MICK McCARTHY was yesterday, invoking one of football's more favoured expressions after supervising preparations for this evening's World Cup warm up game against Wales at the Arms Park in Cardiff.

"It's not so much the prospect of a win, as the way we go about winning, which excites me," he said. "For that will tell something about our chances of picking up important points in the coming months.

"Some people question the relevance of a friendly game in Wales in February as a guide to a World Cup match in Macedonia in April and frankly, I cannot understand why.

"The reality is that there's not much point in worrying about the Macedonians at this point. Far more useful to concentrate on our own work and ensure that when we go there, we are purring. That job starts here tomorrow evening," he said yesterday.

Meetings with Wales in the spring have never exercised Irish imagination excessively. And that has 1955 to do with the arctic setting in which the games are normally played, than the dour abrasive competition which the Welsh invariably provide for their Celtic cousins.

Authentically, rain was falling like stair rods when McCarthy took his players to training in the Cardiff Athletic stadium yesterday morning. During the session, Phil Babb aggravated an injury and together with Middlesbrough's Alan Moore, who damaged his knee shortly after his arrival here on Sunday, he was promptly sent home for treatment by his club.

As neither player was going to find a place in the starting line up this evening, their defection will not interfere unduly with McCarthy's plans. But taken in conjunction with the earlier withdrawal of players like Andy Townsend, Dennis Irwin, Keith O'Neill and David Connolly, it deprives him of valuable options on the bench.

McCarthy is not yet prepared to go public with his team selection, beyond stating that Keith Branagan will play in goal, Paul McGrath in central defence and that Steve Staunton will captain the team in Townsend's absence, presumably from a role in the back three.

It is how McCarthy proposes to fill the spaces around these players which will invest his belated announcement with a sense of urgency not normally given to friendly games.

Gary Kelly, a favoured son in the Jack Charlton era, but yet to be chosen by McCarthy, has not been informed of his part in this evening's plot. Over the last 18 months, he has occupied a number of different positions for Leeds United. If McCarthy chooses to use him now, as he assuredly will, it could be on the right side of his back three.

Terry Phelan has occasionally been viewed in an unfavourable light when required to fill an advanced role in midfield. But since Staunton is now pretty unshakeable at leftback, the Everton player may have to live with his limitations and go with the challenge of playing in front of the Aston Villa man.

Upfront, Tony Cascarino looks certain to start the game, probably partnered by David Kelly, but the likelihood is that Wimbledon's Jon Goodman, one of three uncapped players in the revised squad, will be introduced at some point.

Roy Keane, not yet fully rehabilitated in international football, but someway further down the road after the game against Iceland in November, will play in midfield. But of equal significance on this occasion will be McCarthy's choice of a runner to fill the gap between the middle line and the front two. Given his restricted options in attack, there is every reason to believe that he is contemplating the prospect of deploying Cascarino in a lone frontline role in Macedonia and depending on an advanced midfield player to support him.

It's a job which may be reserved for Ray Houghton, but in the absence of the Crystal Palace player, it could conceivably go, this evening, to Liverpool's Mark Kennedy, who has done it on a couple of occasions in the past.

Irrespective of the permutation, the Irish manager acknowledges that only a convincing exercise in application is likely tube good enough to see off a Welsh team determined to rehabilitate itself after a World Cup mauling by Holland and a bankrupt show at home to Turkey.

Undeniably, their squad has been diminished by the withdrawal of Ryan Giggs and Dean Saunders. And the fact that time has at last caught up with Ian Rush will eliminate one of the enduring threats to the Irish.

Like their opponents, they are gambling on a previously uncapped goalkeeper - Mark Crossley of Nottingham Forest - and a second newcomer, Karl Reddy, will partner Kit Symons in central defence, just ahead of the sweeper, Gary Speed.

Further afield, there is the prospect of a he-man struggle between Roy Keane and Vinny Jones in midfield and an equally absorbing confrontation between Paul McGrath and his old Manchester United club mate Mark Hughes in the Irish penalty area.

This is the most important international game McGrath has played since the 1994 World Cup finals. McCarthy is not committing himself to long term promises, but the reality is that if the great man delivers against Hughes this evening, he could be with Ireland all the way to the next World Cup finals. Lesser prizes have extracted a huge response from the country's most capped player.