Thomastown’s Colm Whelan was part of the Republic of Ireland U21 team that defeated Australia’s U23s side 2-1 in Spain yesterday.
Colm was an unused sub during the game.
Bohemians man Ross Tierney scored a last-gasp winner on his debut when he netted in the 90th minute with a header – his first touch – to give Ireland the win in a well-fought game at the Marbella Football Centre.
Jim Crawford made six changes to the side that faced Switzerland with Bohemians Andy Lyons making his Under-21s debut.
Will Ferry, Luca Connell, Conor Noss, Gavin Kilkenny, and Jonathan Afolabi also came into the starting XI.
Report
Twelve minutes into the second half it was Ireland who took the lead. Link-up play on the right between Lyons and Noss saw the ball squared into the six-yard box and turned into his own net by Jay Rich-Bahuelou.
Ireland went in search of a second but Australia struck back in the 72nd minute.
But the winning moment came in the 90th minute when substitute Tyreik Wright collected the ball in his own half and ran at the Australian defense, his pin-point cross was met by Tierney who timed his run to perfection to nod home.
Manager Jim Crawford said after the game: “In the first half we had a couple of scary moments where they had some good opportunities.
“We tightened up in the second half and our first goal was some good play down the right-hand side and forced them into the own goal.
“We made a couple of changes as we needed to freshen things up and the boys who came on gave us that injection of pace and forward running and you saw Tyreik Wright making a fantastic run on the left and Ross Tierney scoring a magnificent header – I’m absolutely delighted for him.”