An opening victory over the hosts, Hungary, was slightly deflated by a narrow loss to Austria on Wednesday, but Ireland picked themselves back up to finish the tournament on a high.
Goals from Jordan Doherty and Rowan Roache ensured Ireland secured the three points, but Osam was enthused primarily by the attitude of his players and how they executed his game-plan in what was a tricky encounter.
Osam, and his backroom staff, have been doing excellent work with the squad since last October and that was evident in their performance in the Hungarian heat on Friday morning.
"It was an early kick-off and the first half was a little scrappy with not much good play, but we improved in the second half and I thought we were very good," said Osam.
"We took the lead through a free-kick from Jordan Doherty and we looked very dangerous from there on in. We created a few more excellent chances and Slovakia didn't really trouble us.
"We then got the second goal through Rowan Roache after good work by Luke Nolan and we stayed in control of the game after that. It was a good way for us to end the tournament as we won two games in three days.
"I'm really pleased with how the week has gone. The player have taken onboard what we have asked of them and all of the staff have been instrumental in that. There is still room for improvement but I'm very pleased with the progress that we've made."
Republic of Ireland: Maher; Lee, O'Connor, Redmond, Peppard (Ledwidge 71), Bolger, Doherty (Connolly 54), Coventry (Roache h-t), Walsh (Nolan h-t), Idah (Murphy 61), Thompson (O'Farrell 71). |
