Tim Cahill takes Ireland early – Ireland 0-3 Australia

Thomond Park hosted Ireland and the Socceroos last night in a game that Ireland should have taken in their stride. Cahill got the Aussies in front after 38 mins. Giovanni Trapattoni had obviously given a good pre match speech because Ireland did give it all they had , but with so many premiership players on the pitch it was definitely a night of “Could have done better”.

A minute before the First half whistle , Williams got past Mc Geady but the left footer was stopped in its tracks by Given , however Cahill was at his best and made it 0-2.

Referee Alfonso Perez Burrul from Spain as fair to both sides from what we could tell and both teams couldnt fault his game.

Kewell got a shot in at 81 minutes but it sailed straight towards the fans. To seal it all Carney sent a goal in and that was the end of the Republic’s Match.

After the match , Duff told RTE sport :

‘We’ll just look at it as a blip in a pre-season friendly more or less, obviously the competitive stuff starts in three to four weeks (against Cyprus) and that’s the result we want.’

Austrailia are already qualified for the World Cup 2010 and leaves a lot for Ireland to do.

Republic of Ireland: 1 Shay Given (16 Kieran Westwood 68 mins substituted ),2 John O’Shea, 4 Sean St Ledger, 5 Richard Dunne, 3 Kevin Kilbane (12 Eddie Nolan 62 mins substituted ), 11 Damien Duff (17 Stephen Hunt halftime substituted), 6 Glenn Whelan, 8 Darron Gibson (15 Keith Andrews 62 mins), 7 Aiden McGeady (20 Shane Long 82 mins), 9 Kevin Doyle (18 Caleb Folan halftime substituted), 10 Robbie Keane.

Australia: 1 Mark Schwarzer,20 Rhys Williams, 12 Patrick Kisnorbo (17 Adrian Madaschi halftime substituted), 5 Jade North (15 Matt Spiranovic 72 mins substituted), 3 David Carney; 23 Mark Bresciano (19 Nick Carle 78 mins substituted), 6 Mile Jedinak (21 James Holland 89 mins substituted), 8 Luke Wilkshire, 10 Harry Kewell; 4 Tim Cahill (14 Brett Holman substituted), 7 Scott McDonald (11 Nikita Rukavytsya halftime substituted).