Dominant Republic in control

After Ireland's underage teams had come back down to earth in the early months of 1999, last night's first leg victory at the Oval for the Republic's under-18 team was the first notable achievement of the year.

Brian Kerr's youths, with a handful of the teenagers that helped last year's side to victory in Cyprus along for the ride again, out-played and generally outclassed their Northern counterparts in Belfast, even if they didn't quite do enough to book their places in this summer's finals.

The home side's record at this level has been fairly solid over the past decade or so, but their manager Roy Miller had made it clear beforehand that he wasn't reading too much into that. From early on last night it was quite clear why.

Miller had his side well organised. They played with the three-man defence and wing backs that he favours, but it was only their workrate that saved them from a far worse beating against a side that had the edge in every way but simply wasn't ruthless enough to ensure that their superiority was reflected in the scoreline.

Realistically, the game should have been over by half-time with the Republic looking well capable of running away with it in the opening 20 minutes.

During that time Kerr's men were dominant, John Frost the outstanding defender on the pitch, Liam Miller, Ger Crossley and Richie Baker running the show in midfield and Trevor Fitzpatrick making an instant impact up front on his debut.

English-born Fitzpatrick certainly seems like a useful addition to the Irish camp. The Southend striker, who has scored five league goals for his club's first team this season, slotted in well beside Gary Doherty, looked good with the ball and moved well off it and his efforts were rewarded in the 18th minute when he drove home the Republic's opening goal from some 10 yards after fine work by Baker out on the right.

Though Miller and Shaun Byrne had both gone close to scoring by then, it was in fact Baker who was the key to his side's hopes of really wrapping up this tie before the return leg at Tolka Park in early May.

His runs, down the line or infield from the right, caused mayhem from the start and it was no coincidence that when the young Dubliner was kept considerably quieter during the game's second quarter the host team enjoyed a prolonged spell of comparative equality.

The winger was sparkling again early in the second period, though. Twice in the opening few minutes Frost got around the home side's wing back and twice it fell to Baker to have the crack at goal. The first time he fired just over from eight yards, while on the second occasion his downward header towards the back post came back off the woodwork before being hoofed clear.

Again the Republic's attack faded out of it for a spell and there was even the first hint of the night that Northern Ireland could get something out of the match when Steven Hawe's 15-yard shot was deflected wide and Paul McAreavey, from the resulting corner, headed just wide of the bar.

With 17 minutes remaining the game swung back in the Republic's favour when Fitzpatrick got to the line on the right and picked out Gary Doherty beyond two defenders at the far post.

Doherty, formerly a regular in Kerr's defence, hung back well to connect with the ball and then enjoyed a good deal of luck as the ball came back off the foot of the post only to be deflected in by goalkeeper Michael Ingham as he turned.

The Republic's strikers should have added a third moments later when Doherty's final ball was poor. They linked up a third time in the closing minutes and when the Luton player squared the ball for Crossley it took a fine interception by central defender John Convery to prevent the ball reaching the target.

In injury time the hosts gave themselves some hope of causing an upset in the second leg when Blackburn's Gary Hamilton, their one player to pose a constant threat throughout the game, pulled a goal back for his side with a close-range shot after Convery had knocked the ball down for him.

Kerr, though, played down the importance of the late blow. "It doesn't take the shine off for us," he said afterwards. "Coming here we would have settled for nil-nil, so 2-1 we have to happy with.

"Overall, there was no area that we were badly lacking in and the touch of the front two was particularly pleasing," added the Ireland manager who expects to have Richie Partridge and Graham Barrett back from injury and suspension respectively in time for the second leg.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Ingham (Cliftonville); Convery (Celtic), Dolan (Millwall), Holmes (Man City); Hutchinson (Derby), McAreavey (Swindon), Hawe (Blackburn), Loughran (C Palace), Macklin (Newcastle); Hamilton (Blackburn), Topley (Blackburn). Subs: Carson (Rangers) for Hutchinson (58 mins), Morrow (Northampton) for Topley (64 mins), Toner (Spurs) for Hawe (80 mins).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Delaney (Everton); Healy (Celtic), K Doherty (Liverpool), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Frost (Waterford Utd); Baker (Shelbourne), Crossley (Celtic), Miller (Celtic), Byrne (West Ham); G Doherty (Luton Town), Fitzpatrick (Southend Utd). Subs: Reddy for Fitzpatrick (89 mins).

Referee: ME Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain).