Andy Keogh wore a broad smile across his face on Saturday night as he spoke of the joy from opening his scoring account for the Republic of Ireland.

The six times capped Wolves striker followed the goals he notched against Portimonese and Lagos during the training matches in Portugal last week by finding the net once more against Serbia.

He said: “It’s a great feeling to get my first goal, especially at Croke Park. It was a nice flick-on by Daryl Murphy and it dropped nicely for me and I connected well with it.

“Hopefully, I can stay in the squad and if I get a chance to come on and make a difference like I did tonight, I’ll be happy with that.”

Keogh feels he’s benefited from his first experience with the new management team.

“It was only a friendly tonight, so it was all getting to know his tactics. The last week or so has been something different working with the new manager. He’s a lovely man who is very passionate about his football and his enthusiasm rubs off on all the players.

“The lads battled well against a good Serbia team and we showed that we weren’t going to give up, even after going a goal down.”

Defender Damien Delaney, one of two debutants for Ireland, was delighted to win his first senior cap.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it,” admitted the QPR left-back in the aftermath of completing his first 90 minutes for Ireland.

“Working with players like Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne in training has been great and hopefully, I’ll get another chance on Thursday.

“The manager was pleased with the spirit we showed in coming back. When I saw Serbia launching a few long balls near the end for the sake for it, I knew if we kept plugging away, something would happen for us.

“In the end, it was a great finish by Andy.”

The focus for Ireland today turned towards this Thursday’s game against Colombia at Craven Cottage in London (8pm, Live RTE 2).

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