Hughton is up front on Duff's influence

SOCCER: A defence that has been touched up at the edges since the embarrassment of last year's 4-2 defeat in Moscow is expected to cope a little better with whatever the Russians can throw at it in Lansdowne Road tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the pre-match speculation at Ireland's north Dublin team hotel yesterday continued to centre on who will be handed lead roles in the home side's attempt to score the goals required for victory.

Assistant manager Chris Hughton, who confirmed yesterday all 24 squad members will be available for selection tomorrow, insists while Robbie Keane will inevitably be missed, the squad is better equipped now to cope with the absence of key players than a year ago when Ireland's qualification campaign threatened to derail before it had even properly begun.

"I think from the point of view that players like Colin Healy and Stephen McPhail are playing regularly now, we are better off than we were," he says. "Of course, there are still one or two who are not playing as much as you would like at their clubs but that's normal in almost any squad and on balance, I'd say, we're in a very good position now."

The Spurs striker, he admits, is "a big loss", not only because of his goalscoring record for the Republic of Ireland in recent years but also because of his overall contribution to the team effort.

"But you don't want to be too negative about these things," Hughton adds. "We're fortunate that out of all the players who would have been called up for this game Robbie is the only one who hasn't made it. In his absence we have to make a few decisions on what the attacking line-up is going to be but we're lucky to have some very strong options up front now and the changes required aren't all that drastic."

In Keane's absence, Damien Duff is set to return to the front line and if he does play up front then Clinton Morrison, Gary Doherty and David Connolly appear to be in a three-way tussle to partner the Chelsea player.

Hughton gave little away regarding the management team's preference in the circumstances but, he observed: "It's a big plus for us that Clinton is back in the frame. The fact that he was involved last time and scoring the goal has done volumes for him."

Duff is again the key to the Irish approach with the fate of Kevin Kilbane, and at least one of the strikers, hanging on how and where Kerr finally decides to use the 24-year-old.

Kilbane readily conceded yesterday it isn't much of a contest when he ends up going head-to-head with the Dubliner for the number 11 shirt and Hughton also acknowledged just how important the former Blackburn player has become to the team's ability to trouble opponents.

"Whatever position Damien finds himself in for us on Saturday you know that he's going to do well for us," he says. "His ability to push past players is a huge asset for the team. Though he is predominantly left-footed he can go either way. He has terrific acceleration and can change direction so easily, which is probably the hardest thing of all for a defender to deal with."

If there remains even the slightest doubt about whether Duff will lead the Irish attack tomorrow there is surely none regarding Kenny Cunningham's place at the heart of a defence that has been bolstered, both by Steve Carr's return and the introduction of John O'Shea, since being overrun in Moscow 12 months ago.

The Irish skipper will win his 50th cap tomorrow when Kerr is likely to stick with the back four that has performed strongly in recent outings.

"We conceded some bad goals that night," says Hughton when asked about the Moscow game, "and, at any level, if you're conceding four goals I think it's fair to say that you are not going to win football matches."

Winning games when you don't concede four should, of course, be the more relevant issue tomorrow afternoon.

McPhail, meanwhile, admitted yesterday his prospects of making an eighth appearance for the senior team are likely to improve dramatically after tomorrow's game and Kerr has the chance to experiment a little in the game against Turkey.

On the day when Richard Sadlier was forced to announce his retirement from the game due to injury, however, the 23-year-old currently finds himself counting his blessings.

After recently moving from Leeds to Nottingham Forest on loan, the midfielder says he is "just glad" to be playing football regularly again.

"I had a couple of good years at Leeds and then a couple of bad ones, 25 games in the last two just wasn't good enough, and so I'm just glad now to be given the chance to get back playing regularly and find my form.

"I wanted to wait to see how things went in pre-season at Leeds before making up my mind on what to do but after seeing the line-up in the very first game I spoke to Peter Reid about it and asked to go out on loan.

"To be fair, he was great. I wanted to go for the season but he said to leave it at three months and we could take it from there. So far, though, I'm delighted with the way things are working out at Forest. We've won a couple of games and everybody's made me very welcome."