Morrison eager to make mark

While the more established figures did their best to maintain a low profile, some of the newer faces were enjoying the limelight around the Irish training camp yesterday.

Most will figure in tomorrow evening's game at Lansdowne Road after Mick McCarthy struck a deal with his Croatian counterpart, Mirko Jozic, that allows both men to make up to nine substitutions.

Some, like Crystal Palace striker Clinton Morrison, wore the assured smiles of men who knew for certain that they had not had wasted journeys.

Morrison says that McCarthy spoke encouragingly to him after the under-21 games against Portugal and Estonia, hinting even then that his chance would come sooner than later.

"He told me to stay fit and have a good pre-season and that he'd talk to my manager and see how I'd gotten on," Morrison said.

If the reports were positive then, "hopefully, I'd be in the squad. Well, I'm in it now and I'm pleased with that but it's up to me now".

Whether he starts tomorrow night is not quite certain, but it seems entirely reasonable that the manager will, as he did with Dominic Foley against Finland last year, throw the youngster on from the outset.

Regardless of when it is he features, however, it is already clear to the young Crystal Palace striker how it is that he is supposed to fit into the side.

"I like the ball played to my feet and I'm good with my back to goal," observes the chirpiest newcomer in some time to the Republic's squad.

"For someone with a small frame, I'm quite strong on the pitch and Mick says that he wants me to hold the ball up, which he has seen me do.

"Hopefully I'll show other people that I'm capable of doing the job."

With Niall Quinn's fitness of constant concern to McCarthy these days, proof from Morrison that he can fulfil his brief of holding up the ball would represent a major bonus to the Ireland manager, who maintained, nevertheless, that there are plenty of other ways this match may be useful.

"It's a chance to see whether Robbie (Keane) is back to his bubbly and sharpest best, which I have to say he has looked so far, and a chance to look at my midfield options," he said.

The latest recruit in that department is Millwall's 20-year-old Stephen Reid, who made his under-21 debut in the spring after telling his team-mate Robbie Ryan about John Ward, his Irish grandfather from Ballinasloe.

Ryan passed the word on to McCarthy's assistant Ian Evans, who in turn told Don Givens, the Republic's under-21 coach, and Reid's impact on Givens's side was immediate.

Now he finds himself in with a chance of a senior debut and his delight is obvious. "I just can't believe the last couple of weeks," he says, "to have made even the original 39 was fantastic, but to be here now is unbelievable.

"Obviously I'd love to be involved on Wednesday." Even if he is not, "I'm young, and I'll put this down as having been a great experience".

For Stephen McPhail, the game means another opportunity to get his international career off the starting blocks following the many frustrations of last season.

Having made his debut and travelled to America, where he scored against South Africa, the young Dubliner's momentum at club and international level was abruptly halted by Achilles injuries which struck one after the other last season.

"As soon as I got the right one sorted out the left one started giving me trouble. It was very frustrating that so many big games were going on and I was missing out on them all, but I've had no problems at all during pre-season so I'm really looking forward to this season, to playing regularly again."

McCarthy says that the outstanding injuries to some of his first-choice defenders have given this match a little added importance and it is likely that Steve Staunton and Richard Dunne will be given an opportunity tomorrow night to renew the partnership they struck up before the summer.

More than two months on, McCarthy admits now that the pair had their problems during the early stages of the game against Portugal.

But he insists that their form together after the first half of that game convinced him that they are the combination to go with if he has to cope without Kenny Cunningham and Gary Breen in the World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands next month.

Cunningham has been suffering a recurrence of a stomach injury he first picked up towards the end of last season, while Breen has a groin problem which also threatens to rule him out.

"Both could miss the game, both could be out," said McCarthy yesterday. Steve Carr could also be out with a knee injury.

"I'd like to have a look at the likes of John O'Shea and Andy O'Brien and Gary Doherty, but if Kenny and Breeny don't make it do we go with them?

"I don't think so. You go for experience and they are the most experienced partnership that we would have in those circumstances."

The long-running saga of Alan Kelly's proposed move from Blackburn Rovers to Tottenham Hotspur finally ended yesterday when the London club signed Kasey Keller instead. Kelly failed to agree the terms of his departure from Blackburn last month.