The Republic of Ireland U15 development squad which travelled to the Atlantic island of Tenerife last weekend finished third in the International Tournament under the guidance of manager,Vincent Butler.

Ireland opened their campaign against Spain in what turned out to be a very eventful evening. The match which was scheduled to start at 8.30pm did not commence until 9.15pm due to an over run on the opening ceremony. The position was then further compounded by a 70 minute delay at half time due to a power failure which resulted in the match not being completed until 11.55pm.

The Spanish squad contained four players from Real Madrid and three from Barcelona with Deportivo LA Coruna, Villareal and Athletico Madrid also represented. Spain started the more fluently and the Irish boys were under early pressure culminating in the concession of a goal from a far post header. The Irish team responded in positive fashion and within minutes were level through a superb 25 yard free kick from James Doyle of Athy Town F.C. Encouraged by the goal, Ireland grabbed the inititive and were in the ascendancy right up to half time.

As the teams departed the pitch at the interval, the power failure occurred and it was more than an hour later before the second half commenced, both sides having agreed to continue despite the fact that two of the lights did not return.

Ireland started the second half well and had a couple of half chances before they were caught on the counter attack nine minutes into the half and Spain regained the lead. Ireland made two changes in an effort to retrieve the situation but sadly fell further behind with a little over five minutes remaining.

Undaunted, the Irish lads continued to press forward and were very unlucky when the Spanish goalkeeper brought off a tremendous save from a fine shot delivered by Jack Lyons of Crystal Palace. In the final minutes of the game, Ireland gained some reward for their endeavour when midfielder Conor McCormack raced into the area and was taken down. The Bellurgen player picked himself up and cooly converted the resultant penalty.

Manager Vincent Butler expressed his satisfaction with the performance of his team in the very testing conditions and stated that “ the experience will be hugely beneficial to these lads as part of their development”.

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Ireland faced old rivals Belgium in the third place play-off game in the Estadio Municipal de Puerto Santiago on Saturday evening. Both sides started slowly and, with the exception of a fine shot from Conor McCormack which grazed the post, the great majority of the first half passed without any real incident of note.

Manager, Vincent Butler introduced three fresh players at the commencement of the second half and five minutes after the re-start, one of the substitutes, Home Farm’s Ian Daly scored the opening goal after some excellent build-up play.

Ireland stretched their lead on 53 minutes when McCormack once again made one of his trademark forward bursts and was felled on the edge of the penalty area. From the resultant free kick, Daly hit a cracking shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net. The Daly/McCormack combination struck again on 71 minutes when the two goal Daly turned provider for McCormack who fired home the third and final goal.

Following the match, Vincent Butler commented “ we gave everybody a game and as this is a development squad it gave us an ideal opportunity to see everybody against top class opposition”.