Steve Staunton may point to Mick McCarthy's record over the course of his first eight games as Ireland manager as evidence that a disappointing start need not inevitably lead to complete failure in the job but the 38-year-old's record so far compares unfavourably with all of the Republic's other managers of the modern era.

Though Eoin Hand's start was, at first glance, precisely the same as that made by the Dundalkman over the last 13 months, the bare statistics mask a somewhat more impressive performance by the former Limerick boss whose international side managed competitive wins over the Netherlands (2-1) and Cyprus (6-0) during the first year of his tenure as well as a friendly win over Czechoslovakia.

Brian Kerr's record compares very favourably with any of his colleagues although here too the detail is informative. The Dubliner oversaw six wins and two draws between the friendly against Scotland in February and the drawn European Championship qualifier with Russia in early September. Half of the wins, however, came in friendly games and all were earned against nations ranked significantly below Ireland on the world ladder.

McCarthy's reign, Staunton and his supporters within the FAI might argue, started rather abysmally prompting questions at the time regarding his ability to lead a team in need of major reconstruction after the conclusion of the Jack Charlton era.

In his case, however, the results concerned all related to friendly games. Ireland won only the eighth - against Bolivia in the United States - after which competitive action resumed, accompanied by a significant improvement.

The team's next two games - World Cup qualifiers away to Lichtenstein and at home to Macedonia were both won after which there was a distinctly unimpressive home draw with Iceland. And McCarthy's early competitive record continued to be patchy with defeats in Macedonia and Romania during April of 1997 followed by another hammering of Lichtenstein and another goalless draw at home, this time against Lithuania.

Staunton might well point to the amount of time McCarthy was given to get things right and to the fact that, while he had managed at Millwall for a period before succeeding Charlton, he also clearly got to learn from some early mistakes in the job.

The difficulty for the current incumbent, however, is that Ireland's position in a qualification group never looked as miserable in real terms as it does just now.

On Thursday, FAI chief executive John Delaney repeatedly pointed to the fact that the Republic presently lie third in Group D behind two of the continent's footballing heavyweights, Germany and the Czech Republic, and dismissed suggestions that the situation required some context.

But the position is dramatically altered by the exclusion of San Marino from the standings. Such a move is entirely justified by the country's record in international football. Ranked 195th in the world, the minnows have never managed so much as a point in just short of 40 European Champions qualifiers and their manager, Giampaolo Mazza, conceded on Tuesday that even against Cyprus - the group's next weakest side on paper - they anticipated being able to do no more than work hard to limit the size of their defeat.

Assuming then, that all of the teams in the group beat Mazza's men both home and away and that qualification will in effect be decided on the basis of the games between the rest of the teams, Ireland slip from third to sixth where they prop up the Group D table with just one point from three outings to date.

On this basis, the Irish are seen to have lost six points on the two qualification favourites while Slovakia are already comfortably clear of the Republic with six points and a much better goal difference in third place.

The outlook could improve significantly next month, of course, when both Wales and Slovakia come to Dublin and Staunton, assuming he is still in charge of team affairs at that stage, will hope that a couple of wins - or at least vastly improved performances - then will spark a longer term revival in the team's fortunes while silencing his growing band of critics.

Displays like Wednesday's, however, tend to suggest that the Irish will struggle in their new home and that Delaney will come under renewed pressure to dismiss his friend before the summer.