Goal drought the bane of Kilbane

Republic of Ireland midfielder Kevin Kilbane has admitted to a lack of self-belief following a barren 16-month run without a …

Republic of Ireland midfielder Kevin Kilbane has admitted to a lack of self-belief following a barren 16-month run without a goal.

The last time Kilbane was on the scoresheet was in a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands in a World Cup qualifying clash in Torshavn in June last year, with just five in 72 Ireland appearances overall.

More remarkably, you have to go back two years for the last time Kilbane found the net in club football, since when he has failed to score in his last 83 games for Everton and now Wigan.

"I should score more goals, and I know I have the ability to do so, but it's never really happened for me," Kilbane said today. "I know I should be aiming higher, but when I've gone onto the pitch I've been thinking 'is it going to happen?', rather than making it happen.

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"That is possibly down to my mental approach. I need to believe I can get more goals.

"(Wigan manager) Paul Jewell has spoken to me about getting into the box more and to start believing I am going to get goals.

"If I can start thinking like that at club level then I can take it through to the international scene," he added.  "I have to get more goals, plain and simple."

Ireland manager Steve Staunton will be hoping he can overcome this personal crisis soon enough to find the net in the forthcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers against Cyprus in Nicosia on Saturday and the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road next Wednesday.

Ireland need something from these two games after last month's 1-0 defeat to Germany in Stuttgart, albeit from a lucky deflected winner from Lukas Podolski.

Since then Germany have hammered San Marino 13-0, while the Czechs have also taken maximum points from their games after a 2-1 win over Wales and 3-0 victory in Slovakia.

It means Ireland are already playing catch-up, with the pressure on to take six points over the next few days.

"We have to be aiming for the six," said Kilbane, who joined Wigan from Everton for £2million on transfer deadline day.

But recalling last October's narrow 1-0 World Cup qualifying win in Cyprus, Kilbane added: "We had a lot of problems then, and if it had not been for Shay (Given) we wouldn't have won the game.

"But we're more than capable of winning this time. We have to make sure we're prepared right, that everybody's head is right, knowing that it is going to be tough, but we can get the right result.

"As for the Czechs, we know we can beat them at home, so the six points are something we are capable of getting, and we have to hit back."