O'Shea quickly getting down to business

Euro 2004 qualifier Albania v Republic of Ireland: Tom Humphries, in Tirana, listens in as the young Irish defender displays his growing maturity off the pitch.

Monday is moving day. The Irish trained yesterday morning in Tbilisi and shuffled off to the airport not long after lunch. Tbilisi to Tirana, a road less travelled.

Same old same old, though. The Swiss, who play Georgia on Wednesday, arrived a little before the Irish left Tbilisi. Swissair! The Irish loaded themselves onto a charter. SardineAir! Bring back Roy, we moaned.

Keane was here in Tirana the last time the Irish hit town. He was a Nottingham Forest tyro and Tirana was still feeling its way to a post-Enver Hoxha style of living. All has changed now. Tirana bustles. Skenderberg Square, in the centre of town through which perhaps half a dozen cars a day passed in 1993, has a fair in the middle and traffic whizzing up and down arteries all day long.

The hotel the team stayed in a decade ago was the only one in town and lacked electricity for most of the day. The rooms had rodents, whether guests asked for them or not, and running water was an idea from science fiction. The media are in the same hotel this time around and this time there is no whining. Light! Baths! Minibars!

Tirana has developed from a dusty curiosity into a city. It's no longer unique and no longer a guarantee of three points.

And things have changed for the Irish squad, too. Two World Cup final appearances on and nobody survives from that trip of 10 years ago. And the young blade making his way to what will surely be greatness is John O'Shea. He gave a press conference yesterday. It's an odd thing, watching press conferences, you can see players grow as people. O'Shea is confident and funny now whereas just months ago he was diffident and awkward.

You can tell he's making it. A short while ago every journalist in Dublin had John O'Shea's mobile phone number and he had a pleasant if eccentric reputation as the only player in the Premiership who returned calls to hacks. He's still courteous and polite, of course, but he changed his mobile number a little while ago and interview requests get faxed to Manchester United FC now. The Citadel is guarding its future star.

Saturday in Georgia was one of those days he'll put down to experience. He showed many of the finer aspects of his game, especially when moving forward, but in the second half Giorgio Demetradze gave him a difficult time defensively. Before the break he tended to get drawn towards the penalty spot, mesmerised by Georgia's tactic of sticking a playmaker behind the front two. At one stage, having purchased what amounted to a job lot of dummies, he looked to have fouled Demetradze.

He got away with it.

"I was a bit dizzy," he says ruefully. "He did well. I was sure he'd put it into the box the second time, then he turned and went around the third and fourth time. I put my hand gently on his back. Not many players in England or Ireland would have gone down. I don't know if it was a penalty. He went down. I wasn't sure where I was."

Overall, however, it was an evening of getting away with it. He was fortunate, perhaps, in the way the selection broke. Kevin Kilbane in front of him worked hard all evening protecting the flank. O'Shea noted the favour.

"Kevin is an easy player to play with, gives 100 per cent and works up and down the wing. We linked up a lot in the first half. I think he was doing a lot of my job for me when I was being drawn inside towards Kenny. We worked out the responsibilities on the night."

His accomplishments with United this season have been such that it is difficult to believe that Saturday was actually his first competitive game in a senior Irish jersey. The landmark was almost unnoticed so great is the expectation around O'Shea, but it necessitated phone calls to Mam and Dad. This is still a young player making his way.

"It was an interesting experience. My first competitive game. The second half was an experience with all the things they threw onto the pitch. That was a new experience. I'm glad we came out unscathed. We are all pros and have to keep our discipline, we could have got carried away and ranted and raved at the referee, but we started to play good, attacking football.

"Definitely it was different playing a competitive game. It's all about points. Brian might take a chance in a friendly game, throw in young players and see how they go in different positions. It's different now."

It's different, but there's something natural about his partnership with Brian Kerr being extended into senior level. He grew up under Kerr's footballing philosophy and concedes that several times along the way he has called for advice, most recently when United had him on loan to Royal Antwerp and he didn't know whether to come back for the end of the season at Old Trafford in the hope of picking up an odd game or stay in Belgium. Kerr advised to stay put. Guaranteed first team football was better than anything else.

So, 10 years on, a new Irish team, back in Tirana, their need no less desperate than that of their predecessors. A little of the Kerr dislike for surprises has rubbed off on his protégé. O'Shea had asked about the town he was coming to before he left.

"England having played in Albania a couple of years ago, I asked some of the lads at United. They said to expect a tough game. I don't know if he played in the game, but Wes Brown said it wasn't the best of places in terms of football or the country.

"You get in, do the job and get out. That's how we have to it. It will be very hostile. As Brian says, it will be packed after the result they got at the weekend. We expect it to be hostile but we have to deal with that."

Dealing with things is becoming a habit. In a city which is changing as quickly as his own life is, John O'Shea comes, prepared for business.