After delivering a Man-of-the-Match performance in the Republic of Ireland’s 2-1 win over Bulgaria at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Troy Parrott was quick to highlight the squad's strength in depth.

Valentin Antonov opened the scoring for Bulgaria 30 minutes in, but Evan Ferguson equalised just past the hour mark, finishing down the middle after a well-timed throughball from Finn Azaz.

Celtic’s Adam Idah, introduced in the 65th minute, then completed Ireland’s turnaround with an 84th-minute effort, calmly slotting home following a swift counter.

The result mirrored the scoreline from the first leg of the team's promotion-relegation tie on Thursday, when goals from Azaz and Matt Doherty overturned Marin Plamenov Petkov’s early opener.

Speaking to RTE 2, Parrott shared his preference for playing as a central striker but talked up his fellow attackers.

“I don't think it's a secret, I have said before that playing [as a number nine] is my favourite position and that's where I feel like I'm the strongest,” he said.

“We have a lot of quality in this team. You saw with Evan Ferguson and his goal, and Adam Idah came on and scored his goal.

“I would have liked to score a goal for myself too, but the most important thing is that we won the game.”

Indeed, Idah himself admitted his frustration at missing out on more minutes in the previous fixture.

“Of course I was frustrated with the last game, not coming on and not starting, I was obviously disappointed,” he said.

“But I came on and did what I needed to do and that's the best way to prove myself.”

Ireland’s growing strength in attack — with Parrott, Ferguson, and Idah all enjoying strong domestic seasons — had been a point of conversation in the days leading up their fixtures against Bulgaria.

Ireland manager Heimier Hallgrimsson also praised the impact of his substitutes, saying: “There are more players now understanding our principles of play, so hopefully we can grow from now on.

“We have shown good signs of growth this camp. There has been a lot of good energy and togetherness in the squad, and I hope that is a good sign for the World Cup qualifiers.”

Ireland retained their Nations League B status with the 4-2 aggregate win over Bulgaria and will next face Senegal and Luxembourg in June friendlies.

After that, they take on Hungary and Armenia in their first set of World Cup qualifiers in September.