The Republic of Ireland and Reading striker is acutely aware of the threat Cyprus pose, writes Mary Hannigan

STEVE COPPELL described him recently as Reading's "Johnny on the spot" after Kevin Doyle ended a morale-sapping goalless run for the club by scoring eight goals, including two hat-tricks, in just five games, having managed just the one in his previous 23 appearances.

Little wonder, then, that the spring is back in the Wexford man's step as he looks forward to tomorrow night's World Cup qualifying game against Cyprus.

His form through that spell was a desperately needed lift after the disappointment of failing to secure a move back to the Premier League before the transfer window closed, despite endless speculation linking him with a string of clubs.

"Kevin was close to going," Coppell had said, before adding "well, when I say that, he was miles away from it really." Doyle could be forgiven for feeling confused. There was no sulking, though, instead Doyle just worked a little harder to recover his form, his reward those goals and the September Championship Player of the Month award.

"My mother is even happier than I am about it," he said, "she keeps them all at home, I'm sure she'll be over to bring it back."

Ironically it wasn't long ago that Robbie Keane, then scoring freely for Tottenham, was publicly supporting his international partner as he struggled for goals, now it is Doyle who is offering his captain encouragement after he took 11 games to break his duck with Liverpool.

"I know what it feels like to go a while without a goal and he knows it too. Sometimes it feels as though, no matter what you do, you still wouldn't score, you could be standing on the line with the ball at your feet.

"But you just know that it will change if you work hard. He has been doing it for 10 years, so a few games without a goal is nothing.

"And you can see by looking at him that he is working very hard. Once you get one, the rest will come pretty easy. You can relax a bit more and the ball falls easier. It's like any job where things can go well some of the time and not for others.

"But Robbie has got recognition now, a top club has paid £20 million (€25.5 million) for him, Inter Milan paid a lot of money for him too when he was younger. Different people have different opinions but he is the record scorer for Ireland, nearly double the amount of the person in second place, there is nobody near to catching him. I recognise him, maybe others wouldn't.

"He has had a lot of pressure over the years but he has always seemed to delivered, from the age of 17 he has scored goals for his country easily and freely every year."

Doyle's international return so far is six goals in 21 appearances, his last the opening score in the 2-1 win against Georgia last month. His confidence is up, then, but Ireland's recent experiences against Cyprus have him in a cautious mood.

"It just means that the players and supporters are a little less confident, a little less cock-sure and they're not just expecting a win. I was in the stands (for the 5-2 defeat in Nicosia two years ago) because I was injured, so I was one of the lucky ones. What can you do? You don't want to remember it. It was just head in the hands time for us.

"Every move they had, they seemed to score a goal from. The second game I did play in (the 1-1 draw at Croke Park, Steve Staunton's last game in charge), where we got an equaliser in the last minute. We started that night okay and I thought we were going to win the game, but we lost confidence.

"But it's not as though their results against us were a one-off. I saw them against Italy earlier in the season and they were very good. They drew in Georgia at the weekend, that's a very good result."

Ireland, though, knew they were a danger last time around but still couldn't beat them - what's different now? "I suppose the manager is different. He'll have different ideas about how we'll play against them.

"His style is very solid. Over there they played unbelievable football against us, there were one-twos coming off all over pitch - I think we will be a bit more ready for that and more aware."