SCOT GEMMILL praised 16-year-old Liverpool winger Ben Doak after he came off the bench to net just eight minutes into his Scotland Under 21s debut as the young Scots cruised to a friendly win in Belfast.
The new look were too strong for the hosts - who had four players in their team who had been capped at a senior level - at the Danny Blanchflower Stadium with Kieron Bowie and Josh Mulligan netting either side of the former Celtic winger.
And Gemmill was impressed with the impact of Doak, who moved to Anfield in the summer.
He said: "I've seen Ben play so I wasn't surprised at what he can do. He's really exciting.
"I wasn't surprised, but it is always good to see it happen.
"There were good things and there were things that we know we need to correct. So there was a bit of everything.
"The new players needed to take their opportunities because there are no guarantees in the future and I told them that before the game. They had to show what they can do.
"They have to go and show they can be trusted and are willing to do the work and I thought their application was good.
"Of course, there were things in the game that we need to fix and we can help them with and we will."
Scotland handed debuts to five new starts - Rangers' Adam Devine, Hearts' Lewis Neilson, Fulham's Connor McAvoy, Reading's Michael Craig and Bristol City striker Tommy Conway.
Neilson hobbled off after less than half an hour with a tight hamstring and Liverpool's former Celtic starlet Doak came on for his memorable Under 21s debut.
Scotland took a 35th minute lead through the simplest of routes when Hearts' Connor Smith whipped in a free kick from the left and Fulham striker Bowie, who is on loan at Northampton Town, nodded into the net.
And that lead was doubled two minutes later when Doak tucked in a tidy, composed finish after being sent clear by an excellent pass from Craig.
The Scots made it three in the 57th minute and it was a deserved goal from Mulligan, who had impressed. A cutback from Adam Montgomery to Conway saw his shot rebound off the inside of the post and the Dundee man thumped home the rebound to
Northern Ireland grabbed a consolation in the 73rd minute when former Rangers kid Chris McKee headed past Slicker, but the young Scots comfortably saw the game out at the home of Harland and Wolff Welders and gave a debut to Aston Villa striker Rory Wilson off the bench.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here