Ireland Boys’ Under-16s will go head-to-head with Northern Ireland for the Victory Shield on Sunday after a 3-2 win over Cymru kept their hopes of glory alive.

Their win, coupled with Northern Ireland’s 1-0 victory over hosts Scotland, meant Ireland headed into the game with Cymru knowing a win would set-up a ‘winner takes all’ match on Sunday with the North.

Goals from TJ Molloy, Niall Sullivan and Sean Spaight earned Paul Osam’s team the three points having bounced back from defeat on penalties against Scotland on Tuesday.

They were ahead just before half-time when Jack Greene’s corner caused confusion in the Cymru defence and Molloy tapped home.

At half-time Molloy was replaced by Sullivan, and less than a minute after his introduction he scored a stunning strike from the edge of the area to give Ireland the 2-0 lead.

It would be 3-0 in the 48^th minute when a slick corner routine from Ireland saw Spaight react fastest and turn home from close range.

Cymru would strike back with 20 minutes of the contest remaining with Archie Lominer finishing off a great solo run for 3-1.

In the final few minutes Ireland couldn’t have wrapped it up when Sullivan had a great chance to make it 4-1 but he couldn’t finish off a great move engineered by Richard Ferizaj. And a minute later Leo Papirnyk pulled one back to make it an edgy final few seconds but Ireland saw out the game to set-up Sunday’s finale.

Ireland: Moloney, Prizeman, Spaight (C), Dumigan, Burke, McGrath (Spelman, 70’), Collins (Ferizaj, 60’), Molloy (Sullivan, 41’), Byrne (Dempsey, 77’), Greene (Dunne, 60’), Ogungbe (Ikechukwu, 60’)

Cymru: Abbotson, Godfrey, Robinson, Williams, Heywood (C), Romano, Pita, Moreno, Pitt, Jones, Lorimer. Substitutes: Lines, Papirnyk, Norris, Cartwright, Conaty, Thomas, Tankiewicz, Evans, Hawkins. 

Ireland Victory Shield fixtures/results (kick-off time is Irish time)

Tuesday, October 8 | Scotland 1-1 Ireland (Scotland won 4-3 penalties)
Thursday, October 11 | Ireland 3-2 Cymru
Sunday, October 13 | Northern Ireland v Ireland, Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld, Scotland, kick-off 11.30am