David Kerslake was today drawing positives from Nottingham Forest's whistle-stop trip to Ireland.

The Reds were beaten 2-0 by a Republic of Ireland XI at Dalymount Park in Dublin last night.

Goals on either side of half time from Hull's Caleb Folan and Andy Keogh of Wolves sealed Forest's fate.

Forest may not have rediscovered the winning touch in the prestige friendly but it at least gave Joe Garner the chance to step-up his comeback with a second half run-out.

The sight of the summer signing from Carlisle continuing his bid for a return to full match fitness was the biggest plus to emerge from the trip for Kerslake.

The first team coach, who was in charge of the team on the night with manager Colin Calderwood away on a pre-season fact finding mission in China, said: "Joe came on and did well. We started him off as a lone striker and then we brought Adam Newbold to give him a little bit of hand.

"But Joe showed again that's an aggressive player who will get hold of the ball and when he's fully fit he'll be a real handful.

"For all the passing we're doing it's got to stick in and around the final third and enable players to run beyond. Joe will give us that."

Teenage midfielder Matt Thornhill came closest to getting on the scoresheet for Forest last night, with a long-range in the dying minutes that forced Keiren Westwood to make an acrobatic save.

Kerslake added: "I'm disappointed that we didn't score - I don't think we created too many goal-scoring opportunities.

"When we did get into decent areas our final ball was nothing special.

"The Irish were at full tilt, which is what we expected, and they had some really good individuals but it was nothing that we didn't expect. They are a good side and it showed.

"We started knocking the ball about with a bit more freedom in the final stages when Ireland had gone down to 10 men after Alex Bruce had gone off injured.