Ireland manager Brian Kerr moved yesterday to broaden his options for tonight's vital under-18 UEFA qualifying game against Russia after it was confirmed that central defender Jason Gavin would join Arsenal's Graham Barrett on the sidelines in Tolka Park this evening.
Barrett is suspended for this, the third of Ireland's three games, while the Middlesbrough defender, who had already received stitches to a wound in his leg on Monday night, is now ruled out of action by an Achilles' tendon problem.
While the loss of Gavin is a disappointment for Kerr, replacing his most experienced centre-half is, on the face of it, straightforward enough with Liverpool's Kevin Doherty a natural choice to come into the starting line-up.
Elsewhere in the side, however, there are one or two problems to be ironed out, most notably on the left-hand side where Barrett, more usually a striker at club level, has played in each of the last two games.
In order to have more scope to switch things around, the Irish management team has again availed of the fact that each of this week's three matches is treated as a separate entity by UEFA rather than as part of a single tournament. Kerr has, therefore, been free to bring in fresh blood. He will be allowed a panel of 18 at the game, and he is only two short of that number after asking Liam Miller of Celtic, Liverpool's Paul O'Meara, Adrian Mooney of Home Farm and Belvedere's Darren Berrigan to train with the rest of the squad yesterday.
Miller, a midfielder from Cork who was with the under-16s in Scotland before the summer, looks the most likely to start, although O'Meara's presence will mean that there is the choice of resting Waterford full-back John Frost whose error led to the first Polish goal on Wednesday night.
Whatever the changes in personnel, and Kerr reckons there will be another two in addition to the ones he is obliged to make, an extremely positive display from the Irish is guaranteed. They need to beat the Russians if they are to snatch the qualification for the play-offs away from their rivals.
"We're in a cup final now," remarked Kerr after the draw with Poland, "and it's up to us to win it." Between training sessions he remained upbeat about his side's chances, although he recognises that the Russians will present his men with some fairly formidable difficulties to overcome.
So far Yuri Smirnov has stuck with the same 11 for both of his side's matches and while the games have been far from walkovers, in each case the Russians have come away as worthy winners.
Like the Poles, the Russians use a sweeper behind a three-man defence, but in contrast to the team they beat 2-0 on Monday, whose best players are reckoned to be strikers, Smirnov's strongest hand is in midfield where Andrei Dyatel, Alexei Zlydnev and team captain Dmitri Michkov will look to dominate the proceedings.
The visitors, however, must decide whether to look for the draw they require in order to progress from the very start or attempt something more adventurous in the hope of at least limiting the pressure on their defence.
"In a strange sort of way," said defender Peter Murphy yesterday, "that gives us a bit of an advantage. We know we have to win and despite the Poland result we're confident that we can do it."
