Irish under-21 manager Ian Evans goes into this evening's first game of the triangular tournament with Scotland and Northern Ireland with almost all of the 22-strong squad he named a week ago available for action.
Two players, David Worrell of Blackburn and Chelsea's Joe Sheerin have been withdrawn by their clubs due to injury but Evans said last night that he is happy with the panel available to him for this evening's tie at Finn Park in Ballybofey.
"This looks to be about the strongest squad I could have hoped to get together and so the games should be useful for working out what my best team is and the best formation to use ahead of the European qualifiers," he said.
The autumn's competitive games are the focus of attention for all three managers and Scotland's under-21 boss Tommy Craig will be anxious to see how his players cope with this week's games, their fifth and sixth respectively since Craig brought the country's under-19s through en masse last year.
The Scots are still waiting to see if full back Gary Naysmith who played for Hearts in Saturday's cup final win arrives in time for this evening's game.
