Players settling in nicely

The Irish party were settling nicely into their new surroundings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano yesterday with players and management pleasantly surprised by the quality of their accommodation and training facilities as well as giving a cautious welcome to the change of climate.

The squad's new home, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, is a different world to Ibadan with far better roads and facilities as well as an obvious influence on day to day life of the local Muslim majority. After watching his players train at the local Pillars Stadium for the first time since making the journey, Brian Kerr described the move as "refreshing".

And he admitted that some of the players were delighted with the new hotel, the Tahir Guest Palace, not least because the 40 or so television channels available there carry plenty of English and European football.

"This must be where the Queen stays when she visits," Robbie Keane apparently cried after looking at his room.

Yesterday's two training session went well for most of the panel with most finding the dry, slightly dusty heat preferable to the smothering humidity of the south but even in mid morning it was 38 degrees celcius and it cools down quite rapidly around match time, it may well be hotter than that at four tomorrow when their second round game against the Nigerians gets under way.

Despite the increased heat, Kerr will have been heartened by the fact that full back Keith Doyle appears to be coping far more easily with the conditions in Kano although Alex O'Reilly continues to struggle and looks doubtful for tomorrow's game.

Team captain Barry Quinn rested yesterday after picking up a slight knock to his right knee while Paul Donnolly trained with one thigh tightly strapped, but both should be okay. Colin Healy, Thomas Heary, Richie Baker and Ger Crossley, who were all feeling less than 100 per cent in one way or another over the past couple of days, are expected to be alright as well.

All were obviously brimming with confidence, though, after scoring two and four goal wins to make through to the second phase of this competition. "That was the most important thing," said Damien Duff yesterday "to get out of the group. Now the team is playing well, well enough we think to beat Nigeria."

With fine goals in each of the two games he has started so far here, Duff has made his mark as one of the stars of this tournament and the Blackburn winger clearly feels he is benefitting from the change of scenery.

"You never stop learning, and playing against teams like Nigeria is bound to be help. Hopefully at the end of something like this you'll be a better player."

Asked what the main difference between being here right now or back in England with his club side Duff sighed and said "well, winning really. It's a different feeling really. I suppose we've been on a bit of a downer this season at the club, always losing.

"I haven't scored all season back in England either, so to come out here and get on the scoresheet twice is really brilliant."

Aside from the heat both Duff and Kerr know that just about everybody in the 15,000 capacity crowd expected at the Sani Abacha Stadium tomorrow will be cheering for the home side but judging by the fact that 3,000 or so locals turned up to cheer on his team for each of their training sessions yesterday the Ireland manager is not expecting the atmosphere to be overly hostile.

"The attitude so far certainly hasn't been that `oh, you guys are coming here to play our team and so we don't like you'. It's nothing like that and I wouldn't think there'll be any booing or anything. It should be a good atmosphere and I think the players will enjoy it."

The Nigerians, in fact, have been the ones who have been suffering the wrath of the home support so far with the host team having to dodge the hundreds of water bottles, many filled with urine, that were thrown at them after the two group games that they failed to win while their opponents on each occasion, Costa Rica and Paraguay, were warmly applauded as they departed.

Their inability to win more than one game cost their coach his job and former Dutch manager Thijs Libregts, who is currently the local association's Technical Director, has been brought in to take over. "It's not a situation that I'm happy with," he admitted on Sunday just before his team boarded the same plane that was carrying the Irish north, "because on the one hand you are replacing a colleague which is not nice, and on the other this is not my selection of players but I have to do what I can now because one thing is certain, the team has not been playing well so far in this tournament."

Libregts admitted that he was at least glad to be getting out of Lagos where "things had become very hostile," but his opposite number will be hoping that if the Nigerians fail to get the upper hand against the Irish early on tomorrow then once again the pressure on them will start to mount.

The local fans, as it happens, have already been disappointed once in these championships with England enjoying most of the local support for their group matches when they were based here last week.

In the end Chris Ramsey's side lost all three of their games and failed to qualify, their time here made all the more embarrassing by the fact that one player alleged hotel staff had stolen all of his money before finding it amongst his clothes.