Vata and Armstrong on the mark as Ireland breeze past San Marino
UEFA UNDER-21 EURO QUALIFIER
IRELAND…3 (Rocco Vata 8, 45, Sinclair Armstrong 65 SAN MARINO…0
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
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