Rice and Grealish hand Carsley dream start as England beat Ireland 2-0

England's new interim manager got the best possible result on his first time in charge in the post-Southgate era, as ITV News' Chris Skudder reports

Lee Carsley got off to a winning start as England caretaker boss with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ireland in the Nations League.

The Three Lions won Saturday's contest 2-0 through goals from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish.

England impressed in what was Carsley's first game since taking over the managerial reigns from Gareth Southgate on a caretaker basis.

Rice opened the scoring early in the first half when the Arsenal midfielder eventually latched onto a loose ball, rifling into the top right-hand corner of Caoimhin Kelleher's goal.

Kelleher prevented Kane from making things worse, with rival fans trading some unsavoury chants as dominant England patiently probed, leading to a second goal in the 26th minute.

Rice was heavily involved in a brilliant passing move that ended with him cutting the ball back for Grealish to sweep home past the statuesque Kelleher in front of the England support.

Heading into the match, Carsley had drawn controversy after indicating he would not sing the national anthem - as has been his practice throughout his career.

When the two sides lined up ahead of kick-off at a sold out Aviva Stadium, in Dublin, Carsley stood in respectful silence as his players sang God Save the King.

Speaking during the build-up to the game, Carsley explained his reasons for not singing.

He said: "This is something that I always struggled with when I was playing for Ireland - the gap between your warm-up, your coming on to the pitch and the delay with the anthems. So it's something that I have never done.

"I was always really focused on the game and my first actions of the game. I really found that in that period I was wary about my mind wandering off. I was really focused on the football and I have taken that into coaching."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who attended the contest as part of a trip to Ireland, was himself asked about the controversy, saying while he would sing the anthem, it should be a personal decision for Carsley and for any individual.

"I will sing the national anthem and we are having a fantastic reset of relations between Ireland and the UK, but the Taoiseach and I have already agreed that for 90 minutes we will suspend the reset and put more energy into it afterwards because we will be cheering on different sides," Sir Keir said.

"So I will be singing the national anthem. What others do is really a matter for them."

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