Group Four/Republic of Ireland v Switzerland: Of all the Irish players who underperformed at the weekend Kevin Kilbane could perhaps make the best case for being forgiven after the way he allowed his concentration to slip against the Cypriots.

The Everton midfielder is due to become a father for the second time about now so the timing of the weekend away on international duty was hardly ideal. Worse, if the baby turns out to be punctual then he could yet miss tonight's crucial World Cup qualifier at Lansdowne Road.

Ahead of either the game or the new arrival, whichever comes first, he looked comfortable at yesterday's final training session. And he sounded at least vaguely confident of victory even if his admission of bewilderment as to how the Swiss have repeatedly proved Ireland's undoing in recent times only served to bolster the already high morale among the visiting press corps.

"The Swiss have been very confident every time they have played us and it's probably been justified in the previous games," he observed, "because they certainly outplayed us.

"Man for man, though," he added, "I would have thought it's very even. They're a hard working side, very like us, but we haven't seemed able to break them down. I don't know why that is."

His message remained upbeat, however. Every player is aware of how badly things went in Nicosia on Saturday and each is determined to do better this evening, he argued, although quite how they can translate the intended improvement into a victory remains to be seen.

"What we do know," he remarked, "is that we have to get the ball into the box, create chances and when we do create them we have to make sure we put them away."

An early goal would, as with any other team, be regarded as a precious commodity but the Irish have generally handled leads like hot potatoes through much of this campaign, never quite mastering their uncertainty when faced with the option of seeking to press on and kill off the game or sit back and contain their opponents.

"In that regard Saturday was a mirror image of other games where we have been in front," he said. "If we start well and get in front we simply have to maintain it this time. It's vital that we stop them playing and stay on the front foot."

With the Swiss needing a win to top the group and avoid the play-offs, both sides might show signs of nervousness early on and the 28-year-old preaches the need for patience and prudence.

"What we don't want to do is gamble too much early on," he says. "Maybe in the last 15 or 20 minutes we'll have to start throwing caution to the wind but if we're too cavalier there's every chance that we'll end up letting Switzerland in the back door.

"In the time I've been involved with the team I would have said that we've tended to get important goals in the second half and then hang on. In this group that's changed, we've been scoring early and then not being able to hang on.

"Whatever happens this time, whenever the goal comes we have to be confident in our approach," he says. "We firmly believe we can win this game although I'm sure everyone will start getting nervous if it's still nil-nil at half-time . . . us, the crowd, you lot up in the press box.

"We feel we can do it over the 90 minutes, though," he continued. "We know we have to do better than we did on Saturday but we can improve and we will improve.

"They had a good night when we lost over there a couple of years ago but I think it's in everybody's mind what happened then (the manner in which the Swiss celebrated was regarded as ungracious, to say the least, by many Irish players and officials). We owe them one and we want to beat them but", he concludes, "most importantly, we all want to go to the World Cup."