Substitute Franco Umeh inspired a 3-1 win for Ireland Men’s Under-19s in their friendly against Slovakia today.

Umeh’s scored a superb solo goal to give the MU19s a 2-1 lead after Ireland fought from a goal down. Killian Cailloce and Sean Patton added to the goals in the second of two games against Slovakia.
 
Tom Mohan’s team were looking to bounce back following a 1-0 defeat to the same opponents three days ago and when Slovakia went a goal ahead early on this morning there were concerns it could be a similar outcome.
 
Matús Kucman put Jakub Murko through on goal and he composed himself before slotting home past Andrew Wogan in the Irish goal.
 
But 10-minutes later Cailloce equalised on his first start for Ireland. The Drogheda United man got on the end of a corner that was excellently saved by Jakub Vinarčík but he couldn’t keep out Cailloce’s rebound as he levelled from close range.
 
An injury to Ryan Kelly mid-way through the first half saw the introduction of Umeh, and immediately the Crystal Palace forward caused problems in the Slovakian backline. He left Murko and Marek for dead and drove a ball across goal that just evaded the Irish attackers as they searched for a lead.
 
Umeh would have to wait until the second half to show his impact and he did it style. In the 48^th minute the attacker received the ball on the half-way line ghosted past several Slovakia players before finding the bottom right corner with a fine finish to put Ireland ahead.
 
Minutes later it could have been three, Slovakia failed to deal with an Irish corner and when it fell to Stanley Ashbee, the Hull City centre back chested the ball down and volleyed at goal only to see it hooked off the line.
 
In the 56^th minute Umeh almost doubled his tally meeting an excellent free-kick with his head which just went over the bar.
 
In the 80^th minute his free-kick just flashed past the post Ireland looked for a third. From that goal kick Slovakia almost gifted Ireland a goal when a mix-up at the back allowed 
Patton to get a effort on goal that was superbly saved.
 
Patton would get his goal two minutes later reacting fastest to a Darius Lipsuic volley that parried into the path of the Derry City striker to score for 3-1.
  
Slovakia: Vinarčik, Zahradník (C), Hajovsky, Mikulaj, Murko, Prekop, Brandis, Zemko, Angyal, Kucman, Marek.
 
Ireland:  Wogan (Brady, 63), Deans, Ashbee,  Turley,  J. O’Sullivan, Lipsuic (C), McGrath, Brennan (Akachukwu, 63), Cailloce (Razi, 79), Patton, Kelly (Umeh, 25)

International Friendly Results 
Saturday, March 23 | Slovakia MU19 1-0 Ireland MU19
Tuesday, March 26 | Slovakia MU19 1-3 Ireland MU19