MARTIN O’NEILL WARNED that there are tougher tests to come for Ireland — starting with Tuesday’s trip to Poland.

O’Neill’s reign got off to a winning start against a weak Latvia side in the Aviva Stadium.

Over 37,000 fans turned out to greet the new management as Robbie Keane, Aiden McGeady and Shane Long got the goals on a feel-good night for Irish football.

But the new manager was not reading too much into the 3-0 win.

O’Neill said: “It’s a game that we were expected to win and we’ve won. We’ve won well.”

The squad fly out to Poznan after training tomorrow but they may be without Joey O’Brien, who pulled up with a sore hamstring during the warm-up.

The West Ham defender is due to go for a precautionary scan before O’Neill decides on any additional call-ups later this evening.

While Ireland were celebrating, Poland were beaten 2-0 by Slovakia in Wroclaw last night. The defeat was their third in a row but O’Neill said that Ireland can’t be deceived by recent results.

Regardless of the performance and result last night, I think anyone who saw them against England will say that they’re a very decent side. I think we’ll have our work cut out.

After Tuesday, O’Neill faces almost a four-month break before Ireland’s next friendly against Serbia in March.

That’s just one aspect of international management that he will have to adapt to but he said his hunger and drive remain the same as ever.

“It’s just raw enthusiasm for the game and I think those things never change really. I think the minute that they do change, I think that’s when you want to reassess things.

I think that hunger was there from starting out as a player as an 18-year-old. I haven’t felt any changes.

Of course there’s ups and downs and everybody has experienced those things but everybody feels the same.