James Collins marks Ireland debut with goal in friendly win over Bulgaria
James Collins enjoyed a dream Republic of Ireland debut as he came off the bench to seal a 3-1 friendly victory over Bulgaria. The Luton striker added his name to the scoresheet with four minutes remaining as Mick McCarthy’s understudies finally made the pressure tell with a late surge.
Alan Browne and Kevin Long had both earlier scored first senior goals for their country either side of Ivelin Popov’s 66th-minute penalty as Ireland hit three in a game for the first time since they beat Uruguay by the same score in June 2017.
There was an impressive debut from Charlton midfielder Josh Cullen, while Alan Judge and Browne got minutes into their legs on the international stage before next month’s tricky Euro 2020 double-header in Georgia and Switzerland.
McCarthy, who is now unbeaten in six games since taking charge for a second spell, will have to make at least one change in Tbilisi with the full-back Enda Stevens suspended, although it is unlikely that anything he saw will present him with genuine selection dilemmas.
He was as good as his word after promising to test the depth of his squad, making 10 changes from the side which drew 1-1 with the Swiss on Thursday evening, in the process handing senior debuts to 20-year-old Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers and Cullen.
His opposite number, Krasimir Balakov, gave a first international appearance to 37-year-old goalkeeper Hristo Ivanov as he made nine changes to the team beaten 4-0 by England on Saturday, and he very nearly had two clearances charged down twice by striker Scott Hogan inside the opening five minutes.
Nevertheless, it was the visitors who twice threatened from set pieces during the early exchanges, Georgi Pashov forcing a regulation save from Travers and fellow defender Kristian Dimitrov heading over, both from Nikolay Dimitrov corners.
Judge cleared Ivanov’s crossbar with a header and then saw the goalkeeper claim his deflected shot after good work by Hogan, Callum O’Dowda and Cyrus Christie, but despite their dominance in the middle of the pitch, McCarthy’s men were struggling to create meaningful openings.
Cullen chased back to make a vital block and deny Daniel Mladenov after he broke clear 12 minutes before the break and Ronan Curtis drilled wide from distance at the other end eight minutes later.
However, Hogan only just failed to get a foot to the Portsmouth midfielder’s cross on the stroke of half-time with Ivanov grateful to field the ball at the second attempt to preserve his clean sheet.
With Browne sitting noticeably deeper at the start of the second half, Ireland pinned the visitors back deep inside their own half, but repeatedly squandered promising positions with poor final balls.
Bulgaria responded and had the Ireland captain John Egan not been in the right place at the right time, Mladenov might have opened the scoring after controlling Ivan Goranov’s pull-back and blasting against the defender’s legs on the turn.
But it was the Republic who took the lead with 56 minutes gone when Ivanov’s night took a turn for the worse as he spilled Curtis’s dipping shot and Hogan fed the ball across goal for Browne to score.
McCarthy swiftly handed first caps to Jack Byrne and Collins as Judge and Hogan made way, and Byrne, the Shamrock Rovers midfielder, whistled a 65th-minute shot wide.
However, Bulgaria were handed a way back into the game with 24 minutes remaining when the full-back Christie gifted possession to Goranov and he fed the striker Bozhidar Kraev, who was tripped by Egan and Popov duly obliged from the spot.
Their joy too was short-lived as Ireland got themselves out of jail when Long powered home Byrne’s 83rdminute corner and Collins converted fellow substitute Stevens’ cross three minutes later to win it.