Staunton's suffering continues

SOCCER: It may not, in the circumstances, be news that will be met with universal despair, but Steve Staunton was last night waiting on word as to whether three of Saturday's starting line-up against Cyprus will be fit to face the Czech Republic tomorrow night at Lansdowne Road.

Indeed, supporters of the national team may feel the need to consult with experts as to whether laughing or crying is the most appropriate reaction.

As he faced up to the prospect of his already limited options being further depleted by the possible loss of Andy O'Brien, Paddy Kenny and Stephen Ireland, Staunton had little option but to look stoical at yesterday's training session at Malahide. Tests on the three will be back today after which the troubled manager will be better placed to decide between plans E, F or G.

Both Kenny and Ireland are suffering from minor hamstring strains sustained in Nicosia and aggravated, it is thought, by the long flight back to Dublin late on Sunday evening. O'Brien, meanwhile, has an ankle problem, also sustained at the GSP Stadium and he, too, could find himself sidelined for Ireland's third game of the European Championship qualifying campaign.

"Paddy and Stephen have gone for scans on their hamstrings," said Staunton yesterday. "Andy rocked his ankle a couple of times, he went over in the game twice and felt it. It's quite swollen so again we will just have to wait and see how he is tomorrow morning."

Staunton's ongoing hopes of getting Kevin Doyle fit to play some part in these games received a minor boost when the Reading striker did a good deal more on his damaged ankle than he had managed to last week, but the Louthman still sounded dubious when pressed on the player's chances of featuring against the Czechs.

"Kevin has done a lot more training today but he is still pretty tender so we will just have to wait on that one - we have another day. The fact is that the four of them are doubtful at this moment in time because we have only got another day's training before the game on Wednesday night."

On the brighter side there were some new arrivals to lift the atmosphere at training yesterday with Stephen Kelly, Andy Reid and Alan Quinn joining in with the group for the first time. The Birmingham City defender, Kelly, was a surprise omission from the squad last week while Reid stayed on at Charlton to work on his fitness. Quinn missed the trip to Cyprus due to the sudden death of his mother, Alice, last week. All three are potential starters tomorrow night with Kelly's availability allowing Staunton to contemplate a reshuffle at the back that could involve John O'Shea moving to centre half and Steve Finnan to left back. If O'Brien does miss out, however, he will still be short a central defender at which point he looks likely to chose Seán St Ledger or Paul McShane as a partner for O'Shea.

Reid could play on the right wing in place of Aiden McGeady or in the centre, but looks more likely to start on the bench while Quinn is a serious contender to partner Kevin Kilbane in the centre.

None of it seems inspiring at a time when the team desperately need to win in order to restore some pride after the weekend's humiliating defeat and the manager needs something to shore up his crumbling public image, but Staunton, to be fair, does not a have a huge number of options.

As ever, he struck a note of defiance when asked whether the public had already given up on the team and on qualification. "Well, I have certainly not given up on them," he insisted. "I think we have got some smashing players that are getting blooded a lot quicker than I expected, but when you've got 10 of your main players out they have to come in and to be fair to them they have done very well so far."

Still, when pressed about how he might tackle the challenge of the Czechs tactically he could (or would) muster nothing more than the observation: "We will obviously have to be hard to beat, but we have to go and try to score a goal and win the game."

On the widespread criticism he has received in the aftermath of the loss in Nicosia, he remained dignified, never showing any hint yesterday of resentment towards the assembled journalists. "I'll take it on the chin," he said, "there's nothing else I can do. As I have said before, I can't go out and buy players. We have got a good squad and while there are a lot of them who could be here who aren't here there's nothing I can do. We will have to get on with it and I know in the long-run everything will be okay."

Staunton realises the players owe the supporters a big performance after Saturday night, particularly those who made the journey to Cyprus. Few of those who witnessed the 5-2 loss at first hand will disagree, but few will have completed the return trip with anything like the reserves of optimism required to expect they will collect on the debt tomorrow night.