HARRY WILSON was the hero as Wales recorded a hard-fought Nations League victory over the Republic of Ireland.

The Wrexham-born winger, on-loan at Derby County from Liverpool, lit up a cagey encounter in Dublin.

After a sluggish opening period, Wales' improvement was rewarded after 58 minutes when Harry Arter's clumsy challenge on Connor Roberts conceded a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area.

Wilson stepped up and struck his effort over the Republic wall and past a stunned Darren Randolph to give Wales the lead and send the visiting fans behind the goal wild.

Wales clung on to follow up their 4-1 mauling of Martin O'Neill's men last month and go above Denmark and top their Nations League group.

"It’s always nice to score a free-kick but the pleasing thing was it gave us three points. I hope I can keep scoring," said Wilson.

"We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we tried to get on the ball and cause problems and we did in the second half.

“The manager is very confident in all of us, you can see that in his selections. Everyone dealt with it really well."

Without key men Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, Ryan Giggs' response was bold, handing first starts to teenage Leeds striker Tyler Roberts and 18-year-old midfielder Matt Smith, on loan at Dutch side Twente from Manchester City.

There was a scare for Smith after just nine minutes, as he was dispossessed on the edge of the area by Cyrus Christie, but the Irishman's low shot was well saved by Wayne Hennessey.

But that was as entertaining as the first-half got before Wilson found the net, and Tom Lawrence might have added a second as Wales countered at pace and James Chester headed wide from a few feet out.

James McClean had a late chance at the far post, but Hennessey safely gathered his effort and the Republic must now win away to Denmark in their final game next month to avoid relegation to League C.

Wales defender Ashley Williams hailed another win over Ireland, saying: "It feels as good as the win last month, it was a completely different game.

"The gameplan was to pass the ball again but we knew it would be very difficult and we would have to stand up to an aerial threat.

"We had a young team, it's about them getting on the pitch and getting some minutes, to a man they were brilliant."

Wales boss Giggs was proud of his side's determined performance and hailed captain Williams for providing a calm head at the back.

"I'm so proud, they dug in right to the end. It was a really brilliant second-half performance," said Giggs.

"The determination pleased me, to not give a goal away. I said on Thursday that we didn't do the basics against Spain but we did today.

"We were led by the captain, Ashley Williams was outstanding for 90 minutes."

Wales Under-21s’ unsuccessful qualification campaign for next summer’s European Under-21 Championship ended on the positive note of a 3-1 victory over Switzerland Under-21s at Rodney Parade.

On Friday they had lost 2-0 away to Romania and were already out of contention to qualify for the eight-nation competition, but Wales started impressively and as though that remained their goal.

Two first-half finishes in three minutes, from Joseff Morrell and Connor Evans, gave them the platform to chase three encouraging points.

Switzerland’s Andi Zeqiri responded for the visitors in the final 15 minutes, but Evans scored once again to ensure victory for Rob Page’s team, who had also won 3-0 in Switzerland last September but have since lost influential players to Giggs’ senior squad.