Turkish retribution predictable and swift

It was pay-back time for the Turkish FA in Bursa yesterday as the countdown to tomorrow's return game in the European championship play-off gathered new urgency in this otherwise unhurried city.

Last week the Turks protested for being made to cross Dublin from their base at Portmarnock to their allotted training ground at Belfield. Now retribution was, at once, swift and highly predictable.

True, it took the Irish team coach, headed by a police escort, little more than 10 minutes to reach the spartan suburban ground which the host organisation has assigned them for training.

Once there, however, the mood of the players changed abruptly as they surveyed a facility which had few of the requirements for the purpose. There was no retaining fencing around the pitch, nothing to segregate the players from a motley audience of police, media personnel and a knot of curious locals and, most damning of all, perhaps, little or no grass.

After doing the warm up routine there, McCarthy led his squad of big name players in Indian file, down a laneway and on to an adjoining pitch which at least, had the merit of being well grassed. And the manager, biting hard on his tongue until his press briefing later in the day, was clearly not impressed.

"It scarcely needs me to say it but the training ground was not good," he said. "If that's the best pitch they chose to give us, so be it but it makes you wonder about FIFA and their fair play motto.

"You may only sit so many players on the bench, the technical people can't go beyond certain limits but pretty much everything else it seems, is fair game. It makes you wonder. But we'll just get out and get on with it and prepare ourselves as best we can for the game."

It ought to be said, however, that this was the first problem the party encountered since arriving here on Sunday. Contrary to expectations, there has been none of the naked hostility visited on other teams arriving in Turkey in the past.

Come Wednesday evening, that is all likely to change, with 25,000 Turkish fans turning the Ataturk Stadium into a pit of passion from which its going to be difficult for the Irish to escape with a win. For the moment, however, it's nearly all light and laughter with the locals going out of their way to be the genial hosts.

The Turkish press has also been largely objective. Reflecting on the first game at Lansdowne Road, they praised the quality of Ireland's performance in the last half hour and paid tribute to the integrity of the Swedish referee, Anders First whose appointment they had originally criticised.

That may, perhaps, have had something to do with his decision to award Turkey the penalty, from which they equalised six minutes from the end but generally, there were few recriminations for perceived wrongs during their Dublin stay, until yesterday's ill-advised decision to consign McCarthy and his team to a bad pitch for schoolboys.

As yet, there is little evidence of an Irish presence in the city. Fewer than 40 supporters travelled with the squad but some 250 more are expected today from Dublin. They will be supplemented by others journeying to the game from various parts of Europe but it remains to be seen if the Irish allocation of 1,000 match tickets will be taken up fully.

Remarkably, Dennis Irwin was the only member of the back four which McCarthy may be thinking of sending into action tomorrow, to train yesterday. Stephen Carr, Kenny Cunningham and Gary Breen all stayed behind to work out in the hotel gymnasium but like the other two casualties, Niall Quinn and Lee Carsley they are expected to be available for selection.

With Mark Kinsella returning from suspension to resume his partnership with Roy Keane in central midfield, Carsley's position may be under threat.

With the score standing at 1-1 from the Lansdowne Road game, Ireland must score at least once to stay in the championship and the option of dropping a specialist striker to go with a fifth midfielder, is no longer viable.

McCarthy has already made it clear that he intends to start with Quinn and Connolly up front and in that situation, the only place at issue may be on the right side of midfield. Here Rory Delap was replaced after an hour of the first game.

Significantly, McCarthy went out of his way yesterday to remind us of Jason McAteer's track record in this role but given the fact that he wasn't deemed worthy of a place on the bench last Saturday because of his lack of match practice with Blackburn, it is sarcely conceivable that he will now start.

In that situation, the odds are on Delap being given another chance to make the grade and hopefully, rediscover the form which has brought him five goals at club level this season. Either way, McCarthy is still satisfied that he has the players to grind out the result he wants.

"Sure, we've lost a couple along the way but the players I have here, are good enough and committed enough to go and do the job and get us to the finals," he said.