INTERNATIONAL U-19 FRIENDLY:IRELAND'S under-19 side played out a keenly fought scoreless draw against Ukraine in a friendly at Morton Stadium last night.
The Ukrainians were an impressive outfit and only the crossbar denied them on 30 minutes when Vuacheslav Churko’s long-range strike looked to have beaten Irish goalkeeper Seán McDermott.
And Arsenal’s McDermott proved his class when he pushed a Vladislav Calitvintsev shot around the post in the 44th minute.
The home side, who included Denis Irwin’s son, Liam, in their starting line-up, came close in the 78th minute when John Egan’s volley was saved by Ievgen Galchuk.
Galchuk then produced two saves within as many minutes to deny Declan Walker before tipping a Craig Walsh cross onto the bar.
REP OF IRELAND: McDermott (McCarey 46); Walker, McGinty (Osbourne 73), O’Connor, Egan, Horgan (Rafter 46), Byrne (Walsh 46), Irwin (Hendrick 65), McDonnell, McEleney (Connolly 81), Brady.
UKRAINE: Galchuk; Ordets, Noiok, Karavaev, Shabanov, Ozarkiv, Churko (Koval 46), Calitvintsev, Dolhiy (Ryabusthko 25 (Mochulenko 57)), Budkivskiy, Babenko.
