ALAN BROWNE may not play every game for Ireland, but the Corkonian’s impressive versatility at the very least renders him an essential squad player.

The 27-year-old has played as a number 10 as well as deeper positions in the past for his country, and midfield will always be his preferred role.

However, on a number of occasions this season for Preston, he has played both right-back and right wing-back with some success, making the Championship’s team of the month for his performances in the former position back in January.

And after Seamus Coleman and Cyrus Christie occupied the spot usually filled by the injured Matt Doherty against Armenia and Ukraine respectively, Browne was tried there against the Scots at the Aviva on Saturday.

The move was in part an attempt to combat the threat of Scotland’s Andy Robertson and Browne performed well in this regard, as the Liverpool star was largely ineffectual, while he also opened the scoring with a close-range finish after Shane Duffy nodded James McClean’s corner in his direction.

So what were the instructions from Kenny with regard to Robertson?

“He just asked me to do a job on him. He felt I was the right person to do it. Obviously, I’ve seen a lot of him. He’s one of if not the best full-backs in the world. I did some homework on him and I managed to keep him relatively quiet, so I was quite pleased with that.”

Scoring the opening goal, he added, was key for Ireland’s momentum.

“I just tried to sniff around in the box and thankfully it fell nicely to me. It found its way to the back of the net. I didn’t know too much about it, but we managed to create some openings for us from there. In the previous two games, we just lacked that first goal. We played well at times but we’ve been punished because we haven’t taken our chances. Once we got the first goal tonight, it just calmed the nerves a bit and we really dominated the game from thereon in.

“The early goal kind of eases the nerves a bit and gives you that confidence to go and really try to play. But even in the previous two [matches], I think we actually did play, it’s just we couldn’t find the back of the net. So I think that’s all the previous two results have been missing, that all-important first goal, because if we do get it, they have to open up and we can hit them on the counter. Thankfully, we got that tonight and the rest of the performance speaks for itself.

“It doesn’t make up for the previous two results because we really let ourselves down. 

“But it puts us back in contention [in the group] and we need to make sure it’s not a one-off and really take advantage of the points at stake.”

And after Saturday’s solid outing, does Browne feel he has done enough to retain his starting spot on Tuesday?

“I’m not sure. I’ll see what the gaffer thinks. I didn’t think the performance was fantastic. I could have done better. But I’ve managed to keep one of the best left full-backs in the world relatively quiet so it was an alright performance.”