Paul Fennessy reports from the Aviva Stadium

IRELAND GOALKEEPER Caoimhín Kelleher expressed his delight after helping Ireland earn a 3-0 win over Scotland in the Nations League today, earning bragging rights over Liverpool teammate Andy Robertson in the process.

With regular number one Gavin Bazunu injured, the Liverpool youngster started his fifth successive Ireland game and picked up his second clean sheet in that period.

“It was a great result, the squad deserved it, to be fair, we put in a lot of work over the last two camps, the big one was today and it was very satisfying for all of us,” he told reporters afterwards.

“We defended brilliantly, the back three in front of me were amazing, they won every header, blocks, it was quite an easy afternoon for me and credit must go to the defenders in front of me who were brilliant.

“If we get another win we’re right back in the group, so Tuesday [against Ukraine] is a big game for us and hopefully we can win again. They were very good here, they will be good over there as well, we’ve watched their games and we have seen how their squad, team, play, we will be more than ready for them.”

There were a couple of nervy moments for Kelleher and his defence early on against the Scots as attempts to play out from the back proved unsuccessful, prompting him to go long more frequently as the match developed.

“I think it’s important, you can’t be one-dimensional, in fairness to them they pressed us well, they pressed us high, it’s important to mix it up sometimes and we got some joy from going long as well so that was good.”

While he seldom put a foot wrong this afternoon, some questioned whether Kelleher could have done better for the goal against Ukraine midweek and the 23-year-old was eager not t0 dwell on it. Asked whether he had studied it much since, he replied: “Not a lot, I just go through it with the coaches, dissect it and move on, I do move on quickly and forget it, there’s no point in dwelling on stuff.

“It was disappointing but we were all quite motivated for this one, we knew it would be sold out at the Aviva, against Scotland it’s such a big game, you try to forget Ukraine as quick as we could and we’re just excited and wanted to put in a good performance which we did. We deserved a performance like this, we were unlucky against Ukraine, we wanted a strong performance and we got it today.”

Asked whether he had discussed the match with Scotland star and Liverpool teammate Andy Robertson, he said: “No, we’re focused on our own games.”

And as for the Reds full-back’s display, Kelleher said mockingly: “Disappointed with the performance.”

On Alan Browne, who marked Robertson in the somewhat unfamiliar role of right wing-back, his fellow Cork native added: “I thought he was brilliant today, it was such a tough task, coming up against probably the best left-back in the world, he did exceptional, coming into a role that he’s not too familiar with, he doesn’t play there a lot, he was brilliant.”

Kelleher reserved high praise too for Michael Obafemi after the striker registered a goal and an assist on his first Ireland start.

“It was a heck of a strike, when you catch these balls well there’s a lot of movement on it, some strike.  

“He’s probably done it a few times [in training] to be fair.”