Staunton markers firmly down

SOCCER: If Steve Staunton is the sort of man to commit his objectives to paper, it's hard to imagine there were any boxes left unchecked after Wednesday's convincing defeat of Sweden at Lansdowne Road, writes Emmet Malone, Soccer correspondent.

A big win, good goals and a string of strong individual performances would give any manager considerable cause for satisfaction, but the Louthman can also reflect positively on the way the team adapted to a new formation, four debutants rose to the occasion and 44,000 spectators reacted to a more adventurous brand of football.

Events of the last few years, of course, clearly highlighted how easy it is to be taken in by the results of friendly games in which one team is trying that much harder than the other.From Staunton's perspective, though, a 3-0 win is undeniably a good first night's work. Another couple like it - Staunton remains hopeful of adding to the solitary friendly against the Netherlands currently pencilled in for August - between now and September might even leave the new manager with an unexpected problem when the Republic kicks of its next qualification campaign in Stuttgart - outside expectations.

Whether an Irish side, conspicuously short on experience in key areas of the field, can seriously trouble the bigger names in the forthcoming European Championship qualification campaign remains doubtful.

However, if the mood amongst the players, as they returned to their respective clubs with a pep in their step, is anything to go by, there is at least a growing belief now that that things are moving in the right direction again.

Almost five months on from that lifeless draw with Switzerland, the players are being encouraged to play a brighter, brasher brand of football and nobody is complaining. Their manager concedes there are certain to be rougher times ahead, but he insists that even when up against it his team will strive to excite and entertain.

Wednesday's encounter may not ultimately count for all that much, but there is little doubt that from the outset they tried to do that. "I'm not going to get carried away with the result," Staunton said yesterday of the win. "We have quite a bit of work ahead of us and while we have a good bunch of players, we are nowhere near where we need to be.

"We couldn't have asked for anything more (from the Sweden game) but we are not getting carried away. What I would say is that if we go down in the future, we will go down attacking with bright, inventive play."

The comments herald a brave approach from a man who will need to get the very best out of key players in both defence and attack if he is not to be forced into a swift rethink in the wake of potentially difficult encounters with Germany and the Czech Republic.

The early signs are good with the performances of Robbie Keane and Damien Duff on Wednesday clearly suggesting the pair have an appetite for leading from the front and by example.

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, was Richard Dunne who has always possessed the attributes of a top-class defender even if he often seemed to fall short in the departments of attitude and application.

Staunton singled the big defender out for particular praise yesterday and it is not difficult to see why. His covering tackle in the wake of a rare Joey O'Brien error during the first half provided a glimpse of both his speed and tackling ability while a couple of more bruising encounters with the likes of Tobias Linderoth and Zlatan Ibrahimovic underlined his capacity to mix it physically when the situation required it.

With the departure of Kenny Cunningham the 26-year-old now looks certain to become a regular in the side and though others still fear the team has lost too much quality in too short a space of time to challenge seriously for a place at the next European Championships, the player himself is decidedly upbeat in the wake of Wednesday's win.

"It has been a while since we played football as positively as that," said Dunne. "But Stan's aim was to get us to excite the fans and we did that. Okay, we may have been a bit rushed in our passing at the start but once we got a couple of goals, then we started to play a bit of football.

"Afterwards Stan said to us that we have set ourselves standards by showing everyone that we are a really good side. The great thing is that we have put down a few markers and people will realise when they come here in future that Dublin is a difficult place to get a result.

"I suppose it is up to us players now to reproduce those performances time after time, game after game but I honestly believe we can achieve anything playing like that. There is no reason why we should fear anyone."

Since being appointed a couple of months back Staunton has been careful to stress that his ambitions are long term and that a place at the World Cup finals of 2010 represents his main target. Dunne, though, is a little less patient than his manager.

"Everyone is disappointed that we missed out on Euro 2004 and this year's World Cup," he said, "so getting to Euro 2008 has to be our aim. The likes of me, Damien Duff and Robbie, know that if we don't make the next finals then there will not be too many opportunities left for us. But we can do it. We have," he concludes, "to believe we can do anything".