Goodman set to get the call over O'Neill

JON GOODMAN is in line to start his first competitive international game when the Republic of Ireland go in search of vital World Cup points in FYR Macedonia this afternoon.

After earlier indications that Keith O'Neill was favourite to partner Tony Cascarino in the front line, the odds have now swung in favour of the Wimbledon player getting the job when Mick McCarthy names his team this morning.

McCarthy appears to have reached a decision after yesterday's training session in which O'Neill, while moving without restriction, still looked less than sharp after his long lay-off.

Officially, the reason for the late selection is the possibility of either Cascarino or Steve Staunton suffering late reactions to injuries which required treatment over the weekend. Judging on the way both players trained yesterday, however, there appears to be little doubt that both will play.

The more plausible reason is that McCarthy still needs time to be absolutely certain that Goodman, capped for the first time in last month's warm-up against Wales at Cardiff, is the man for the job.

"Both Tony Cascarino and Keith O'Neill have had their problems and it's not an ideal situation going into a game of this importance," said McCarthy. "Keith is enthusiastic as ever but there has to be some reservation about his sharpness."

The unspoken message is that the manager is not prepared to go with both players in the same line after their recent troubles and that the largely unproven Goodman will be promoted to play alongside Cascarino.

McCarthy sees a weakness in the air as one of the more obvious flaws in the make-up of the Macedonians. With Niall Quinn still on the long road to fitness, Cascarino is unquestionably our best aerial competitor.

On the assumption that Staunton will be assigned a place alongside Denis Irwin and Gary Breen at the back, there is a vacancy on the left side of midfield, where the front runners are Ian Harte and Terry Phelan.

While Phelan - his career was in trouble at Chelsea in the opening half of the season - has regained form at Everton, McCarthy makes no secret of the fact that he rates Harte, still only 19, as one of the custodians of Ireland's long-term future.

If Phelan hasn't always looked comfortable going forward, the Leeds United player is already developing into the complete all-round player and two goals in just eight appearances for Ireland is the measure of his ability around the penalty area.

It has been apparent for a long time that the games against FYR Macedonia and Romania, coming within a month of each other, will be vital to Ireland's chances of qualification. After three Irish games in the qualifying group, little has changed to alter that situation.

Romania, acknowledged as one of the slumbering giants of European football, will present the biggest challenge at Bucharest on April 30th but to arrive at that game in good shape, it is essential that the Irish fashion a good result here in Skopje.

FYR Macedonia have dealt summarily with Liechtenstein but, significantly, failed to score in conceding six goals in their meetings with Ireland (away) and Romania (home). In both these games, however, they produced isolated patches of brilliance without ever finding the character to see them through lean periods.

The point was duly taken by McCarthy. "It's true that when Macedonia conceded a second goal in both these games, they simply folded. That says something about their character and our plan of campaign must be to put them under sufficient pressure to ensure that they know they're in a game.

"Obviously, it's a game in which we cannot afford to get away from the basics of defending with discipline. Neither can we afford to pay the opposition too much respect. There is a happy medium to be found and, hopefully, we'll hit it before the game is too old."

Goko Hadzievski, the FYR Macedonian coach, was scarcely playing the diplomatic game when he said that he rated Romania and Ireland as the two strongest teams in the group. Yet he was still striking a defiant note after a training session in Skopje's City Stadium.

"To qualify we must beat Ireland and then hope we can make a draw in Romania. The Irish are a very physical team as they showed in Dublin. But we have superior technique and that gives up hope."

Like his Irish counterpart, Hadzievski will not name a team until midday but it's likely to include the Spanish-based Milko Stajkovski who did not play in the Dublin game. Together with Georgi Hristov and team captain, Vanco Micevski, he is likely to present Ireland with some of their bigger problems this afternoon.

It is cold but dry in Skopje and after taking his squad to the City Stadium for a 90-minute training session, McCarthy said he would not be offering the pitch as an excuse if the unthinkable happens and his team ends up on the wrong end of the scoreline.

The Irish support is assembling slowly, with some 300 visiting fans expected in the 12,000 crowd. Kick-off is at 5 p.m. local time.

While Goodman will know his fate by then, a bigger influence ore the game may be the ability of seasoned performers like Andy Townsend, Roy Keane, Jason McAteer and Alan McLoughlin to make telling runs from midfield.

McAteer was "man of the match" after scoring one of the three goals which sank FYR Macedonia almost without trace at Lansdowne Road but that was before Keane made his return to the team.

Unfortunately, it coincided with a poor Irish performance against Iceland which ended in a scoreless draw. This threatens to hang like a millstone around the men in green - or should it be orange - for the next six months.

Keane, almost certainly the most complete player in Britain, hasn't always delivered on his pedigree in international football. But this, hopefully, will be the occasion he chooses to remind us of those sunlit days in the US three years ago when Ireland were still up there with some of the best teams in the world.