WHILE everybody back at home will be willing the Irish team on to victory in Skopje this afternoon, Mick McCarthy will surely find it difficult not to allow his mind occasionally wander forward to this month's other qualifying match in Bucharest.

The two games can probably be taken together as a major stage in our campaign for a place at the World Cup finals in France next year. We haven't yet reached the stage in that campaign at which we need to start talking about having to achieve a particular result in a given game but there is no doubt that a favourable outcome today against the Macedonians would be a weight off the Irish manager's shoulders.

There has never been any real doubt that the two biggest games in this group should be the ones between Romania and Ireland. These should be the only sides with genuine hopes of automatic qualification and whichever of them fails to achieve that will have only themselves to blame if they don't manage to earn a play-off spot.

After those two, Iceland and Macedonia are the Group Eight spoilers, each capable of taking points from the favourites but neither looking really capable of upstaging them over the course of a 10-match programme.

When we played FYR Macedonia in Dublin we dealt with them very effectively and fully deserved our three-goal win but McCarthy saw the other side of his team in the nil-all draw with Iceland and he will not want to be reminded this afternoon of just how frustrating the inability to put away a poorer team can be.

If we did fail to pick up three points it would hardly be the end of the road but we would have handed the initiative to Romania immediately ahead of our visit there in four weeks' time and leave ourselves under pressure to, at the very least, prevent them from winning that game.

With that in mind McCarthy is likely to approach this tie cautiously but positively. He does not have all that many options to play around with but there is always room for a shift of emphasis particularly when you are using wing backs. It is a system that is probably best suited to away games in which the key players can be employed defensively early on but then, as the hosts are sized up, pushed forward into space.

For all of the withdrawals from his squad McCarthy will be pleased that he still has a selection of players ideally suited to this, centrally important role. With Denis Irwin and Steve Staunton (assuming he is fit) tipped to start in the centre, Jason McAteer and Terry Phelan seem to be the most likely pair to fill these positions and they would seem well equipped to cope with the sort of challenges that we should expect this afternoon.

Both are solid defensively, not exactly inspiring, but good readers of the game and with the pace to track back whenever there is trouble. If the game does turn into a scrap then they will be well able to handle themselves while if the Irish gradually get on top, as I would expect, then both will leap at the chance to push forward and each should prove valuable in changeling the ball into good positions.

Inside them the presence of Alan McLonuhlin is likely to cause the home side problems. The Portsmouth player's speciality has always been breaking into the opposition's box late and at speed and this may be just the opposition that that approach will cause problems for.

Either side of him, Roy Keane and Andy Townsend should provide a solid base to work off, breaking up the home side's moves and not averse to going for goal when the opportunities arise while behind them the presence of Staunton and Irwin would give a comforting familiarity with plenty of roots in our most successful days.

That success was built on our ability to handle pretty much anything that the teams we played could throw at us and with those sort of players there seems no reason to believe that we won't be capable of doing that again this evening. Ultimately, however, our progress was always hindered by our lack of goalscoring prowess and in this department we seem to be no better off than ever.

Keith O'Neill's early displays for Ireland have been extremely promising but the fact that he has expressed doubts about his own match fitness hardly augurs well for today. He may well still play, either starting and being replaced by Jon Goodman, or coming on himself for the Wimbledon man, but things would look a good deal brighter if he was at the top of his game.

Virtually certain to start is Tony Cascarino and while the French-based striker has considerable limitations you do, at least, know precisely what to expect from him

In Dublin against this team he scored two and even if he does not repeat that he will cause them a lot of problems around the area. His height and strength about the area will be considerable assets to McCarthy.

One problem we may come up against with many of his team-mates, however, is fatigue. During his time in charge Jack Charlton always tried to avoid playing competitive games around this time of the year because of the strain that the English league programme tends to put on them.

It is a factor that will make McCarthy's motivational skills all the more vital on the night for if his men are tired now they will be more so in four weeks' time and if four points from the two games is the sort of target we should be aiming for, putting ourselves in a position to settle for a draw against Romania and still achieve it would be a very good day's work.