Reid, Miller get the call as expected Soccer International news

Brian Kerr began to reshape the Irish squad he inherited almost a year ago from Mick McCarthy in the most gentle of fashions yesterday when he drafted just two new faces into the panel that will gather in Dublin on this day week for a friendly game against Canada three days later.

Predictably, Liam Miller and Andy Reid are included in the senior panel for the first time, and if there was a surprise at all yesterday it was the extent to which Kerr has persisted with the long-since tried and tested.

With David Connolly and Lee Carsley missing out through injury, Kerr has seen fit to drop just one of the squad which travelled to Switzerland. But he was at pains to stress he has not "abandoned" Mark Kinsella, who, he said, is well aware he needs to get back to playing first-team football, "for his own good as well as ours".

Back is Kenny Cunningham, who missed the trip to Basel due to suspension, and Rory Delap, who has not, because of injury and other reasons, played for Ireland since Kerr took over. The manager said the Southampton player's strength and versatility were valuable additions to the squad, and he suggested another of those included, Cardiff's Graham Kavanagh, will play at some stage on Tuesday week game against the Canadians.

"We're out of the European championships now and it's an opportunity to integrate some of the lads who have been doing very well at club level more fully into our squad," he said.

In relation to Miller and Reid, he said it was "time to give these fellas a chance. I've been well aware of the two of them for a long time now. They were part of the team that won the European Championship in Scotland in 1998 and after that I had them for a few years in the youths.

"What the pair of them needed, like all of the lads of that age, was a chance to break through into first-team football and they've both had that now and done well.

"It's important not to get carried away, though. There have been some ridiculous things written about Liam in the last few days. The fact is that he has a lot of potential, but that's what it is.

"Similarly, Andy has done very well for his club since getting his chance last season. He's a left-footed player who can play out wide or in a couple of other positions, and he comes from a strong footballing background which has helped to give him a strong understanding of movement."

Kerr resisted the temptation to bring in other young players for the moment, as he did not see much value adding them to an enlarged squad and then not being able to involve them fully in the game.

"It's only one game this time and there'll be others," he said. "I've tried to keep the friendly games competitive by not making too many changes. I haven't wanted to abuse the interest of the fans. So there's a limit to how many I can involve at any one time and there isn't a lot of point trying to go beyond that."

The Ireland boss had hoped to have a closer look at the progress of some of the peripheral players at a B-team tournament in Portugal in January, but he said yesterday that, after weighing up the prospects of securing the release of most of the players he was interested in he realised there would not be much point in accepting the invitation.

Eight of the players on the initial list he had drawn up are with Eircom League clubs and would have been available, but gaining the release of the majority who are based in English would have been a very different matter.

"The rules of the tournament were ideal, because it was for the lads born in 1981 plus three overage players, which would have been perfect for us.

"But most of the ones I would have wanted are playing first-team football and if the games aren't on international dates then, realistically, you're not going to get them and so it's not particularly beneficial."

Though nothing has been confirmed, another trip to America next summer, where the Republic would play a friendly against the US before taking part in a four-team invitation tournament, still looks a distinct possibility. A decision on that and the other options facing the association will not be made until after the draw for the qualifying stages of the next World Cup, which is due to take place on December 5th in Frankfurt.

"If we have a big programme to get through then we may have to use one of the international dates at the end of this season, so we won't make any concrete plans until we know more about what our situation is going to be."

SQUAD: Given (Newcastle United), Murphy (West Bromwich Albion), Colgan (Stockport County), O'Shea (Manchester United), Carr (Tottenham Hotspur), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Breen (Sunderland), O'Brien (Newcastle United), Harte (Leeds United), Finnan (Liverpool), Reid (Blackburn Rovers), Healy (Sunderland), Holland (Charlton Athletic), Miller (Celtic), Delap (Southampton), Kavanagh (Cardiff City), McPhail (Nottingham Forest), Kilbane (Everton), Reid (Nottingham Forest), Duff (Chelsea), Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Morrison (Birmingham City).