (Dublin).