Saoirse Noonan’s 30th minute goal decided the game and gave Bell’s charges a pleasing response to their 3-0 loss to the same opponents on Wednesday.

Noonan found the net after an Irish corner kick routine worked to perfect and the Irish coach was delighted both with the player and the overall display.

"Saoirse was outstanding throughout. She led her country so well and was excellent in all aspects of her play in midfield," said Bell.

"She has a little bit of experience from last year's campaign at this level and she has really taken that with her into this season.

"Overall it was a very good team performance. After the defeat in the first game we worked on aspects of our defending in training and in particular we did a lot on dealing with Scotland's Brogan Hay who is outstanding and a very quick player.

"We scored from a set piece that we had worked on so that's always pleasing."

Overall Bell feels that his side will have benefitted from these fixtures as they prepare for next month's UEFA WU17 Championships qualifiers in Turkey where they meet the hosts, Andorra and Ukraine.

"It was pleasing that we managed to play all 20 girls in these games and we gave them basically 40 minutes at least. I feel we have moved a little more towards having a settled squad for the qualifiers now," he added.

"Even in the first game although we lost 3-0 there were some outstanding individual displays. The qualifiers in Turkey are in six weeks and we'll train before that to try bed in the squad before we face Ukraine in our first game. It'll be a tough group to get out of but I have confidence in these players."

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Naoisha McAloon, Zoe Green, Alex Kavanagh, Saoirse Noonan, Heather Payne, Rachel Baynes, Tiegan Ruddy, Jade Reddy, Tara O’Gorman, Danielle Burke, Chloe Connolly. Subs: Leah Reybet-Degat for Baynes 23; Sadhbh Doyle for Connolly 27; Leanne Kiernan for Payne 60; Eimear Kiely for Kavanagh 65; Niamh Farrelly for Burke 70; Tara Mannix for Reddy 77.

RESULTS

Wednesday, September 2

WU17 Friendly

Scotland 3-0 Republic of Ireland

Friday, September 4

WU17 Friendly

Scotland 0-1 Republic of Ireland