Duff's chances of playing improve

SOCCER/Euro 2004 qualifying: Damien Duff's progress since he began receiving treatment for a knee injury picked up during the second half of Saturday's 2-1 win over Albania was described yesterday as satisfactory by Ireland's assistant manager Chris Hughton who said that although the player was unable to train he was still in with a chance of playing tomorrow night, writes Emmet Malone, Soccer Correspondent

"All we've been looking for so far is some sort of improvement each day and we've had that," he said. "Damien's brighter in himself today and all we can hope now is that by game time on Wednesday he'll be all right."

Hughton admitted there had been considerable concern on Saturday over whether Duff could shake off the injury in time for the Georgia game.

"Naturally enough alarm bells start ringing when someone like Damien comes off like that before the end of a game, particularly when he knows all three substitutes have been used but still feels he can't go on. We know that he wouldn't do that unless he really had to. But ever since then he has been making progress."

He added that "in an ideal world" it would be expected the player would get through some training before the match but said the whole issue of the Blackburn player's fitness "is just something we'll have to gauge nearer the game".

The Irish management have a couple of other minor knocks to worry about ahead of tomorrow evening's contest with both Richard Dunne and Nicky Colgan undergoing scans yesterday on injuries picked up in training but neither is seriously hurt.

The question of whether Steven Reid has shown himself to be fit enough to start a game is another issue to be pondered by Brian Kerr and Hughton over the next 36 hours.

Reacting to criticism of Saturday's performance at Lansdowne Road, Hughton insisted it was wrong to make an assessment without taking into account the fact that ultimately Ireland had won the game.

"I think that when you're evaluating any game the result has to come into your considerations. Yes, the performance could have been better and I think if we'd been able to maintain the lead for a little longer after the opening goal then it would have given us an opportunity to consolidate and then build on the lead.

"But even after conceding the equaliser we didn't do as badly as we could have.

"I think you have to look at the fact that Shay Given was called upon to make one save in the first half and that the Albanians didn't get their first corner of the game until the 76th minute when you're weighing it all up.

"There were opportunities for us to score in the first half," he continued, "Robbie's (Keane) was a very good one - if we'd had that little bit more quality or made a better decision then we might have had goals. In the end, though, we won the game and I think that that has to count for quite a lot."

The burden placed on particular players by the new shape of the team was not a significant problem, he said: "With any system the fact is that every player has a role to perform and you hope that they will each perform theirs in a particular way.

"Although we could have been more effective in the final third of the pitch on Saturday we felt that we dealt with the Albanians well. The way they play you end up with a lot of space out wide and we felt that our full backs dealt with that space well, in the second half I thought Stephen Carr used it very well."

Like Kerr, Hughton feels the Georgians, by virtue of possessing more talented individuals, look to be a better team than the Albanians. "They have more individuals playing at a higher level but the problems we had out there might have made the Albanians look better."

How they will counter the visiting side's strengths has yet to be worked out, he said however, and not until that has been done will it become clear whether Gary Doherty will reclaim the starting role he was handed for the Tbilisi game.

Doherty, who said yesterday that he intends to concentrate his efforts on winning one of the centre-back positions at Spurs when he returns to the club after the summer, said that he had had no indication so far as to whether he might make the starting line-up.

"It hasn't been discussed yet, maybe tomorrow or even Wednesday morning they'll let us know but whatever the decision is I'll accept it, it's not as if I'm going to go off in a huff because I'm left out or anything like that.

"Of course it's a little bit frustrating because when you're sitting there watching a game you're wondering whether maybe you could have knocked that ball down or done something else to make a difference, you want to be out there all the time, but you just have to wait and see what way the manager wants to play. If he wants to mix it up a little bit then maybe I'll get my chance."