Healy's goal makes sure the fairytale continues

They left it late, but 30 seconds from time Colin Healy was on hand to make sure Ireland's underage fairytale would continue for another while at least.

Brian Kerr's side needed to win last night if they were to earn a play-off with Northern Ireland and maintain their hopes of becoming only the third nation to retain the UEFA under-18 championship.

In the end, the Celtic player's goal was enough to keep the ambition alive, but by the time it came the Russians must have already been pondering just how Belfast might look in the dead of winter.

Doubtless the Russians will feel they were robbed, but in truth they were out-played for the best part of the night. Ireland's back four were hardly troubled until the visitors threw themselves forward in injury time. Kerr's midfielders were also comfortably on top.

Up front, though, there were problems. Gary Doherty, the Irish captain and a major contributor to the team over the past year when he has generally played in the heart of the defence, failed to make any real impact. His marker, Nikolai Ivanov, limited him to nothing more threatening than a few first touch lay-offs.

Beside him, Richie Baker was proving to be much more of a handful for Mikhail Yakovenko, but his night was ended prematurely by a knee injury he picked up in a collision with the Russian goalkeeper.

For that point on it was difficult, despite the amount of possession enjoyed by the Irish, to see where the goal was going to come from. Padraig Drew was sent on to partner Doherty and then taken off as the Irish bench's hopes shifted, late on, to snatching something through the use of air power.

Earlier, Drew might have snatched the goal required from close range after fine work by Shaun Byrne, while McMahon went close to nicking it shortly after his arrival when his attempt to push the ball over the goalkeeper came down just the wrong side of the bar.

Elsewhere on the pitch the Irish were now in complete control.

Healy, a stand in full-back, was in fine form, while his Parkhead team-mate, Ger Crossley, was pulling the strings for the Irish down the right hand side of midfield. A third Celtic man, Liam Miller, went close to putting the Irish ahead with a fiercely struck shot from just over 20 yards out.

But no matter how much they controlled things it just didn't look as if the Irish possessed the know-how to break down the Russians' final layer of defence.

Just as desperation began to set in, however, it all came together for the locals. Kevin Doherty's long ball towards the area dropped kindly off the head of a defender, and Healy, a quiet-spoken Corkman who has made a tremendous impact at Celtic in his short time at the club, had a long time to pick his spot from 10 some yards. The 5,000 left him in no doubt about how happy they were when he used the time to good effect.

"I was nearly resigned to the fact that we weren't going to score," admitted a beaming Irish manager. "I was saying to myself, `Well, they're a good side and we gave it our best shot, so there's no shame in losing'," continued Kerr, but he didn't get a chance to further explore the increasingly unfamiliar emotions of a losing coach. By then Healy had stepped in and his train of thought was broken.

Republic Of Ireland: Delaney (Everton); Healy (Celtic), Doherty (Liverpool), Murphy (Blackburn), Frost (Waterford Utd); Crossley (Celtic), Miller (Celtic), O'Grady (Sligo Rovers), Byrne (West Ham); Baker (Shelbourne), Doherty (Luton). Subs: Drew (Home Farm Everton) for Baker (28 mins), O'Halloran (Cork City) for O'Grady (55 mins), McMahon (Newcastle Utd) for Drew (77 mins).

Russia: Baranov; Solnstev; Panferov, Ivanov, Yakovenko; Michkov, Dyatel, Grichine; Okorochkov, Petukhov, Zlydnev. Subs: Nelson for Solntsev (37 mins), Aristarkhov for Petukhov (53 mins), Zinovyev for Aristarkhov (75 mins).

Referee: Dejan Delevic (Yugoslavia).