They both expect to be watching Saturday's game against Wales from the Croke Park dug-out, both accepting, for now, they're down in the selection pecking order. But if Stephen Kelly and Andy Keogh's respective clubs, Birmingham City and Wolves, achieve their goal of winning promotion to the Premiership for next season, the duo believe their hopes of becoming Republic of Ireland "regulars" will be significantly enhanced.

Promotion would also cap periods for both Dubliners that have been tests of character. Kelly, two-and-a-half years Keogh's senior, fell out of favour at Tottenham, the club he joined as a schoolboy, and was sold last summer to relegated Birmingham.

A year before, Keogh, unwanted at Leeds where he had been since he was 16, was sold for a nominal fee to Scunthorpe United.

But the 20-year-old did sufficiently well at the League One club to earn himself a move to Mick McCarthy's Wolves in January, where he has prospered up front alongside Irish under-21 team-mate Stephen Ward, who joined from Bohemians in the same month.

The irony isn't lost on Keogh that while he is now a member of a team pushing for a place in the Premiership, Leeds are fighting a desperate battle against relegation.

"It's just unfortunate the way things are there now, how bad the situation is," he said. "They gave me my chance in England, they helped my development as a young player, I owe them a lot and I really hope they stay up."

Was it a difficult decision to leave the club? "Well, it took me a few days to decide, but I knew if I was going to progress in football I had to be playing every week and I knew I wasn't going to get that chance at Leeds.

"They'd send me out on loan, I'd score goals, come back and still be in the reserves, so I just knew it wasn't going to happen for me there. I took a gamble, left the club, got my head down, worked hard, and it paid off.

"I love it at Wolves, things are going really well. It's great with me and Wardie, we stay behind in training together to do some work on our game. We're similar, we both give our all, we both want to progress and get to the Premiership. And to play for Ireland."

Kelly is no less enthused about life at Birmingham, where, under the guidance of Steve Bruce, he believes he has developed as a player. "I'm loving every minute of it, that's why I went to Birmingham, to get the chance to play every week. It was in and out, stop start, at Spurs.

"Personally I think I've grown since joining Birmingham, and being in a really tense promotion race like this, playing under pressure every week, it's a good test of character."

Kelly won his third cap in the draw against the Czech Republic last October, given his chance after the injury and suspension crisis that followed the debacle in Cyprus, and enjoyed a considerably more rewarding evening than in his first two senior games for Ireland, against Chile and Holland.

"I was delighted. Everything was on a knife edge then for the team and we needed to perform well to get everything back on track. I thought we did really well and I thought I did myself justice, that's what I'm about really."

It would be "a dream to play" in Croke Park - not that it would be his debut at the ground.

"I didn't live too far from there, I would have gone to Dublin games as a kid. I played there once for my school, De La Salle, it was only a little school game, we got to the final of some cup, the pitch was tiny, but it was enjoyable. I think we got beaten. I would have been 10 or 11. I played quite a bit of Gaelic football as a kid, I actually played in goal for a while, and in midfield. I was big in to it, but obviously then I had to make a choice, and football was my favourite sport. But yeah, it was a thrill to play in Croke Park, but it was nothing on this scale."

Keogh, meanwhile, awaits his first cap. "Being called up for the squad for San Marino was a dream come true, it's a memory that will last all my life. I know I'm down the pecking order in the squad, I just have to get my head down in training and show the gaffer I've got something to offer the team. If I get my chance I'll be ready to take it."