Shamrock Rovers Michael Noonan celebrates his goal for Ireland’s U21s in Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday
Crawford’s supersub Noonan scores winner for U21s in Tallaght
THANKFULLY the Irish u21 team’s qualification campaign has gotten off to a much better start than their senior counterparts with wins in their opening games in the European Championship qualifiers.
Led by Tallaght man Jim Crawford the team travelled to Moldova last week with St Pats’ Mason Melia grabbing two to secure a 2-1 win away from home.
The game against Andorra was played in Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday evening and after an hour the match was still stuck at 0-0 with Ireland dominating the possession but failing to create ample scoring opportunities.
Crawford elected to make several changes at half time and throughout the second half which would have a major impact on the game.
The introduction of Trent Kone Doherty at half time being one such example of this.
U21 manager Jim Crawford analysing the game with his back room team Photos Darren Kearns
The 19-year-old currently signed to Liverpool looked like a serious threat whenever he got on the ball after coming on with his pace and trickery causing serious problems for the Andorran defence.
The arrival of Michael Noonan in the 63rd minute would be another impactful substitution.
The aforementioned Doherty would make a dazzling run down the left side of the pitch, laying the ball off to Noonan who unleashed a long range effort from the edge of the box finding its way past the goalkeeper.
The youngster from Shamrock Rovers found himself in familiar surroundings in Tallaght Stadium with his first two touches of the game resulting in a goal.
With that strike he has made himself the youngest goalscorer in Irish U21 history at 17 years, one month and nine days, taking the record from his league rival Mason Melia who had set it only in March of this year in a game against Hungary.
The boys in green now are joint top of their group alongside Slovakia on six points with England still having a game to play.
They will play host to Slovakia next month when they play the third round of qualification fixtures on the 10th of October where they will hope to continue this positive momentum.
