Qualification is toast. They won't freely admit it but the players know it.  Yet another campaign will end in disappointment and while the feigned enthusiasm was admirable at team base this week, nobody was buying it. Yes, a positive blooding process is in motion but tart it up whichever way - we'll be watching from afar next summer.

Some of the senior players in particular are wearing that resigned, weary look. Their words offer hope but their expressions scream frustration.  I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! They've grown accustomed to missing the big prize but only having swashbuckled all the way to the line.  This particular challenge has ground to a premature halt, the anti-climactic nature of it grating on the minds of those directly involved.

Shane Long, though, is still new to it all and you sense he gets a genuine kick from the hurdy-gurdy media show that envelopes international week.  But as is a professional footballers wont, he'll surely outgrow the novelty.  His elevation from Cork City's under-21s to Premiership, to the world stage is the stuff of fairytale and his enthusiasm is most refreshing.

Germany on Saturday could be the World Cup final for all he cares, not a European qualifier that should shoulder more significance that it does. The Tipperary man is not expected to start but Staunton has not been slow in springing him from the bench this campaign and his grooming for 2010 is well under way.

"I hope to be involved as it's definitely a big game," says the 20-year-old Reading striker who twice played at Croke Park for the Tipperary minor hurlers. "It's what you dream of when you're a kid, playing sides like Germany in a stadium like Croke Park. Everyone's looking forward to it and hopefully we can get the result we want.

"I don't think it's hard to get motivated for a game like this. People are disappointed but it's still possible, we've to go out there and get the nine points to put pressure on the Czech Republic. Hopefully we can do that. I think we were unlucky in a few games this season not to get the three points.  We have to go out and prove ourselves."

Thrown to the media pack, he speaks like most footballers do, reaming off cliché after cliché.  But it is the devious glint in his eyes, the boyish smile on that baby face that convey the giddiness and enthusiasm lurking within. Although plucked from obscurity, he is certainly justifying the faith shown in him at club and for country.

Three goals in six appearances under Steve Staunton tells its own tale.  Granted those goals have come in friendies against Bolivia and Denmark but he has worked himself into promising positions in competitive games and his reward will come in time. It's not surprising to find him champing at the bit but he's prepared to put his shoulder to the wheel.

"There are a good few younger players in the squad and every game you play for your country is a great honour," he says. "I've enjoyed every minute I've had on the pitch. But you have to go out there and keep yourself in the squad, perform every week and keep the pressure on the top boys. That's what it's all about.  Hopefully a few of us will get a run at the weekend and get a chance to do that.

"I think if you perform for your club, status with your country follows. Kevin (Doyle) has done it at Reading and Robbie (Keane) is doing it at Tottenham, so I want to get on the pitch a bit more and make more of an impact at Reading and get more of a chance with Ireland. It all starts at club level."

But Long faces stiff competition at Reading in the form of Doyle, Dave Kitson and Leroy Lita. He rejects suggestions a transfer from Steve Coppell's team could serve him better.

"No, definitely not. (Coppell) said to us that he has us all on a par and it is hard for him to pick three out of the four strikers, so there is always going to be a head down no matter who gets dropped. You just have to trust in him. He's given me my chance so I can't really complain."

Staunton, too, has done just that, a fact not lost on Long who is determined to repay the manager's faith in him.  Like all the squad members, he believes the team should be in a challenging position with three games to play, not hanging by their cuticles and calculators.

"There are players in the squad who want to do well on Saturday and put things right, and show that we should be in the European finals. I think results just didn't go our way and we didn't get the rub of the green and we have just been unlucky so far. But we want to go out there and prove ourselves. This is a good time to prove that.

"Everyone in Ireland wants to see Ireland do well and it doesn't help when there's criticism of the team but someone has to be on the receiving end of it. That's the way it happens and you've just got to take it. You've got to hold your hands up and say 'we should have done better'. But I think Saturday could be our time to do that."