John Egan has called for patience to allow the children of Stephen Kenny's revolution to build at senior international level.
All three goal scorers against Andorra had never hit the net for Ireland before and Egan, who wore the captain's armband in the 4-1 victory, says it will take time for all the new faces to get to grips with the environment.
"People are going to have to be patient," said the Sheffield United centre-half.
"They're young lads, they're just coming into the game and they're getting that experience under their belt now.
"To play at international level and score goals, no matter who you are playing against, is tough.
"They’ve gone out there tonight and they have shown their quality.
"This is only the start for them and hopefully they can improve in the coming years and mature into big players for Ireland.”
Egan played down the row among the Ireland defenders in the wake of Andorra's shock 52nd minute opener from Marc Vales, who wasn't picked up at a free-kick and had a free header to beat Gavin Bazunu.
“I haven’t seen it back, we weren’t really arguing," Egan told RTE. "Their man obviously got the run.
"We’ll have to look back and see where we went wrong for that.
"But the lads showed unbelievable character to bounce back and get four goals. Four goals in any game is good, especially the run we were on. It’s good for confidence.
"We’ve struggled to break them down in the first-half, struggled to get beyond them. But in the second-half our quality showed in the end to score four goals, four good goals as well, is very pleasing.”
Egan also paid tribute to two-goal teenager Troy Parrott, whose quick-fire brace put Ireland on course for the victory.
“I thought he was brilliant all game," he said.
"Aside from the goals he played well, always showed for the ball and took his goals really well when they came.
"It’s brilliant for Troy and hopefully he can build on that now.”
