Players keyed up for final rehearsal

SOCCER/Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria: If he had little to lose during his first campaign - when Ireland were chasing qualification after early slip-ups against Russia and Switzerland - Brian Kerr knows only too well how much more closely he will be associated with his team's competitive fortunes during the year or so to come.

Some 18 months after he succeeded Mick McCarthy, this evening's game against Bulgaria can be viewed as representing the end of a long period of preparation, a final dress rehearsal before September's opening nights against Cyprus and, once again, the Swiss, when the team, and the responsibility, will be his rather than his predecessor's.

With Andy O'Brien, Matt Holland and, particularly, Robbie Keane missing, Kerr is without some key players but two of the three are major doubts for the visit of Cyprus in a couple of weeks' time and so he is as well to prepare for their absence.

The places of all three tonight looked to be up for grabs even as an otherwise strong squad went through their paces yesterday morning in Malahide and the manager gave little away regarding how he will fill the gaps. But Damien Duff looks almost certain to start another international game up front while Gary Breen and perhaps Alan Quinn may well slot into the central defence and midfield respectively.

Jonathan Macken will come on at some stage but Duff, whose showing in training over the past couple of days has apparently left Kerr with few concerns about his readiness to start this evening, is most likely to play just behind Clinton Morrison against the Bulgarians. The Birmingham City striker's developing ability to win possession and hold the ball up will be of more significance in the absence of Keane, and if the pair do well against a defence that struggled through the recent European Championships they could well find themselves partnering each other again in the opening World Cup games.

Duff, of course, can be shifted forward at less expense to the team's midfield since the emergence of Andy Reid, and Kerr acknowledged yesterday the 22-year-old, who yesterday played down talk of a move to Charlton, has come a long way since making his debut less than a year ago.

"He's high up (the pecking order) now," he said. "He's played very well for us after coming in at a point when there probably wouldn't have been all that much known about him out there. We're not short of bodies on that left side but he's certainly made a strong case for him to be in our best side."

What that best side is precisely the manager says he hasn't dwelt on too much. "I prefer to see what bodies we have in before starting to work out what my best team is. There's very little point in saying that this is my best line-up four or five weeks before a game only to find that when the match comes around Robbie's injured or a couple of the other lads are out."

Though Gary Doherty started yesterday's training session alongside skipper Kenny Cunningham in the centre of the defence, previous games would suggest Kerr still rates Gary Breen ahead of the Tottenham defender. And so the 30-year-old Sunderland player seems to be in line for a 61st cap, his first since the defeat in Basel last October.

In midfield Alan Quinn figured prominently in yesterday's training and, with Holland out and Kevin Kilbane taking a knock at the weekend, his early-summer efforts in London and Amsterdam may well have earned him another senior start.

Graham Kavanagh is the other main option if Kilbane's injury is considered a concern, though Roy Keane's presence in the centre of the field would presumably give the Irish all the combativeness they need in that department.

"It's a difficult balance to strike between players who have done well for us but then missed games because of genuine injuries and the lads who have come in and done well in their absence," said Kerr.

"I've tried to weigh both up as I've considered what to do in this game but everyone knows that it's a strong squad and a lot of players are going to be disappointed. They all want to play, you could tell by the tempo of the training this morning. They all know that it's an important game in terms of sorting things out for next month."

Cunningham was, as ever, upbeat, not only about this evening but also about the campaign to come, but he pointedly declined to describe this as the best group he has worked with during his international career.

"I think that would be a little disrespectful to some of those that have been around in the recent past," he said. "We've always had good individuals around the team and we've done well as a team, qualified for things. This is a good young group, I'm excited when I look around the dressing room about them but the best?

"Talk is cheap but you have to achieve things to merit that type of tag. We have the chance to do just that, though, over the months ahead."

PROBABLE LINE-UPS

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Newcastle Utd); Carr (Newcastle Utd), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Breen (Sunderland), O'Shea (Manchester Utd); Miller (Manchester Utd), Roy Keane (Manchester Utd), Quinn (Sheffield United), Reid (Nottingham Forest); Morrison (Birmingham City), Duff (Chelsea).

BULGARIA: Zdravkov; Kishishev, Kirilov, Markov, Stoyanov; Lazarov, S Petrov, Hristov, Manchev; Berbatov, Bozhinov.