Under 21 Cyprus 1 Republic of Ireland 1Republic of Ireland under-21 manager Don Givens was forced into a half-time rollicking to prevent his young side suffering an embarrassing defeat in Cyprus last night.

Ireland trailed at the break to a 30th-minute goal from Antonis Panayi following a dreadful error from Brighton defender Paul McShane.

At that stage, a European Championship qualifying campaign that has proved a major disappointment was in danger of going from bad to worse.

That led to Givens blasting his players during the interval and it produced the desired effect at the GSZ Stadium in Larnaca.

Ireland finally equalised 14 minutes from time when Coventrys Willo Flood headed home a corner at the near post from Celtic's Aiden McGeady.

"Overall, my feeling is one of disappointment," said Givens. "We were much the better team, but we didn't come away with a victory.

"I thought for the first half-hour we were the stronger side and I said to the rest of the bench that the only way we would concede a goal was via a mistake, and sure enough that was the case.

"That seemed to affect us for five or 10 minutes and I had to get them in at half-time to sort them out. I had a go at them really.

"The second-half performance was then excellent, although in the final phase of our game the quality was not good enough to kill them off,." Givens added.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND UNDER-21: Henderson (Brighton and Hove Albion); Keane (Luton Town), McShane (Brighton and Hove Albion), Fitzgerald (Bury), Painter (Birmingham City), Flood (Coventry City), O'Brien (Bolton Wanderers), Potter (Liverpool), McGeady (Celtic), Tabb (Brentford), Ward (Bohemians).