A wink and a smile and out the door

Have we been here before? "I know 1-1 isn't the result we wanted but even if we'd won by two or three goals my line would be the same - there's still a lot of football to be played."

So said Mick McCarthy in October 1997 after the 1-1 draw with Belgium at Lansdowne Road, in the first leg of the World Cup qualifying play-off. So yes, we have been here before. And McCarthy's face said as much when he arrived to speak to the press after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Turkey.

Same result, same post-match message from a manager doing his damndest to remain upbeat and confident, even if the aching frustration of watching his team concede another late equaliser, having taken 79 minutes to work an opening goal, was nigh on impossible to conceal.

"There are one or two sore limbs and one or two broken hearts, but we'll mend them between now and Wednesday," he said. "Naturally I'm disappointed with the result and the fact that we didn't manage to hold on to the lead and have a different scenario going in to the second leg, but I'm not disappointed with my players or the manner in which they played.

"We were playing against a very good side and we should recognise that but if you look at the player who got man of the match (Turkish goalkeeper Rustu) it might tell you something about the amount of chances we had. Perhaps on a different day we might have scored two or three goals."

There were "no complaints" about the penalty awarded to Turkey in the 83rd minute, nor about the yellow card given to Robbie Keane for dissent, one that rules him out of the return leg in Bursa, a loss that didn't help lighten McCarthy's mood. "As I said beforehand, I can't accept people getting booked for things like that so perhaps he has to learn to control his emotions in front of the referee, especially at this level. But he's a young lad and there but for the grace of God go I at 19 years of age - except he's a much better player than I was at 19.

Convincing his players that they should share his confidence, in the immediate aftermath of the match, proved more difficult.

"Ask yourselves what do you feel like when you've just had a really sore disappointment. I've just said to them Turkey will think this tie is over. I'm sure they'll tell everyone at home it's going to be a hard game but, in reality, they'll feel they can do us there.

"But I don't believe it's over and I don't think the players do deep down. At this moment they're very disappointed but I've just seen a few of the older lads - Quinny, Cas, Roy - just rallying around, so they'll be fine. We've had our disappointments before and we've come back from them and we'll come back from this."

Whether or not Niall Quinn will be involved on Wednesday remains to be seen, but McCarthy is hopeful that the neck injury that ruled him out of Saturday's game - 20 minutes before kick-off - will have healed by then. Had the team sheet gone in before the change was made? "Yes it had - no gamesmanship, injury." Did you need Turkish permission for the change? "I don't know, I asked the referee and he gave me permission. If I asked Turkey's permission to take my first choice centre forward off and put a substitute on I think they'd have said `by all means, go ahead'. I didn't ask them, no."

Earlier the Turkish coach, Mustafa Denizli, had complained about his squad's treatment during their time in Dublin. "There were many problems here in Ireland because of the training pitch and also last night most of the players couldn't sleep very well because there were many, many fans near our hotel and they were making a lot of problems. They came to the hotel after midnight three times - I think 50 persons - and they were drunk and were shouting until the morning."

Would he be making a protest to UEFA? "No . . . you have to know Turkish hospitality," he replied, a tad ominously.

"Get off the dance-floor," said McCarthy, on hearing of the Turks' complaints. "If that's priming me for what we've to expect then . . . listen, we've been to the Balkans, we've been to a war zone, we're now talking about earthquakes - we've had everything thrown at us in this group, I've had half a dozen players injured or suspended. If they can thrown anything else at us between now and next Thursday morning bring it on. The Fighting Irish. Someone once told me about them, I think it was my Dad."

"Nonsense, absolute nonsense," said Bernard O'Byrne, FAI Chief Executive, of the complaints. "We do not treat people that way, our fans do not treat people that way. If you book your accommodation in a hotel that has a disco I don't know what you expect to happen."

"You said before that you might get more chances in Bursa than you would here," said a Turkish reporter, anxious to get back to talking football. "I don't think we will, having seen that, to be quite honest," said McCarthy. "I hope we do because if we get more chances than that you're in for a good hiding." A wink, a smile, and he headed for the door.