Cunningham earns captain's role

EURO 2004/Qualifiers: Thirteen years after he left Tolka Rovers behind for life in the English professional game Kenny Cunningham marked another career milestone on his way out of his old schoolboy club's north Dublin ground yesterday when Mick McCarthy called him aside to inform him that he would captain Ireland through the forthcoming European Championship qualifying campaign.

The Dubliner joins a list of former skippers that includes many of the best footballers this country has ever produced with Johnny Giles, Jackie Carey and Charlie Hurley all having worn the armband before him. More recently, of course, Roy Keane and Steve Staunton had been entrusted with the on-field leadership of the team.

Typically, the 31-year-old Birmingham City defender was modest about his new role, playing down its importance in a group of players that has amassed a good deal of experience between them over the past few seasons.

"Even the younger players," he said, "like Robbie (Keane) and Damien (Duff) have as many caps as me so there aren't too many nuggets of information that I can pass on to them.

"A lot of the lads have experience of Europe, too, and there are quite a few leaders within the squad so I don't see there being any great change on that score. Ultimately what it's about is a squad of players and what we can achieve together. But it is a fantastic honour. Most of my best experiences as a professional have been in the international set-up and this is another example of that."

McCarthy said that while he had also considered Gary Breen, Mark Kinsella and Matt Holland for the role, Cunningham's potential had been apparent to him since the defender first became involved with the international squad six years ago.

"He's an organiser, a talker," said the Ireland manager. "He's a good influence around the place too - he has been since he came in for the very first time. And now he's the senior member of the squad.

"His qualities as a player are easy to see," continued McCarthy. "He's a talker on the pitch and a calming influence off it. He knows the game and has been a captain before. Whenever people have asked me about Kenny I have always spoken about him in glowing terms."

The pair first ran into each other, in fact, when McCarthy arrived at Millwall as a player in late 1990 and the manager recalled yesterday that even then he noticed how professional the younger man was in his approach to the game.

In 1994, however, two years after taking over as manager McCarthy sold the defender to Wimbledon for £1.3 million and the pair did not work again until a year and a half later when, after a number of withdrawals from the Ireland squad for McCarthy's second game in charge of the Republic, a friendly against the Czech Republic, the Dubliner was called up and given his debut.

In the intervening years Cunningham has steadily added to his tally of international caps while building a solid reputation but maintaining a rather low profile at club level. Though he now almost always plays in central defence he was for a long time used as a right back at Wimbledon where he was also club captain for two years. His consistency meant that he was regularly linked with moves to bigger clubs but he showed little eagerness to leave south London, even after Wimbledon made it clear during the summer they would be prepared to let him go.

Now, at the age of 31, he finds himself back in the Premier League with Birmingham and, after a slight injury in the build-up to the World Cup cost him his place in Ireland's starting line-up at the tournament, in a strong position to retain his place in the Republic's central defence over the campaign ahead.

"Kenny was a bit unlucky in Japan," says McCarthy, "but when he did come on you could see straight away what a good defender he is. He had played well alongside Breeny in that position in a lot of games but Stan (Staunton) had played himself in and that meant there were a lot of questions over who was going to play alongside him. It was just a bit unfortunate the way it worked out for him."

Though clearly disappointed at the time by how limited his role ended up being Cunningham was in positive mood yesterday about the challenge to come, insisting that the whole squad is determined to get the new campaign off to a strong start this weekend.

"There's a real determination amongst the players that we're not going to start slowly," he said. "We're hoping to get out of the blocks as quickly as possible and we're going to Moscow with the intention of getting a good result."

McCarthy, meanwhile, said he expected everybody in the squad to be available for Saturday's game. Shay Given was again rested yesterday because of a slight calf injury but both player and manager insisted he would be all right while John O'Shea reported yesterday morning without any injury concerns.

Shelbourne's Wesley Houlihan is a slight doubt for Saturday afternoon's under-21 game after missing yesterday morning's game between the two Ireland sides because of a dead leg. The game finished level at a goal apiece after Robbie Keane had put the seniors in front and Ben Burgess equalised for Don Givens's men.