Jubilant Stephen Kenny hailed his Ireland players for putting Scotland to the sword.
The Ireland gaffer was under pressure going into yesterday’s Nations League tie in Dublin after defeats to Armenia and Ukraine.
But you wouldn’t have known they were low on confidence as they blew Steve Clarke ’s men away.
Goals from Alan Browne, Troy Parrott and Michael Obafemi secured an easy three points for the Irish.
And they could have won by even more, as the Scots crumbled at the Aviva Stadium.
Afterwards, ex-Dunfermline manager Kenny was delighted with his side’s display and now wants them to follow it up against Ukraine in midweek.
He said: “It’s a significant win by the players.
“Scotland have had a lot of really good results in the past couple of years, they’ve been to the European Championships and have a lot of players in the Premier League.
“But our players performed really well.
“Overall, I feel we’ve deserved better than we have got previously.
“Thankfully tonight the early chances went in and that makes such a difference.
“We managed the game very well and controlled the game. Scott Hogan nearly got a fourth for us.
“We’ve had some better passages of play in other games and not scored.
“But goals make such a difference once you get them.
“The crowd gets up and the players’ confidence goes up.
“The fans were magnificent and it was really special for the players to win in front of the crowd like that against Scotland.
“But we have a quick turnaround to Ukraine on Tuesday and that is at the forefront of my mind.
“We have to leave that behind us and move on to Ukraine.”
Ireland hadn’t won a single Nations League tie before last night, scoring just two goals in 12 games in the competition.
But Kenny has been adamant that he sees progress in this Irish side and that came to fruition against the Scots.
He said: “We know what we are doing. We have had setbacks.
“We were on a great run and the setbacks really hurt us but the players have absolute conviction in the group.
“We are emerging. We’re not perfect, there’s growth in this squad and team for sure - and we had some good players missing today.
“We can continue to try to improve.”
