Four days on and it's time to do it all again. The result on Saturday has kept us on course for second place but once again we go into a match knowing that anything other than victory would be a terrible blow. This time the only consolation is that Lithuania are in much the same position. They know they need to score against us because they need a win and that, as it did in Reykjavik on Saturday, should present us with some opportunities to create a few chances of our own.

They may not, however, be as charitable towards us as our last hosts, for Iceland were terrible and it's difficult to believe that Lithuania will be quite as poor when they take the field this evening. That means, quite simply, that we will have to play a good deal better.

We can do it, though.

I felt going into these games that we could win both of them and, if the manner of the first victory was not exactly what I would have expected, we are still on course to do that.

There will be changes to this evenings team but, as it happens, despite all of the injury problems the loss of the players who were suspended on Saturday need not be a fatal blow to our hopes.

The introduction of Tony Cascarino, Jason McAteer and Denis Irwin for Mark Kennedy, Andy Townsend and Jeff Kenna should hardly be considered devastating against a team of this quality, the bottom line is, once again, that if we are not able to win these sort of matches then we should simply admit that we do not deserve to go through to the play-offs, never mind France next summer.

The fact that the pitch is being talked about as resembling a piece of first World War no man's land will doubtless copper-fasten Cascarino's return to action. If the surface is going to hinder our attempts to play the ball to David Connolly's feet then we should present ourselves with the option of playing it to big Cas's head instead.

As I keep on saying in this space, however, there is not a lot of point is whacking it long to him so that he has to take it with his back to goal. A big man will only be of real benefit to us in a game like this if we can get out wide and send in decent crosses from the line.

In order to do that Mick McCarthy must ensure that his men use all of the space available. To voluntarily make the playing area more narrow is to make the job of defending much more easy and in the past few games it has been one of the faults, the more correctable faults, that has cost us countless goalscoring opportunities.

McCarthy may just be tempted to return to the wing back system for this game but whatever he does, and he seems determined to spring surprises at every opportunity so I won't waste space guessing, it would be nice to see players employed in the positions they are used to.

In every game now, the Irish manager is asking some or all of his defenders to adapt from the roles they play at club level each week to completely different roles for one off matches.

If McCarthy does stick with four across the back Irwin will presumably come in as a full back and it would be preferable if it were on the left because that would allow Gary Kelly to be used on the right. Steve Staunton has been playing in the centre at club level for some time now and if we are to get the best out of him playing him there at international level too would seem to be an obvious step in the right direction.

After that McCarthy would have a problem because Kenny Cunningham is a full back, Phil Babb and Gary Breen are not currently playing first team football and Ian Harte is a full back who currently isn't playing first team football but stick any one from the four in and the defence should be a considerable step forward on Saturday.

McAteer is in a similar situation to Harte in that he is currently waiting to break back into his club side and he will almost certainly play in a different role this evening. That may not be ideal but then there are those, himself it seems included, who feel that the Liverpool player's best position is midfield rather than wing back.

His running, passing ability and willingness to go for goals make him an asset in a game like this and his return this evening, assuming it happens, may provide the whole team with a shot in the arm.

Overall the team should be well prepared. A trip like this is good for an international squad because they have far more opportunity to settle down and mix together.

From McCarthy's point of view the timing should be good. Having played an almost full strength Lithuania side so recently they will be fresh in his memory while he will have had an opportunity to go over their game last weekend as well as ours on video a few times to look at what can be switched around for this tie.

Of course, all of those factors will count for the Lithuanians too but, once again, we must face facts - a well prepared Irish team should beat a well prepared Lithuanian one. And if it does not then we must start coming to terms with the consequences.

(In an interview with Emmet Malone)