Lawrie McMenemy wasn't exactly portraying the image of a man at ease with the world after supervising Northern Ireland's last training session for today's European championship meeting with Finland at Windsor Park.

Heavy defeats in their last two games, 4-1 in Spain and 3-0 at the start of their European programme in Turkey, were enough to disturb even someone of McMenemy's equanimity.

And yet he was articulating the sentiments of many when he offered the opinion that Northern Ireland may never have a better chance of rehabilitation than in this meeting with the Finns.

"It's essential that we get three points here and with a game against Moldova to follow next month, we could still be in reasonable shape by the end of the year," he said.

"Unfortunately we've lost players in key areas in the team - Steve Lomas is a case in point - and we just don't have the depth in reserve strength to be able to take these kind of setbacks in our stride.

"The other side of that coin is that it gives players who might otherwise sit on the bench a chance of making their point. And I'm confident they will," he added.

McMenemy, assigned one of the more challenging tasks in international football after the IFA had decided to part company with Bryan Hamilton, was scarcely unaware of the problems that confronted him when he set down in Belfast.

Lacking a dominant personality in defence after Alan McDonald had departed, Northern Ireland's difficulties are more pronounced still in an attack which has seldom been better than threadbare in recent seasons.

Taking a leaf from the Jack Charlton manual, McMenemy has sought to broaden his options by offering those in possession of British passports a quick route to international status. As yet, however, the response has been disappointing.

Dele Adebola (Birmingham City) and David Johnson (Ipswich Town) are still considering their options and while the Southampton striker Ken Monkou was apparently ready to accept the offer, it was subsequently discovered that he was ineligible after representing his native Surinam in a qualifying tie for the Olympic Games.

The measure of the problems confronting McMenemy was illustrated yesterday after James Quinn's withdrawal because of a damaged hamstring had left him with just two specialist strikers, George O'Boyle and the faithful Iain Dowie in his squad.

Eventually it was decided to call in Glen Ferguson, a record £55,000 signing when he moved from Glenavon to Linfield, but still totally unproven at this level. Accentuating the problem is the fact that too often the senior players in the squad haven't performed to pedigree, the case of Keith Gillespie, occasionally brilliant, frequently brittle, makes the point well.

At his best Gillespie, a winger of refined skills and vision, would fit easily into most national teams. Too often, however, he has perished on the big occasion and the latent threat presented by Dowie's ability in the air has dwindled accordingly.

Now the need is for early accurate crosses which could conceivably yield the two scores which Dowie needs to equal Colin Clarke's Northern Ireland record of 13 goals and an influential performance from the highly-rated Manchester United youngster Philip Mulraine in midfield.

Finland's recent 3-2 win over Moldova in Helsinki was not the stuff of dreams and left manager Richard Moeller Nielsen, who led Denmark to that astounding European championship success in Sweden in 1992, with almost as many problems as McMenemy.

"To win was great but it was not a good performance," he said. "We have to improve a lot and against a team which plays typical British-style football, it is going to be a difficult game for us."

A notable absentee from their team is Jarkko Wiss, who plays with the Helsinki club HJK in the European Champions League. Yet with a liberal sprinkling of British-based players in their squad, they should not be unduly disconcerted by the fire and thunder of the Irish team.

Wolves midfielder Mika-Matti Paatelainen is their most capped player with 59 to his credit, Jonathan Johansson currently soldiers with Rangers and the three goalkeepers in their squad, Jussi Jaaskelain, Mikko Kaven and Antti Niemt, play with Bolton, Motherwell and Rangers respectively.

The danger man from a home perspective, however, is the Ajax player Jari Litmanen who has scored 12 times in his 55 appearances and who now represents the biggest threat to McMenemy's new central defensive partnership of Steve Morrow and Darren Patterson.