'Lots of good things' in imperfect performance - Stephen Kenny reacts to Ireland win over Latvia

Stephen Kenny insisted there were "lots of good things" from his Republic of Ireland side in the 3-2 friendly win over Latvia at the Aviva Stadium but acknowledged that the overall performance was far from perfect.

The Boys in Green took a two-goal lead in the fixture, which effectively acted as a warm-up for the opening Euro 2024 qualifier against World Cup runners-up France on Monday.

But that early advantage gained via goals from Callum O'Dowda and teenager Evan Ferguson was wiped out by a pair of Latvian goals by half-time.

After a flurry of changes, substitute Chiedozie Ogbene scored what proved to be the winner five minutes after the hour mark.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport in the wake of the hard-fought win, Kenny said he was pleased with aspects of the Irish display.

"I felt it was a very entertaining game. It wasn't a perfect performance but there were a lot of good things from it as well," said the Ireland manager.

"I think it would be unrealistic to expect a perfect performance with a lot of players coming in that haven't been playing regularly.

"Having said that, we had a couple of chances to go 3-0 up and had we have done so obviously the game would have been more comfortable. We made life difficult for ourselves.

"It would be unrealistic to expect a perfect performance" - Ireland manager Stephen Kenny on the fact that a number of his squad did not see much game-time with their clubs ahead of the 3-2 win over Latvia #rtsoccer #irllat pic.twitter.com/lJ9SO1CP7h

"But we got the winner and Evan Ferguson getting his first goal for Ireland, Callum O'Dowda getting his first goal for Ireland and Mikey Johnston coming on with a bit of brilliance and hit the post and Chieo finished it so a lot of good things really tonight."

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