Irish Football: Perfect start for Paul Osam’s “men” ⁰

The Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-16s team won the first of three friendly games in Polop, Spain, 3-0 thanks to second half goals from Freddie Turley, Luke Kehir and Taylor Mooney.

It is the perfect start in a trio of games for Paul Osam’s side which will see them take on Spain on Wednesday and Norway again on Sunday.

 Ireland were on the front foot throughout the game causing numerous problems to their Norwegian opponents and they had two glorious chances in the first half to break the deadlock.

 The first came when Cillian Mulvihill rounded the goalkeeper in the 26th minute but he could only find the side netting with his effort.

 Ten minutes later Ireland were awarded a penalty when Mulvihill was felled inside the area. Naj Razi stepped up to take it but saw his spotkick well saved by Daniel Gjerde Saetren.

 In the second half Ireland turned their display up a notch and it was a 10-minute period that did the damage for Osam’s side.

 In the 50th minute Freddie Turley found the back of the net with a header after great work down the left from Nickson Okosun. Two minutes later it was 2-0 when Kehir finished off an excellent team goal to double Ireland’s advantage.

 Mooney, who had been on the field a matter of minutes, made it 3-0 to Ireland in the 60th minute as the young Boys in Green put distance between themselves and their opponents.

 Norway sought a way back in the game and were dangerous from set-pieces but a late effort from a corner was cleared off the line by Sean Hayden to preserve the cleansheet.

 Ireland saw out the match and will head into Wednesday’s game against the hosts Spain off the back of a solid victory.

 Republic of Ireland: Healy (GK); Mackey (C) (O’Halloran 65), O’Sullivan, Hayden, Queally; Turley (Patton 70), Negry-McGrath (Dodd 55), Kehir; Naj Razi, Cillian Mulvihil (Mooney 55), Okosun (Cannon 70)

 Norway: Gjerde Saetren (GK), Herman Bjustrøm, Kvale, Hammer Kjelsen ©, Børset, Randen, Nypan, Jama, Bjørndalen Sørum, El-Abdellaoui, Kjølstad Nyheim.

International friendly fixtures (all kick-off times are Irish time)

Wednesday, November 24 | Spain MU16 v Ireland MU16, Orihuela, Spain, KO 5pm

Sunday, November 28 | Ireland MU16 v Norway MU16, venue TBC, Spain, KO 11am

Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-16s Squad

Goalkeepers: Jason Healy (Waterford FC), Rian Hogan (St. Patrick’s Athletic)

Defenders: Sean Hayden (St. Patrick’s Athletic),  Sean Mackey (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Sean McCarthy (Bohemians), Cory O’Sullivan (Shamrock Rovers), Adam Queally (Waterford FC), Patryk Swieczka Andrzejczak (Cork City)

Midfielders: Anthony Dodd (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Luke Kehir (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Taylor Mooney (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Daniel Negry-McGrath (Bohemians), Adam O’Halloran (Galway United), Najemedine Razi (Shamrock Rovers) Freddie Turley (Shamrock Rovers)

Forwards: Aidan Cannon (Celtic), Brian Moore (St Patrick’s Athletic), Cillian Mulvihill (Cork City), Nickson Okosun (Bohemians), Sean Patton (Finn Harps)

Culled from FAI