After their problems last year, Ireland go into the coming games in more confident mood. Emmet Malonereports

After last year's tidal wave of problems, Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton and his players left Aarhus amid calmer waters last month, their confidence bolstered by a big win over Denmark and their sights apparently set once again on a place in the European Championship finals.

It says a good deal about the Irish team's status abroad these days, however, that when Denmark manager Morten Olsen was asked to pick over the wreckage of the home side's hapless defeat with the local media he conceded the game had been his worst experience in management since, well, his country's last loss to the Republic - 3-0 in Dublin five years ago, as it happens.

The more recent encounter bore many of the hallmarks of Ireland's loss last year to the Netherlands. The hosts defended poorly, lacked shape and ultimately capitulated under pressure. The most obvious difference, of course, is that it was a relatively strong Dutch side that won in Dublin. Particularly galling for the Danish supporters was that, despite living in a country that takes a considerable interest in English club football, many of the Irish players to feature last month were unknown to them.

The upshot has been that in Denmark the national team is now viewed as having next to no hope of being in Switzerland or Austria for the finals next summer. Here - and it may not be entirely welcome news for Staunton - the effect has been to generate hope if not quite expectation where none had existed previously.

Ireland go into the Slovakia and Czech Republic games looking to extend an eight-match unbeaten run, a prospect that would have seemed ridiculous in the wake of last October's inept performance in Nicosia.

Then, the manager's job was clearly on the line and FAI chief executive John Delaney famously gave the impression that he was considering cutting his man loose as his own position started to attract attention.

Now, it seems that far from the four points required over the coming week to make qualification a genuinely live issue again, something around the lower end of expectations - between five and seven points from the five games remaining in the campaign - would prove sufficient to see the 38-year-old Staunton safely into his second two-year cycle of international management. That and the avoidance of any further humiliations.

Not that Staunton will have entirely convinced too many people of his ability to make a major impact at this level. Rather he is reaping the benefits of a perception that he is getting to grips with the task he was rashly handed at the start of last year and widespread apprehension at the thought of who might be considered next in line to succeed him.

Staunton's mantra over the first few months of his tenure was that his was a four-year plan focused on regeneration and that anything achieved in the first half of that period would be something of a bonus.

He was widely criticised for setting the bar too low and while qualification from a group that contains Germany and the Czech Republic was a long shot even before we left all three points and most of our pride in Cyprus, there was certainly a sense early on that in his haste to underline his credentials as a man with one eye firmly on the future, the fledgling manager might just allow his gaze to stray entirely from the present.

After the initial defeat of Sweden, his first year in charge had little to recommend it. The 1-0 defeat in Germany has been portrayed as heroic rather than respectable while the home draw against the Czech Republic, though spirited and rather impressive in the circumstances, will ultimately have been viewed from Prague as a well-earned away point that, combined with the 5-2 defeat four days earlier, pretty much killed off Ireland's hopes of a top-two spot.

Still, it was during that double header that Stephen Ireland and Paul McShane were handed their first taste of competitive action while Lee Carsley, foolishly exiled at a time when the side desperately needed a player of his approach and ability on whom to anchor the midfield, was hastily recalled.

Not every change was willingly embraced but the upturn in the team's fortunes that has ensued appears to have bolstered Staunton's confidence in his own convictions. Over recent games he has displayed a growing willingness to hand young players an opportunity while jettisoning those who do not fit into his plans.

A measure of the pace of change is that he has already capped more players (48) in 13 games than Brian Kerr (46) did in 34. Taking into account competitive games only, the tallies are 29 in seven for Staunton compared with 27 in 16 for Kerr.

Delaney's promise that Kerr's replacement would be a "top-class manager" made Staunton's appointment, after a matter of weeks as an apprentice coach at Walsall look incongruous at the time. And the FAI's hope that he would be an inspirational character in the mould of Stuart Pearce (who they actually targeted) has certainly not been borne out by the Louthman's public demeanour but then the Englishman's subsequent fortunes at Manchester City suggested he would not quite have been the catch the suits in Merrion Square believed either.

Staunton has not helped himself with the less-than-compelling cases he has made for calling up Caleb Folan and Sean St Ledger, his general reliance on banalities or with his occasionally bizarre reactions to the most innocuous of questions.

What is undeniable to all but his most dedicated of critics, though, is that just as he deserved at least some - though not all - of the blame for what went on last year and in San Marino in February, so he deserves some - though not all - of the credit for the more recent improvement.

In Cyprus, the prolonged failure of the Irish bench to change things at the back proved costly and if Staunton couldn't exert any influence from the stand then he must take responsibility anyway for the ridiculous sending-off he picked up in Germany. Against Wales, in contrast, he acted quickly to put things right after seeing that his initial formation was not working and four days later he tinkered just enough to extract a significantly improved performance from his side.

Though the approach hasn't always paid off for him, his team selections have tended, as the one that day did, to support his assertion that he is aiming for a more adventurous approach and aside from the three players to benefit most under his stewardship - Paul McShane, Kevin Doyle and Stephen Ireland - he has also done a good deal to bring on Aiden McGeady, Stephen Hunt and Shane Long.

The next few days present a particular challenge for Staunton for if four points are to be taken then moving on from Bratislava without three will be a major blow while heading for Prague with none will have the effect of shattering completely the illusion created in the group table by Ireland having already played and beaten San Marino twice.

The Slovaks would then move to within a point of the Republic in the table despite having not yet faced the group's minnows at all, while the Czechs, who have played them once and won 7-0, would get to face an Irish side obliged to throw caution to the wind if, that is, even they really believed they still had something to play for.

Among the 6,000 or so Irish supporters in the city ahead of the game there is a surprising degree of cautious optimism that a corner has been turned and that something can still be salvaged from the campaign. It is quite a contrast to the mood 11 months ago when the prospect that Staunton's apprenticeship to Bobby Robson would end before its first year was up seemed increasingly likely.

Now, unless Cyprus come to Dublin and win, Ireland get turned over in Cardiff or one of the better teams still to be faced over the next six weeks really give the Republic a thumping, Robson will presumably retire graciously from his adviser role when his contract runs out in a couple of months and Staunton will face up to the challenge of delivering the goods in phase two of his stewardship, the World Cup campaign.

Here's hoping we get the Danes.

Players used by Staunton

48 in 13 games,

29 in seven competitive games.

Shay Given, Joey O'Brien, Richard Dunne, Andy O'Brien, Ian Harte, Steven Reid, John O'Shea, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle, Stephen Elliott, Wayne Henderson, Stephen Ireland, Graham Kavanagh, Kevin Kilbane, Liam Miller, Clinton Morrison, Stephen Kelly, Gary Breen, Aiden McGeady, Jason Byrne, Andy Reid, Paddy Kenny, Stephen Carr, Steve Finnan, Jonathan Douglas, Alan O'Brien, Alan Lee, Paul McShane, Lee Carsley, Alan Quinn, Shane Long, Stephen Hunt, Anthony Stokes, Nicky Colgan, Colin Doyle, Alex Bruce, Alan Bennett, Stephen O'Halloran, Andy Keogh, Darren Potter, Daryl Murphy, Joe Gamble, Joseph O'Cearuill, Stephen Gleeson, Joe Lapira, Peter Murphy and Darron Gibson.

Staunton's record

Overall: Played: 13; Won: 6, Drew: 3, Lost: 4

Competitive record: Played: 7; Won: 4, Drew: 1, Lost: 2

2006: Played: 7; Won: 2, Drew: 1, Lost: 4

2007: Played: 6; Won: 4, Drew: 2, Lost: 0

Runs of note: Ireland have gone eight games unbeaten and nine games without failing to score

Group D without San Marino

P W D L F A Pts

Germany 5 4 1 0 10 4 13

Czech Republic 6 3 2 1 8 4 11

Slovakia 7 3 0 4 16 13 9

Rep of Ireland 5 2 1 2 5 7 7

Cyprus 6 1 1 4 9 16 5