Ireland manager Brian Kerr allowed himself a wry smile after watching his side defeat Scotland in his first game in charge at Hampden Park by two goals to nil.
An assured, confident and composed performance from his charges augurs well for his real test, two away Euro2004 qualifiers against Georgia and Albania.
Ireland went in at half time two goals up on their opponent’s Scotland thanks to early strikes from Kilbane and Morrison.
Kilbane, much maligned by fans under McCarthy headed a beautifully flighted ball past a stretching despairing Sullivan from Reid’s eight-minute free kick on the left for his fourth for his country.
Ireland looked very composed and assured despite the events of the past 24 hours and went two up after eighteen minutes.
Steven Reid was again involved as he challenged Sullivan to a high ball into the area but the keeper fumbled his punch to Morrison who struck cleanly on the half volley to score.
Scotland only had one half chance on goal and they had to wait until the 44th minute for that. McCann knocked over a decent cross into the box but Ferguson was unable to get any direction on his header.
The game was only restarted two minutes when Morrison swivelled on his left peg to volley first time with his right only to see it go marginally wide.
Steve Carr was next up when Gallagher touched his blistering shot away for a corner.
Scotland despite seven substitutions failed to break down an Ireland defence that remained calm throughout and did not defend too deep and Kiely and then Colgan who replaced him were never tested.
Republic of Ireland: Kiely (Colgan), Carr, O'Shea (Dunne), Breen (O’Brien), Harte, Reid (Healy), Holland, Kinsella (Carsley), Kilbane, Morrison, Doherty (Connolly). Subs: Maybury, McPhail, Barrett.
Scotland: Sullivan (Gallagher), Caldwell, Anderson, Dailly, Graham Alexander, Lambert, Ferguson , Naysmith, McCann, Crawford, Hutchison (Devlin). Subs: Gallacher, Gemmill, Devlin, Cameron, Miller, Smith, Dobie, Kyle, McNamara, Neil Alexander, Malcolm, Thompson.
Referee: E Draamhaar (Holland)
Att: 33,348
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