The Scotland under-21s team earned a hard fought 2-0 victory over The Boys in Green in a friendly played at the Pinatar Arena in Murcia, Spain.
Bobby Wales of Kilmarnock opened the scoring early in the first half. The ball was put across the box with pace with the cross being the poorly defended and capitalised on by Scotlands number 9.
Ireland had a few bright moments after the first Scotland goal. The closest Ireland got to goal was a few set pieces and a low cross from the left hand side coming from Franco Umeh – the ball was dealt with swiftly and put out for a corner. Emilio Lawrence had the only other big chance for Scotland but Spurs keeper Aaron Maguire made a big save to keep it at the 1-0 deficit. It stayed at until half-time.
Ireland made their first changes after the hour mark with Harry Vaughan, Joe Gardner and Ronan Maher replacing Umeh, Jack Moorhouse and Mark O’Mahony. Moorhouse had a good debut and showed us that he’s here to be a consistent starter in this team.
Jamie Mullins was Ireland’s brightest star throughout, looking electric on the half turn reminiscent of a young Adam Lallana constantly on the front foot and attacking the opposition.Definitely a player to look out for in the future.
Jad Hakiki was also very good on the right wing, drawing fouls and getting forward very well whilst also being excellent on the ball. Jad’s performance was another positive takeaway from tonight’s negative result. He can keep his head high and hopefully he will have more to show vs Hungary.
Celtics academy star, Jude Bonnar put Scotland 2-0 up with 13 minutes to play to really put Ireland in a sticky situation and made it almost impossible to salvage. A moment of excellence from the Celtic boy, a fine goal that you have to applaud.
When the match was coming to a close, substitute Darius Lipsiuc won a penalty after being tackled from behind on the sideline, using his body very well to tempt the defender to dive in.
Joe Gardner stepped up to try to bring Ireland back into the game, but a poor penalty from the Lincoln City loanee was denied by Murray Johnson of Hibernian.
A disappointing result and performance from Jim Crawford’s men but hopefully they can use it as a learning experience and go again on Monday vs Hungary.