Naked truths revealed behind bare facts

The bare facts, as put by Matt Holland immediately after Wednesday's 3-0 defeat of Andorra, were hard to quibble with. "We got six points from the trip, scored seven and didn't concede any. "How," he asked, "could you be disappointed with that?"

It was a sentiment echoed enthusiastically much later that evening by Mick McCarthy, as the Ireland manager also welcomed the late equaliser in Oporto that kept his side at the top of the Group Two qualification table and went some way towards ensuring that the Dutch will have to come to Dublin in September looking for a win.

That they might have to do so at a time when their hosts will again enjoy an advantage over them because of English soccer's earlier start to serious competition, is not something that Louis van Gaal will find entirely comforting.

With the possibility that the top three teams in this group will win every one of their matches against the bottom three looking increasingly a reality, though, McCarthy will know just how much now hinges on the other great forthcoming attraction at Lansdowne, the visit of Portugal on June 2nd.

A win that day would go a very long way towards securing automatic qualification, with a draw against the Dutch and the avoidance of any slip-ups in the three remaining games against the group's lesser lights guaranteeing McCarthy's men a trip to Korea and Japan in the middle of next year.

The Irish coach has a couple of problems in the build-up to the game, however. Firstly, his central defence continues to give serious cause for concern even after the enforced pairing of Richard Dunne and Gary Breen provided the basis for the memorable achievements in Amsterdam and Lisbon.

When Estonia came here in October neither played well against a team that simply possessed too little offensive capability to capitalise on their errors. While in Cyprus last weekend, where Kenny Cunningham was rightly restored to the Irish starting XI, there was little improvement. Again, it was impossible to avoid the feeling that a better team would have scored - with possible drastic consequences.

Secondly, despite his protestation to the contrary, McCarthy's decision to replace David Connolly on Wednesday night suggested that he does not have any deeply-held conviction that his team can adapt the way it plays in order to cope with life without Niall Quinn.

The Sunderland striker believes he can be fit in time to play against Portugal and on Wednesday night McCarthy said that the Dubliner would be "an asset" to the squad for the game. But Quinn's fitness can never be banked upon these days and if he does not believe that Connolly (who he admitted had played better than Robbie Keane over the course of the past week's two games) can partner the Leeds United striker effectively against a packed defence of part-timers, then it hardly bodes well for vital games against much stronger sides.

In Barcelona his solution to the problem was to throw Gary Doherty into attack so as to provide an aerial threat. Afterwards he observed that the decision had been shown to be a good one by the Tottenham player's involvement in the build-up to the opening goal.

In fact, Doherty's contribution to the goal had not been in the air but had been to do precisely what it was believed could not be done, to play a low ball straight through a gap in the defence and send Roy Keane clear into space inside the area. Later, some even neater footwork in a densely-populated penalty box from the man who nobody seems to regard as a striker any more, set up Holland for the third of the game.

As it happened, Doherty's height posed remarkably few difficulties for the Andorrans and little was created as a result of high balls won by the Donegalman around the area. It's hard to imagine the Portuguese feeling greatly threatened by his presence in the event that Quinn is not available.

Wednesday night presented an opportunity to give the only obvious alternative another opportunity to establish a rapport and McCarthy may yet end up wishing that his nerve hadn't deserted him less than half an hour into a game that he must have expected to win, whatever the partnership up front.