Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy is hopeful that tomorrow's Omagh Fund international friendly with Northern Ireland will provide his team with a competitive run out ahead of the two Euro 2000 qualifiers against Yugoslavia and Macedonia.

McCarthy was speaking in Dublin yesterday after the Irish team arrived back in the capital from their training base at the Nuremore Hotel in Monaghan. "You always want to win the game no matter what," he said. "We'll be making sure that the game is played at the pace and tempo that we will need to have against Yugoslavia. This can't be a tit-tat game for us and while we won't be doing anything stupid, we will be looking for a hard competitive game as an important part of our preparation.

"You can never create the kind of atmosphere where you are playing for points but we won't want any of our standards to drop with the two big games coming up. I know Northern Ireland won't be coming down to get beaten so there is every reason why this should be a good game for both sides."

The ticket sales for the game, however, continue to be slow although the FAI are concentrating on making it a family day and decided to make tickets available outside Lansdowne Road in a number of caravans right up to kick-off. "For obvious reasons it will be a disappointment if we get a small crowd," added McCarthy. "We've arranged this game to make people aware of what happened and I do understand that with the three games so close not everybody can afford to go but I'd like to think we can get the crowd it deserves."

The match kicks off at 3.00 p.m. and will be preceded by an under-14 tie between the Republic and the North at 1.00 p.m. and a senior women's international between the two associations.

All six Fair Play flag bearers will be from Omagh and at halftime Derry City chairman Kevin Friel will present a cheque to the fund on behalf of the FAI National League for £50,000, the proceeds of the Derry City versus National League XI game played in the Brandywell last October.

The Republic of Ireland Youth team have left Dublin for the first match in an eight-team tournament in Rotterdam, beginning with PSV Eindhoven at Vardenoord this evening. They face the Colo Cola club tomorrow morning before taking on Bayern Munich in the afternoon.