B Scotland draw satisfies Devlin

Republic of Ireland B 0 Scotland B 0

Republic of Ireland B manager Pat Devlin claimed it was mission accomplished last night following his side’s first outing at this level for almost eight years.

But for B, read bland, as the 90 minutes served up at Dalymount Park in Dublin were uninspiring and hardly offered many glimpses into the future.

Watching senior team manager Steve Staunton will have learned little new from the stalemate against Scotland, opening the debate about the relevance of such matches.

Staunton, though, is building towards the 2010 World Cup finals.

“We blooded some players and we did well by giving the 18 here a game,” said Devlin.

“I wouldn’t like to pick out anybody, because we made so many changes throughout the game.

“But Darron Gibson was good in the first half, as was Stephen McPhail, while Andy Keogh worked his socks off. He should have scored, but he was excellent.

“They all did well, though. If it had been a competitive game then we would be saying: ‘Well, I’m happy with that performance.’”

Devlin conceded the match was not a thriller.

“At the end of the day it was a friendly. Overall I’m happy enough, even though it wasn’t a spectacular game by any means,” he said.

“We’ve some talented players and what we are trying to achieve over the next year or two is to have a back-up squad.

“This was the first step towards that, so from our point of view it was fantastic.”

It was Ireland who enjoyed the better chances, with Joe Gamble, Roy O’Donovan and Keogh, in particular, all going close.

Kris Boyd enjoyed Scotland’s best two opportunities in the first half, with the visitors chanceless after the interval.

Nevertheless, Scotland manager Walter Smith declared the fixture “a worthwhile exercise”, adding that he picked up “a lot of pointers”.

“The game gave us a closer look at the players involved and the majority of those who did play are closer to the national team,” added Smith.