{"id":452799,"date":"2026-05-17T01:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:42:17","slug":"moylan-hat-trick-steals-cannons-thunder-as-ireland-show-grenada-no-mercy-in-murcia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452799\/","title":{"rendered":"Moylan hat-trick steals Cannon\u2019s thunder as Ireland show Grenada no mercy in Murcia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friendly international: Republic of Ireland 5 [Cannon 46, 56; Moylan 62, 79, 83] Grenada 0<\/p>\n

Jack Moylan ensured that an otherwise forgettable international friendly will be remembered for his hat-trick on debut as Ireland ran out easy winners thanks to five second-half goals in Murcia on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Damien Duff<\/a>, the manager who plucked Moylan from obscurity at Wexford in 2022 to shape the Shelbourne attack around him, will be proud as punch watching from his home in Wicklow. <\/p>\n

Moylan\u2019s first cap was the stuff of dreams. The second half, mind, not his nervy introduction to this level. <\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Trishawn Thomas had a lot to do with the 0-0 scoreline at half-time. The Grenada policeman put on a shot-stopping clinic, leaping low to save shots from Moylan, Conor Coventry and Adam Idah.<\/p>\n

Even when Thomas was beaten, Irish inaccuracy breathed life into this one-sided game. <\/p>\n

Idah must still be wondering how he failed to score in the 31st minute. Chiedozie Ogbene burst off the right, clearing two defenders before teeing up the former Celtic striker only for Idah to roll the ball wide of the far post. <\/p>\n

There were plenty of hooped jerseys speckled among an estimated crowd of 500 Irish fans. The Celtic supporters were understandably late catching a tram to the ground, stalling in Murcia to watch Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s side deny Hearts a Scottish Premiership title in a dramatic end game. <\/p>\n

Although the match lacked any drama, Ireland boss Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson will have learned plenty about his fringe players. <\/p>\n

Jason Knight has been unable to command a place in midfield under Stephen Kenny or Hallgr\u00edmsson, but he\u2019d a rare opportunity to impress at right wing back, perhaps maybe even become S\u00e9amus Coleman\u2019s permanent replacement. <\/p>\n

Tayo Adaramola showed his pace down the left, doing enough in 45 minutes to warrant a second cap against Qatar at the Aviva Stadium on May 28th. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Tom Cannon scores a goal during the friendly against Grenada. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Tom Cannon also embraced his opportunity, scoring seconds into the second half off an assist by fellow substitute Will Ferry. <\/p>\n

Coventry, Adaramola and Mark McGuinness made way as Ogbene switched to right wing back and Knight went to centre back. All five foot eight inches of him. It was that sort of cake walk. <\/p>\n

Ferry, one of seven first caps on the evening, made an impression while James Abankwah was strong and unrushed at the heart of defence. <\/p>\n

Cannon showed he is a natural born finisher with his second goal after 55 minutes. Idah\u2019s backheel from a weighted pass by Andrew Moran gave the Sheffield United striker a clear sight of the target. <\/p>\n

Moylan made it 3-0 around the hour mark when latching on to Dara O\u2019Shea clearing header. <\/p>\n

By then, the Grenadians looked shattered. <\/p>\n

Two more debuts arrived as Ogbene and Idah made way for Millenic Alli and Aidomo Emakhu. And then came Rory Finneran. The 18-year-old\u2019s first task as an Ireland international was to pick himself off the grass after he was kicked on the edge of the box. Cannon smashed the resulting free off the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Cannon\u2019s hat-trick never came but Moylan delivered to secure a unanimous man of the match award.<\/p>\n

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: O\u2019Leary (Keeley 73); Knight, Abankwah, McGuinness (Cannon 46), O\u2019Shea (capt), Adaramola (Ferry 46); Molumby (Finneran 73), Coventry (Moran 46); Ogbene (Alli 63), Idah (Emakhu 63), Moylan. <\/p>\n

GRENADA: Thomas; Vincent-Young, Harrack, Sandiford, Gabriel; Francis, Charles, Muirhead, John-Brown; Hippolyte, Akins. <\/p>\n

Referee: Seth Galia (Gibraltar). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friendly international: Republic of Ireland 5 [Cannon 46, 56; Moylan 62, 79, 83] Grenada 0 Jack Moylan ensured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-452799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}