SOCCER:JUST SHORT of a year ago Giovanni Trapattoni headed off for his Christmas break after a disappointing defeat by Norway bemoaning the Republic of Ireland's inability to curb its habit of making small but costly mistakes.

Tonight, he says, they will get the opportunity to underline the extent to which things have changed in the intervening time.

After eight straight clean sheets, the improvement is undeniable but the fear remains ahead of tonight’s vital European Championship qualifier that having undergone a dramatic transformation during 2011, Armenia are more than capable of sending the Italian home in bad mood again. Only this time he may not be back.

The visitors were beaten at home by Ireland in their opening group game and could manage only a draw against Macedonia next time out, but since then only the Russians have been able to dent their progress. If momentum alone decided these games then the Irish could be swept aside by a team that has found it hard to stop scoring of late.

They could even have had a few during the first game in Yerevan which was, by some distance, the most entertaining game of Ireland’s campaign to date. The two sides went for each other with contrasting styles and a shared sense of abandon that night and Ireland were a little lucky to come out on top, thanks to a solitary strike by Keith Fahey, although they created their share of chances over the course of the 90 minutes.

In various areas, Trapattoni’s men struggled to cope with the pace and technical precision of their younger and energetic opponents, with Kevin Kilbane’s difficulties against Levon Pachajyan prompting a disproportionate amount of nail-biting amongst the travelling supporters.

The visitors caused their hosts many problems, thanks to an approach that has rarely been more direct. It was, even by Irish standards, unsophisticated stuff but having yielded three points against a side whose coach lists his influences as Arsenal and Barcelona, there were few complaints at the final whistle.

The same will doubtless be the case tonight although one suspects that a neutral who tunes in accidentally might be inclined to root for the nation whose history outside of football makes Ireland’s claim to perennial underdog status seem pretty ridiculous.

There were only minor surprises yesterday as Trapattoni named his starting line-up for the game. Shane Long must have reckoned he had a case for partnering Kevin Doyle but the general expectation had been that Simon Cox would get the nod on the basis of his performances – and Trapattoni’s reaction to them – since he made his debut at this level in May.

Stephen Kelly’s inclusion was also widely foreseen, although the Italian did spring a minor shock when he opted not to switch John O’Shea to the left, preferring instead to start the Fulham defender there. The Dubliner has played in the position for both club and country but has not started a game for Ireland there since the tail end of Steve Staunton’s time in charge.

Neither player is a regular first choice for their clubs but Kelly has made three starts for the Londoners and come on early in a fourth game since featuring on the other side of the back four for Ireland in Moscow.

Cox has been more peripheral at West Brom but has still started a couple of League Cup matches and featured a couple of times in the Premier League.

It is not, even Trapattoni might admit, ideal but both, he suggested yesterday, fit in with the idea of a side that has started to make progress not through its reliance on individual stars but rather on the basis of its painstakingly-constructed collective strength.

Not for the first time he observed after naming the team that: “Our team is not dependent on one (player). There are others who depend on one, like Portugal with Ronaldo, but we have the group.”

Later, his opposite number would agree with the assessment.

Trapattoni went on, perhaps unwisely, to illustrate the point by referencing the team’s various goalscorers, an argument that would seem rather stronger were it not for the fact that Gevorg Ghazaryan and Henrik Mkhitaryan have both matched Robbie Keane’s tally of five during this campaign for Armenia, while Marcos Pizzelli, Yura Movsisyan and Artur Sarkisov have each equalled or bettered Kevin Doyle’s two.

Uefa, for the record, credit Aiden McGeady with two as well and the midfielder seemed a little put out yesterday that reports of Friday’s game did not refer to him as the scorer of Ireland’s second in Andorra.

“It’s only you guys who don’t seem to have given it to me,” he said, although given his shot was turned away from goal by the goalkeeper and then back in by a defender it’s quite a stretch to avoid concluding it was an own goal.

Ireland, in any case, might do better to take encouragement from that remarkable run of clean sheets and conclude perhaps that if anyone can bring the Armenians back down to earth with a bump then it is Shay Given and his increasingly resilient defence.

Recent performances like the ones against Italy, Russia and Slovakia certainly provide the basis for some optimism heading into tonight’s game against, what is after all, a more lowly ranked side. Although a draw is required to make the play-offs, a win would make a seeding much more likely and Trapattoni says his players will play for one, although not rashly.

“When I came I saw that eight players would go forward to attack and then the other side would come back to counter-attack and I knew we had to change. The team has grown together since then, it has matured and this game is an opportunity to show how much,” said Trapattoni.

It’s certainly nice to think the hosts might turn in the sort of performance that could be taken as confirmation of, in Trapattoni terms, their coming of age.

Against fast and presumably fearless visitors, though, it seems far more likely to be another nail-biting affair at the end of which, one suspects, the draw might seem a decent result.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Aston Villa); O’Shea (Sunderland), St Ledger (Leicester City), Dunne (Aston Villa), Kelly (Fulham); Duff (Fulham), Andrews (Ipswich Town), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Spartak Moscow); Cox (West Brom), Doyle (Wolves).

ARMENIA: (probable) Berezovski (FC Khimki, Russia); Hovseryan (Pyunik), Mkoyan (FC Mika), Aleksanyan (Sanat Naft, Iran), Hayrapetyan (Lechia, Poland); Mkrtchyan (Metallurg Donetsk), Edigaryan (FC Banants); Mkhitaryan (Shaktar Donetsk), Pizelli (Metallurg Donetsk), Ghazaryan (Metallurg Donetsk); Movsisyan (FC Krasnodor, Russia).

Referee: Eduardo Gonzalez (Spain)