A dramatic headed goal in the 93rd minute by substitute Dwayne Mattis earned the Republic of Ireland victory over Germany at Buckley Park last night. Just as it appeared both sides were happy to settle for a draw, the Irish stole victory. Des Byrne floated in a free from 35 yards on the right and Mattis stole in to send a glancing header to the net. Ireland started full of enterprise and with Sean Byrne excellent in midfield they gave as good as they got. They should have opened the scoring in the 19th minute, but then Burgess headed over the top from six yards after a cross from the right by Graham Barrett.

After the Germans twice went close to scoring through Benjamin Aver and Frank Weitner, the home side took the lead in spectacular fashion in the 37th minute. Byrne latched on to a careless pass by defender Christian Fickert and clipped in a magnificent shot from almost 40 yards which went over the goalkeeper and into the top right-hand corner of the net.

That goal divided the teams until Germany equalised somewhat against the run of play in the 66th minute. Defender Jim Goodwin and goalkeeper Wesdie Abdelaziz got their calls mixed up and when Abdelaziz was slow off his line he only succeeded in knocking the ball against Lars Jungnickel and into his own net.

The match looked like ending in a draw after that, but then deep in injury time Mattis sneaked the winner to the delight of the 1,800 home crowd.

Republic of Ireland: W Abdelazis, N Hudson, D Byrne, J O'Shea, J Goodwin, L Miller, B McGill, S Byrne, B Burgess, G Barrett, P Forsyth. Subs: J Douglas for Hudson (59 mins), D Warren for Forsyth, D Mattis for McGill (78 mins), D McMahon for Burgess (88 mins).

Germany: T Starke, L Schmedes, C Fickert, T Marx, M Zepek, C Mikolajczak, F Lechner, M Yarayan, B Auer, F Weitner, L Jungnickel. Subs: S Schachter for Marx (46 mins), C Muller for Mikolajczak (46 mins), D Klimek for Weitner (46 mins), M Stark for Lechner (78 mins).

Referee: D O'Hanlon (Waterford).