Donegal town’s Jack Keaney made his debut for the Republic of Ireland Under-18 debut yesterday, but the Boys in Green lost out 3-1 to Czech Republic at the Slovakia Cup.
Keaney had made his Sligo Rovers debut in last week’s EA Sports Cup win over Finn Harps in Ballybofey and was drafted into the Irish squad by manager Jim Crawford.
Sligo goalkeeper Edward McGinty, resident in Ballyshannon, is in the Irish squad but didn’t feature yesterday.
Crawford’s side produced some decent patches of play but were ultimately undone by sloppy defending in the first half in particular.
The Czechs opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Christian Frydek burst through from midfield and fired in a thumping strike from just outside the box.
The Irish did level in the 22nd minute when a deep Thomas Byrne corner was nodded down by Aaron O’Driscoll and Bohemians defender Warren O’Hora spun cleverly to finish to the bottom corner.
The Irish defence was caught napping as the Czechs regained the lead within 60 seconds. A break down the left ended with Frydek firing past Mark Travers when the ball was cut back to him in the penalty area.
Czech captain Antonin Rusek made it 3-1 in the 38th minute when he headed to the net from a well hit corner but it was an avoidable goal which frustrated Irish coach Jim Crawford.
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