A last-minute penalty earned Ireland Boys Under-15s a 2-1 friendly win over Hungary at the FAI National Training Centre in Dublin.

Derry City’s Jamie O’Donnell converted the spotkick deep into injury time, having seen an earlier penalty saved by Hungarian goalkeeper Mihály Lakos.

The visitors took the lead in the 58^th minute after hitting Ireland on the counterattack. Zalán Balog broke down the right and whipped in a cross Alex Byrne got a hand to it but Ervin Bihari was on hand to turn it into the net.

Ireland fought back and the equaliser would come 15 minutes from time. A short corner routine wasn’t cleared by Hungary and Shamrock Rovers’  Maxim Afonin reacted fastest to fire home.

Three minutes later Ireland had an opportunity to go 2-1 ahead. Ciaran Daly was brought down just inside the area and the referee awarded a penalty. O’Donnell had a chance to put Ireland a head but saw his penalty saved by Lakos.

It was all Ireland from that point, Liam Kelly stung the palms of Lakos with the Hungarian goalkeeper produced a superb save. Then Aydin Aliyev saw his stabbed effort on goal go over the bar as Ireland searched for the winner.

But that moment would come deep into injury time. Corey Fay drove at goal and wriggled his way past his man before being brought down for another penalty.

O’Donnell didn’t hesitate to take the penalty and this time made no mistake firing low into the bottom left hand corner to earn the win 2-1.

Speaking after the game Ireland BU15 Head Coach Jason Donohue said: “We weren’t happy with our first half, even though we had a lot of possession we know we are better than that. We made changes, which shows there’s good depth in the squad, and we managed to get 20 players minutes during the game which is pleasing.

“Second half we got caught on the break, which can happen at this age, but I’m really pleased with the response and the character of the team to come back. We got our goal and that’s where our confidence grew from there on.

“For Jamie (O’Donnell) to take responsibility of the penalty after missing one earlier is a show of great character and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to develop their character as that’s a big part of football.”

Ireland: Byrne (Clarke,70’), Culleton (Ennis, 46’), Afonin, Marshall (Nicholls, 70’), O’Halloran (Nolan, 46’), O’Dwyer, Lynch (Fay, 60’), Collins (Aliyev, 60), Zeller (Daly, 60’), Echefu (Kelly, 46’), Quinn (C) (O’Donnell, 70’)

Hungary: Lakos, Hermann, Gulyás, Bagó (C), Szeles, Bihari, Erdós, Vasiljevic, Balog, Szegedi, Takács. Substitutes: Gács, Varga, Bock, Malomsoki, Kerepeczky, Kószegi, Nadasi-Szabó

Picture by Robert Goggins