Pressure mounts on Givens after comprehensive defeat

Republic of Ireland 1 Armenia 2

Pressure is mounting on Ireland under-21 boss Don Givens after his side were well beaten at Tallaght Stadium by a skillful Armenia side in their Group 2 UEFA Championships tie.

Ireland are now three points adrift at the bottom of Group 2 and without a win in their seven games to date.

They are not in qualifier action again until August, when they play their final home game against Estonia, who lost 2-0 in Georgia earlier today.

Givens made six changes to the side which lost the reverse fixture in Yerevan 4-1 in November last year, and that meant returns for Everton full-back Seamus Coleman and skipper Owen Garvan, who were injured and suspended respectively that night.

The Irish defence stood off midfielder Levon Hairapetian whose drilled shot trickled into the corner of the net under the arms of keeper Shane Redmond who might have done better.

It was 2-0 on 40 minutes when Redmond was beaten again directly from a 20-yard free kick from Gevorg Ghazaryan as Ireland had no answer to their technically superior visitors.

Armenia had Masis Voskanian sent off for a second yellow card for time-wasting at a corner on 77 minutes.

Substitute Ian Daly, on his under-21 debut, gave Ireland hope three minutes later when blasting to the roof of the net after keeper Edvard Hovhannisyan parried a Cian Hughton shot. But Armenia held out for a deserved win.