It was quite a proud match for the Coventry City particularly for Leon Best and Keiren Westwood as they made their respective debuts for Ireland. Both the players already play for Coventry City football club.

The day was 29th May and the match Republic of Ireland’s friendly against Nigeria at the Craven Cottage, London.

For the 22-year old Best it was like a dream coming true as he started the match alongside the dangerous Robbie Keane in his Nike football boots. It could have become far more memorable had he managed to latch into the ball thrown to him by Keane within the first two minutes of the game. But that miss didn’t really affect the significance of the game for Best.

He played for the whole 90 minutes and proved to be a constant headache to the Nigerian players. But he was a bit unfortunate to have missed another chance to score in the 25th minute and then again in the 52nd minute. But still it was a good game for Best and can be counted as quite a decent international debut.

As for the Coventry City goalkeeper Kieran Westwood, the game started in the 2nd half. His stint with the match was not that exciting except for the one save that he did manage and managed quite safely. The dangerous Nigerian Michael Enemaro, who in the first half had put his team ahead, came dangerously close to winning it for them in the 74th minute. His low shot from the 20-yards was gathered quite comfortably by Westwood.

The match may have ended in a draw but for the Sky Blues fans it was really one match to remember and to cherish the first caps of two of their favourite footballers.