Vata and Armstrong on the mark as Ireland breeze past San Marino

Stephen Kenny was among the crowd at Turner’s Cross to watch Ireland continue a faultless start to their U21 European campaign.

A brace from Rocco Vata, making his first competitive start at this level, had the Irish strolling at the break and Sinclair Armstrong chested home the third just past the hour mark to complete a comfortable evening.

Facing the group’s minnows, hammered 7-0 by Norway last time out, allowed Jim Crawford to mix up his team from the one that twice came from behind to beat Turkey 3-2 on Friday night.

Aidomo Emakhu’s late winner off the bench wasn’t enough for him to snaffle a starting place, for Armstrong was parachuted straight back in to spearhead the attack.

The QPR frontman, who has scored in the Championship this season, was an unlikely debutant for the seniors when his late call-up led to a late cameo in the defeat to Netherlands on Sunday.

Though unable to attain global fame in the search for a late equaliser, he developed into a local hero by leading the line and tormenting the visitors.

Granted, the calibre of opposition was, being generous, limited but he was lively from the off and stretched the backline to expose gaps for the wingers to exploit. He duly received a rapturous applause from the crowd of 3,826 when given a breather for the last 10 minutes.

Early on he was denied by a smart save from Pietro Amici but by the eighth minute had squared for Vata to smash his volley from eight yards into the top corner.

Chance after chance was squandered until the stroke of the break when man-of-the-match Matt Healy forced Amici into a tip-over.

From the corner he took short, Vata charged into the box and tucked his rising shot inside the near post.

Armstrong was gunning for a goal and was gifted it by Giacomo Matteoni’s attempted clearance from Andy Moran’s lofted pass looping over his stranded goalkeeper. The frontman followed the flight of the ball to apply the slightest of touches over the line.

Crawford operated as one of Kenny’s assistants when they took charge of the U21s in 2019.

While his boss changed approach following the arrival of Anthony Barry to the senior backroom staff by switching to a back-four, consistency has been Crawford’s calling card.

The 4-2-3-1 shape they swore by over those 12 games four years ago facilitates natural flankers such as Vata and Tony Springett and they rampaged past their static markers at ease on a productive evening.

The U21s are the only team under the FAI’s umbrella not to reach a major tournament. This year’s appearance by the women’s team at the World Cup ended their drought and although the U21s are at least competing these days qualification has eluded them.

This is the second full campaign of Crawford. He concluded the series that Kenny began and Covid disrupted but couldn’t overcome Iceland at home to land a playoff spot for the 2021 finals.

That he and his team, including Evan Ferguson, succeeded in doing from the next tilt, to set up a shootout with Israel for a place at this year’s finals. Ferguson’s goal at Tallaght earned a 1-1 draw but they were brought to penalties in the second leg and missed out in the cruelest of fashions.

They nudged out familiar foes Sweden in that campaign but for the third successive series were drawn against Italy for the latest attempt at breaking their duck.

Only the winner of the group is guaranteed to progress directly to the 2025 showpiece in Slovakia but the three best runners-up across the nine pools join them.

Second does keep contenders in the equation as the six remaining battle it out to complete the 16-team line-up.

Norway currently share an early lead in the group with Ireland, also accruing a maximum six points, and they welcome Ireland to Oslo on November 17.

Before that Ireland have another trip, this time on October 13 to Latvia, who produced the shock of the campaign so far by holding the Italian scoreless last week.

Whether Kenny will still be at the helm that night when the seniors host Greece remains to be seen. He’s certainly not allowing the pressure to curb his connection, staying around for selfies and autographs. If only they were the ones deciding who should be the Ireland manager.

IRELAND: J Keeley; S Curtis, B Lawal, J Abankwah, J Furlong; M Healy (E McJannet 79), B Adeeko (K Phillips 69); R Vata (Z Gilsenan 69), A Moran, T Springett (A Amakhu 69); S Armstrong (C Carty 80).

SAN MARINO: P Amici; S Giocondi (M Guidi 70), A Toccaceli, G Matteoni, M Sancisi; S Zannoni, S Santi, A Contadini, N Sensoli (N Sancisi 59), T Famiglietti; A Giambaivo (N D’Addario 70).

Referee: Antoine Paul Chiaramonti (AND).

Attendance: 3826.