Ireland Youths march on

THE CIRCUS rolls on! Kuching on Wednesday and a game against Argentina is the next stop for the Irish under-20s as their march through the World Youth Championship finals rolls relentlessly on.

On a night of unprecedented joy, emotion and excitement, Brian Kerr's team shocked the Spaniards and the pundits with this marvellous win in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

There was hardly a dry eye in the small but noisy Irish contingent in the 80,000 all seater Shan Alam Stadium 30 kilometres outside Kuala Lumpur, after Trevor Molloy's penalty in the 51st minute had put the Irish into the last four.

Molloy had been taken down by Spanish defender Ismael after Neale Fenn had neatly backheeled the ball to him. The Athlone Town man then slotted the ball past Spanish goalkeeper Lainez from the penalty spot.

It was a glittering moment for the Irish lads who have shown remarkable composure, confidence and experience throughout this tournament.

This was yet another example of those qualities as they calmly and methodically set out the pattern of their play. Based on a solid back four of Michael Cummins, David Worrell, Colin Hawkins and Robbie Ryan, they built accordingly and the assurance given by these four lads was embellished by the displays of Niall Inman, Thomas Morgan and Damien Duff in midfield.

Apart from scoring his goal, Molloy was a revelation. Showing no ill-effects of his ankle injury he teased and tormented his Spanish opponents and so confident and so cocky was his display, that he openly admitted after the game that he "should have scored a hat-trick."

In the first half he cracked a 30 yarder over the crossbar when the ball was laid on for him by Inman and then late in the game he shot narrowly wide after cutting in from the right.

And the Athlone Town man admitted he had no nerves when it came to taking the penalty. "I had practised a few in training and I just hit straight through the middle. Mind you I just put my hand on my Irish crest before I took it and prayed it would go in. It was a great feeling.

"I never had any doubts we would hold on after that. The defenders have been great in the last few games and I knew they wouldn't let us down. I have to admit though I had a few butterflies in my stomach as those Spaniards put on the pressure in the closing stages. But I always felt confident we would hold our lead," said Molloy.

None of the local papers had given the Irish a hope. "Underdogs" was the popular tag in all the newspaper previews but they will open quite a few eyes with the quality and real significance of this result. Ireland are the only European team left in the competition.

Of the four semi-finalists, two are from South America, Argentina and Uruguay, one from Africa (Ghana) and then the Irish.

The Spaniards had their chances, none more so than late in the first half when Gerard played a neat 1-2 with Rivera and Rivera shot across the face of the Irish goal, the ball skimming past the far Irish goalpost.

And close to the finish, Derek O'Connor proved himself a real hero as he brought off two tremendous saves. In the 81st minute Deus had a shot blocked by the Irish goalkeeper and when the ball came back off O'Connor's chest Farino put it back in again for Ismael to have a shot but Colin Hawkins took it off the line. And Just two minutes later, O'Connor saved again from Deus - this time with his legs.

In the first half O'Connor raced off his line as Angulo broke through and when the Spaniard shot the Irish goalkeeper deflected the ball once more with his legs. "I needed to have a good game tonight - the lads were getting at me," O'Connor said afterwards.

"They claimed the two matches I played so far we lost and drew and the only ones we won were when Paul Whelan stood in for me when I was sick and then suspended. So I felt I had to prove something to them tonight."

While Trevor Molloy will get the headlines for the goal - his third of the championships - O'Connor deserves them just as much for his crucial saves.

And what of Argentina? No one is looking this far ahead just yet but if you consider that Australia beat them out here in the qualifying group and now the Australians are gone home, what price the Irish doing what Australia did when they played them and what Brazil could not do yesterday?