SOCCER: Republic of Ireland - 1 Croatia - 0: It will not be remembered as a classic - not even by the standards of friendly games between these two countries - but last night's low-key victory over Croatia at a blustery Lansdowne Road provided Brian Kerr with useful intelligence for the year ahead and a fifth home victory of the one just passed.

In football parlance, it seems safe to assume, the manager would have taken it before the kick-off.

Once again it was Robbie Keane who found the net for Ireland and once again the Dubliner might have had a few more but his was one of many patchy performances on a night that would have been entirely forgettable but for the efforts of a couple of fringe players to make an impression and Damien Duff's ability to work a little magic even when he doesn't have to.

Injuries and absenteeism obliged Kerr to make a few changes, but what we got was more of a shake-up than might have been expected, with six of those that had started the game against the Faroe Islands missing from last night's starting line-up and the manager trying, for spells at least, to play Duff up front with Stephen Elliott and Robbie Keane.

While Aidan McGeady, Graham Barrett and Alan Quinn all appeared late on, Elliott's inclusion from the start was the main selection surprise, although it was in line with his knack down the years for making early international debuts at every level.

As so often before, the 20-year-old fitted right in, producing a couple of finely weighted passes and tidy touches in a quietly satisfactory first senior game for his country.

His night would have been all the more memorable had his finest moment, a perfectly judged through ball for Keane 23 minutes in, produced the goal it should have, but the Spurs striker squandered the chance, striking an overly casual shot that Tomislav Butina pushed over, apparently without knowing too much about it.

From the corner, however, the Irish made their breakthrough. With the wind making crosses difficult, the Irish tried to work the ball in from wide and, though their first attempt came to nothing, the visiting side's attempt to clear was poor allowing the ball to be worked back out to Duff on the right flank.

This time, he skipped past two Croatia defenders, leaving first Josip Siminic and then Jurica Vranjes in his wake before slipping the ball low into the six-yard box from where Keane had only to tap home for his 24th goal for the Republic.

It was far from the last time that the Irish opened up the Croatian defence, but it did turn out to be the highlight of Keane's night for - as he did against the Faroes last month - he went on to miss some fairly decent chances.

Butina, to be fair, did well to deny him on a couple of occasions, but there might still have been another couple of goals as the locals pretty much cornered the market in serious scoring chances.

At the other end, perhaps Croatia's best opportunity to find the net had come after five minutes when Richard Dunne's hopelessly misjudged pass ran straight to Darijo Srna and Niko Kranjcar really should have done a bit more with the shot.

That error aside, the Manchester City defender did well and seven minutes from time he prevented what looked a certain equaliser from crossing the line with an athletic intervention after Given had been beaten by Eduardo Da Silva.

Given had only been on a few minutes at the time and while Paddy Kenny had done little wrong, his display was a bit short of persuasive.

Early on, he had twice advanced and comfortably held high balls while under pressure from Croatian forward, but there were one of two occasions too where he looked a little less assured and his decision to kick rather than gather a bouncing ball as Marko Babic closed in on him early in the second half would have been heart-stopping stuff in a competitive fixture.

Steve Finnan did well both when defending and pressing forward and the right back set up Duff for what should have been Ireland's second 68 minutes in when the Chelsea winger controlled well under pressure only to see the ball fly off the underside of the bar when he struck it quickly with the outside of his boot.

In midfield, there could be no complaints about the efforts of Liam Miller, Graham Kavanagh or Kevin Kilbane, but none ever quite came to grips with the conditions either and Ireland's passing, like that of their opponents, was erratic throughout.

The locals, though, were always the better side and Zlatko Kranjcar's stated aim of getting his side to play like Brazil never amounted to more than adopting the same formation used by the World Champions in the summer of 2002.

At half-time it was ditched as Kranjcar sought to get a little more out of players who, on this form, must have been very fortunate indeed to beat Sweden in Gothenburg a couple of months back. Their lack of goals had been the main concern ahead of last night's game but the number they will concede when defending like this can't rank far behind.

Ireland, meanwhile, could perhaps be faulted for not putting their opponents away more convincingly in front of the home crowd, but they have nevertheless become a team with an ability to win in Dublin, even when they're not playing well.

With Israel, France and Switzerland due to visit during the year ahead that's the sort of knack that could take them places.

IRELAND: Kenny (Sheffield United), Finnan (Liverpool), Dunne (Manchester City), Breen (Sunderland), O'Shea (Manchester United), Miller (Manchester United), Kavanagh (Cardiff City), Kilbane (Everton), Duff (Chelsea), Elliott (Sunderland), Keane (Tottenham). Subs: Cunningham (Birmingham City) for Breen (52 mins); Given (Newcastle United) for Kenny, Quinn (Sheffield United) for Kilbane (both 80); Barrett (Coventry City) for Elliott (84); McGeady (Celtic) for Keane (91). Subs Not Used: Maybury, Doherty, Lee, Colgan. Goals: Keane 24.

CROATIA: Butina, Tomas, Robert Kovac, Tudor, Simunic, Vranjes, Nico Kovac, Srna, Kranjcar, Babic, Klasnic. Subs: Balaban for Tudor (half-time); Da Silva for Babic, Pranjic for Klasnic (59 mins); Leko for Vranjes (65); Tokic for Tomas (66); Neretljak for Siminic (74). Subs Not Used: Vasilj.

Referee: G Orrason (Iceland).