Keepers save the day for Ireland (From The Oxford Times)

Keepers save the day for Ireland

9:50pm Monday 4th June 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Keepers Shay Given and Keiren Westwood ensured Ireland will head for Euro 2012 on the back of a 14-game unbeaten run with resilient individual displays in a goalless draw with Hungary.

Given produced three first-half saves, the second of them a sensational effort, and half-time replacement Westwood matched his feats with an excellent 54th-minute stop of his own, all from Dinamo Moscow midfielder Balazs Dzsudzsak.

Ireland were under pressure for long periods, but had chances of their own with John O'Shea and Robbie Keane going close before the break and substitutes Jon Walters and Simon Cox doing so after it but it took an 84th-minute goal-line clearance by Stephen Hunt to clinch the draw.