Trapattoni begins reign with 1-1 draw

Ireland came from behind to clinch a 1-1 draw with Liga Vitalis side Portimonese in Portugal today in what was new manager Giovanni Trapattoni's first game in charge.

Trapattoni's men will face Lagos in another practice match tomorrow evening before returning to Dublin for Saturday's friendly clash with Serbia and their meeting with Colombia at Craven Cottage five days later.

However, all their hard work will ultimately have to bear fruit in September when they head for Georgia and then Montenegro within the space of four days for tough qualifiers.

Trapattoni's reign began in modest style in Portugal as a young side were made to work hard for their draw by Portimonese, who took a 16th-minute lead when striker Gonzalo fired a low drive past 37-year-old Dean Kiely from a short free-kick.

Alex Bruce denied the frontman a second with a vital block eight minutes later, but Kevin Doyle - who started up front alongside Daryl Murphy - and Stephen Hunt both forced good saves from keeper Michael as Ireland pressed for an equaliser.

That duly arrived five minutes after the restart when half-time substitute Andy Keogh pounced after Stephen Kelly had headed down Damien Delaney's cross at the far post.

Substitute Sean Scannell - one of four uncapped players to figure in the game - almost won it in injury-time but saw Michael save his initial shot after he had been played in by Keogh, and defender Andre cleared his follow-up header off the line.

An animated Trapattoni spent much of the game in the technical area passing on advice to his players and later declared himself satisfied with parts of what he had seen.

He said: "It was good opportunity to see the players in action.

"At this stage after just a few days together, the players are still thinking about things rather than playing instinctively.

"Their mentality is good, but there is still work to be done to change some of their habits.

"The pitch was not good and some of the passes which normally would have been accurate were not.

"But I didn't expect any more today because we were missing six senior players."

Trapattoni used seven substitutes, with only Kevin Foley and Owen Garvan the only one of the 20 players who made the trip to the Algarve not to feature.

The Italian indicated yesterday that those men who did not start today were likely to tomorrow, when Carlisle keeper Keiren Westwood, who has been called up to replace the injured Colin Doyle, could also figure.

The manager is already making an impression on his players and there is an optimism about the squad as each of them attempts to catch his eye for the tests which lie ahead.

Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt took his place in new manager Giovanni Trapattoni's side today and is hoping the comforts of home can provide the Republic of Ireland with a foundation upon which to build their World Cup qualifying campaign.

"He's trying to change our mentality in terms of the way we play, bits and pieces," said Hunt.

"But he will do a good job and hopefully we will qualify for a World Cup, which is the most important thing."

Hunt is confident a positive start to their attempts to reach the 2010 World Cup finals would give them a real chance of achieving their aim.

He said: "It's important to get off to a good start.

"Even though its three or four months away yet, he will install that mentality, so when we do turn up in September, we will know what exactly is needed of us and where we want to be.

"We have two away games first, so we will be straight up against it, and hopefully we can come out with some good results.

"If we pick up wins or draws away from home, we can take them back to our place and use Croke Park as a fortress because we can create a good atmosphere within the whole country and you will have everyone behind us."