IT IS all uphill now for the Republic of Ireland after an anaemic performance in Skopje yesterday failed to deliver the win needed to bring their World Cup challenge back on track.

Not for years has there been a more frustrating afternoon for the travelling Irish supporters - this time numbered in hundreds - as they watched their oddly shirted heroes surrender an early lead almost by default.

Even the woes of Jack Charlton's Liechtenstein adventure weren't quite as bad as this as FYR Macedonia, a team with only a faint pretence towards football's more fertile pastures, were allowed to dig their way out of a hole and surprise even their most optimistic supporters.

At times the manner of Macedonia's survival was sketchy but, helped by two penalties, both converted by Mitko Stojkovski, they prevailed in a game which built to an eventful finish with the dismissal of a player from either side in injury time.

Fittingly, on a day when he was involved in almost everything, Stojkovski was one of them. The Irish player sent off in a situation where the Italian referee, Alfredo Trentalange, had a choice of at least two culprits in a mini flare up, was Jason McAteer.

If both the penalties were justified, Trentalange occasionally enraged the Irish with decisions which suggested that he was not in the mood to test the home crowd.

Garbed in something approaching fluorescent amber, Ireland often projected the appearance of a gang of council road workers - but significantly less productive - in an ill advised break with tradition.

Would that the journey back to respectability, however, necessitated only a change of strip. This, was a deeply disturbing display, bereft of leadership and bankrupt of enterprise. And it was spawned out of a start which could scarcely have been better scripted.

Giving substance to their pledge to take the game to the opposition, the Irish had already pinned the opposition on the backfoot when they went in front after only eight minutes.

Tony Cascarino, at the high point of a performance which ended prematurely with his replacement by Keith O'Neill at half time, nodded Roy Keane's cross into the path of Alan McLoughlin and the Portsmouth player had time to stoop and head the ball past goalkeeper Danco Celeski.

It was as easy as picking ripe fruit and the feeling then among the Irish was that only a mishap of biblical proportions could deny them the victory required to keep them on schedule for World Cup qualification.

The home crowd, later to become increasingly hostile, had fallen silent and the Macedonians were in some disarray - it needed only a second Irish score to put the game beyond their reach. But in a situation in which it seemed they could scarcely fail, Ireland somehow permitted the opposition to find a way back.

It was at this point that the lack of leadership, later to grow into a crisis, first showed. Instead of pushing on in the hope of wrapping up the points, the Irish players took their foot off the pedal and soon, all too soon, the outlines of a reprieve came into focus for the home team.

The crowd hadn't quite appreciated the significance of the turn around in the game when Terry Phelan's mistake in losing the ball deep in the Macedonian half ended with a careless handball by McAteer inside the penalty area in the 28th minute.

The call was late and Stojkovski needed the assistance of the underside of the cross bar to deliver the ensuing penalty to the net. Yet the end product was that Macedonia were reborn and their supporters were back in full voice for the rest of the game.

From that point, one misfortune followed another for Ireland. Unable to regain their composure, they were now giving the ball away at an alarming rate in midfield and the Macedonians had already bared their teeth a number of times when another handball offence, this time by Phelan enabled them to go in front close to half time.

On this occasion, the Everton player put his hands in front of his face as Vlatko Gosev prepared to shoot from an angle. It was scarcely textbook stuff by the fullback and his error was compounded when, after first being shown a yellow card, he watched Stojkovski, reassured by practice, beat Alan Kelly with ease.

O'Neill brought a new sense of urgency to the Irish attack in the second half but was betrayed by his touch after McAteer and Gary Breen had given him a clear sighting of goal in the 49th minute. Later, Phelan would experience the disillusionment of shooting over from no more than four yards before Georgi Hristov's superbly struck goal in the 60th minute put the home team further in front.

Initially, it was Ian Harte's mistake in slipping which set up the chance as Artim Sakiri threaded the pass but the finish was exemplary as Hristov took aim and beat Kelly comprehensively with the shot from 20 yards.

Jon Goodman provided the opening for O'Neill's replacement, David Kelly, to score Ireland's second goal in the 78th minute but, in the end, it was Macedonia who went closest to scoring again, with Ilgo Georgioski curving a shot against the butt of a post.

Whither now Ireland? On this performance, they will be doing well to escape a hammering in Bucharest in four weeks' time - indeed, the prospects of beating the Romanians home or away now look remote. The prize of second place in the group is still attainable - but only if a marked improvement is forthcoming on this ill conceived performance.

Individually, Denis Irwin, Gary Breen and Steve Staunton had their moments at the back but, collectively, this was a far from convincing show by Mick McCarthy's three man defence. Breen had at least the satisfaction of giving the team some authority in set pieces but scarcely did enough to disprove the theory that the team can benefit in the short term from the return of Paul McGrath.

It was Macedonia who conjured the passes which mattered in midfield, with Dejvi Glavevski, engaged in something of a personal feud with Keane all afternoon, linking with Gosev and the Spanish based Stojkovski to give the winners a big advantage.

Andy Townsend, never able to get to the pitch of the game, had one of his least impressive internationals and while Keane put himself about with some enthusiasm, he never rediscovered the perception of that early cross which set up McLoughlin's goal.

McLoughlin, in fact, was the pick of a mediocre bunch in midfield but for all his efforts, only rarely established the requisite bridgehead between midfield and the front two, Cascarino and Goodman.

With the benefit of hindsight, it can be said that Cascarino was not 100 per cent fit and Goodman, produced little to suggest that he is capable of filling the void left by the departure of John Aldridge.

O'Neill, who was only on the pitch for some 30 minutes, looked the most likely of the Irish forwards but as McCarthy returned to the team's headquarters to assess a mission gone hopelessly wrong, he could only have been apprehensive about the weeks and months ahead.