A second successive win under interim head coach Hadden was also a major boost to his hopes of taking the job on a full-time basis.

He said: There has been tremendous optimism in the game over the past few weeks and, as far as I am concerned, the outlook is bright for the national squad and, as a knock-on effect of that, the professional teams.

Hadden heaped praise on his players for their attitude. He said: Like me, they were very jaded at the end of a long and hard season, but they have fed off each other.

Obviously, I was not pleased with the fact that we lost so many points so early in this match, but we kept our composure and stuck to our guns to earn the victory we thoroughly deserved.

The Romanians were much bigger than us, so we had to move them around and tease open their defence.