New quartet sing from same hymn sheet

It is a sign of how quickly things have moved for Steve Staunton and his new management team over the past week or so that yesterday's press conference at Dublin's Mansion House marked the first time the four men had gathered in the same room.

Bobby Robson's much talked about energy was required in abundance just to complete the line up, as the 72-year-old had to endure a 4am wake-up call after a function in London just to make it to Dublin in time for the event.

By lunchtime, with another flight to catch, he was looking rather anxiously at his watch again.

But for three hours or so he enthusiastically undertook a succession of interviews with print and broadcast journalists, during which he found himself talking up Steve Staunton, the Ireland team's prospects and his own hunger for the job in hand.

It was hard by the end to doubt either his sincerity or his ability to impart something of value to those with whom he will be working.

"Whatever Stan wants of me," he said, "I'll try to provide it. I've just spent the last 35 years of my life managing in football, not just in football but on the field, which isn't a bad preparation for this job. I'm delighted now to get this opportunity.

"My time's been spent at the highest level, in international football - only eight years of it might have been with England, but when you're at clubs like PSV, Porto and Barcelona you're effectively working in international football too, because you're dealing with international players. What I can promise you now is that as an Englishman I'll be using all of that experience to help Stan in whatever way he sees fit and to bring success to the Ireland team."

Alan Kelly, meanwhile, echoed his new colleagues when he suggested that there could be an immediate improvement in the team's fortunes if only the players can bring the same passion to the table now that the management team possess.

Kelly is familiar with the situation the quartet have inherited, but for Kevin MacDonald this is a journey into unfamiliar territory. It is, he stresses however, one he had no hesitation about undertaking.

His first encounter with Staunton came back in 1986 when the then teenage Irishman arrived with his family at the Cork hotel where Liverpool where staying after a friendly in order to sign for the club.

"From his point of view, he's obviously been an outstanding footballer more or less from then to now, and to achieve that sort of longevity you have to have a cleverness about you . . . that's what I think he's going to be able to bring to this job."

Between then, he hopes, they can restore confidence, thus helping the players to regain the team's place amongst the world's elite.

"There is," he observes after all, "no divine right to qualify for international competitions.

"But you can change things quickly," he adds, "because a lot of football is about confidence and if we can boost that then hopefully we'll see the improvement we need."

A nation of football fans will hope that remedying the team's woes proves nearly so simple.