Kieran Murphy produced a brilliant header to grab all three points for the Ireland under-21 side in their opening fixture in the Madeira tournament tonight.
The MK Dons defender smashed home from a Jim O’Brien corner in the 61st minute to maintain Ireland’s excellent record in this competition.

Ireland are unbeaten in their travels to Madeira over the year and won the competition in 2004 and 2006.

Don Givens’s side face the host side in their second fixture at 4.00pm tomorrow. Madeira drew 0-0 with Portugal in the opening game of the event.

Slovakia passed up a great chance after just 30 seconds after Stephen O’Halloran was robbed by Jakub Petovsky, who squared to Tomas Zapotoka and he shot over from four yards. Petovsky broke through in the 22nd minute after dispossessing Ian Morris in the Irish box but he fired over from a tight angle.

John-Paul Kelly was unlucky three minutes later when he got onto a David Bracken lay-off only to see keeper Lukas Hrosso save his low strike. Kelly fired the rebound over.

Kelly then hit the bar in the 28th minute after connecting with Bracken’s nod down from Jim O’Brien’s looping cross.

Goalkeeper James Russell, making his Irish debut, produced a pair of stops to deny Peter Maslo and Tomas Marcek in the final minutes of the opening half to leave it scoreless at half-time.

Good work by Jon Hayes won the corner that decided the game in the 61st minute and Murphy deserved the plaudits for a brilliant finish from O’Brien’s corner.

O’Brien broke through in the 78th minute after a clever Ian Morris pass but he pulled his strike across the face of the Slovak goal. Billy Clarke also had a chance 60 seconds later but keeper Hrosso saved at his feet.

The Irish did enough to hold on and Givens was delighted with their start to the tournament.

He said: “I thought we were the better side throughout.
“Ian Morris was immense in midfield. That’s as good a performance as I’ve seen from him.

“Billy Clarke’s pace caused them real problems but he is going home after this game so we’ve got to cope without him now.

“At 1-0 anything could happen so it would have been nice settle it with another goal but overall I was very happy.” 

Ireland – Russell (Chelsea); Kane (Blackburn), Powell
(Bohemians), O’Cearuill (Arsenal), O’Halloran (Aston Villa), Kelly (Bohemians), Chambers (Shelbourne), Morris (Scunthorpe), O’Brien (Celtic),Bracken (Glenavon), Clarke (Ipswich). Subs – Hayes (Reading) for Bracken 45
mins; Murphy (MK Dons) for O’Cearuill 45; Curran (Sligo Rovers) for Chambers 56; Simmonds (Chelsea) for Kelly 75; Dennehy (Sunderland) for Clarke 89.

Slovakia – Hrosso; Nemcek, Kluciar, Nosek, Lendvay, Mraz, Marcek, Simoncic, Maslo, Petovsky, Zapotoka. Subs – Lacny for Simoncic 45; Matra for Petovsky
61; Hresko for Marcek 71; Balat for Mraz 81.