MICK McCARTHY is preaching pragmatism but praying for a little miracle in the approach to the most demanding examination so far of his stewardship of the Republic of Ireland team.

Form and pretty much everything else that defines favouritism in football suggests that Romania will record a sixth consecutive win in Group Eight of the World Cup qualifying series on their home patch in Bucharest this evening.

And unless the Irish team is disciplined and vigilant in defence, there is real danger that the Romanians will embellish those persuasive statistics of 18 goals for and none against in their games to date.

That is the case for logic. The counter argument is that after a sequence of three disappointing results McCarthy's men are in the mood to produce the blend of passion and professionalism which, under Jack Charlton, established Ireland as abrasive opposition for even the heavyweights of international football.

In the cause of accuracy, it ought to be recorded that there weren't too many supporters for the second supposition among the Irish arriving in Bucharest yesterday. But in the manner of his trade, McCarthy was still talking a good game.

"It's the biggest, hardest game of our qualifying programme but no bigger, no harder than it looked when the fixtures were first made," he said. "It's true that I'd rather be going into it with a better record than of late. But we can use that as a positive and make the Romanians feel the backlash."

McCarthy, holding court in a corner of a hotel lobby, held his composure admirably as the ring of questioners tightened around him. The exception was when an intrepid reporter suggested that another bad result tonight may shorten his term of office.

The manner of the response, delivered in just one eight-letter word, brooked no supplementaries nor, indeed, was there much discernible enthusiasm among the audience for a prolonged discussion on the subject.

In a trend which goes against the norm, much of the criticism for recent performances has been targeted at the players rather than the manager. And that, I suspect, echoes the thoughts of a majority of the FAI's hierarchy at this time.

Yet, McCarthy desperately needs a good result here to bring his World Cup challenge back on schedule and in the process renew the fervour of the best of the Charlton years. Andy Townsend, the team captain, said: "These are the hardest times of my career with Ireland but I still think there is enough ability, enough self belief left in the squad to get us to the World Cup finals again.

"When I first came on the scene we had a good team with a lot of experienced players. Now, we've young players who are sure to go on and enjoy good careers in both club and international football. But they need time to develop.

"Some people have blamed the system we're now using but that's nonsense. It's not the tactics but the people who failed to make them work who are responsible. We have fallen down in our last couple of games because we just didn't play well. In the past, we got away with the odd bad performance but not now.

Yet, when McCarthy announces his team this morning, the certainty is that it will include two specialist full backs for the first time in the current World Cup, tacit recognition of the threat posed by the Romanians down the flanks.

The likelihood is that McCarthy will also announce another first, gambling on going with only one specialist forward, probably Tony Cascarino, to accommodate a fifth player in midfield anchored in front of the back four.

After talking with some enthusiasm the previous day on Gary Kelly's ability to do a man-marking job on Gheorghe Hagi, the Romanian play-maker, McCarthy at times appeared to be retreating from that position yesterday. Yet I will be surprised if Kelly allows Hagi to drift far from his sights.

There were no obvious pointers on offer to the knot of spectators who watched yesterday's training session at the match venue, although some noted that McCarthy was engaged in what appeared to be a sombre conversation with Terry Phelan. It strengthened the belief here that the Everton player may lose out to Ian Harte for the left back position after a couple of expensive mistakes in the 3-2 defeat by Macedonia in Skopje.

Ray Houghton, so often a galvanic personality, will return for the first time since the game in Liechtenstein last August and seldom has he been under such pressure to deliver and lift the morale of those around him.

A serious problem for the Irish may be the state of the pitch in the old Steaua Stadium. It looks sparse and bumpy with discernible ridges in either goalmouth, making it something of a lottery for defenders. Goal keepers Alan Kelly and Shay Given complained that the ball was coming off the surface at crazy angles, scarcely a reassuring prospect on an evening when the Irish line is expected to be under heavy fire.

Like their opponents, Romania will announce their team late but it wasn't quite clear yesterday whether this was influenced by reports of fitness problems for the Barcelona player Gheorghe Popescu who, with 70 caps, is second only to Hagi as the most experienced member of the squad. Dangerous too is the Chelsea player Dan Petrescu but unquestionably it is Hagi's name, which fuels most of Ireland's fears. Even at 32 he is still a special player.

To salvage a point would be a substantial achievement for Ireland; to leave with a win, almost inconceivable. Sadly, the more likely prospect is that Romania will have wrought more damage to our hopes of reaching the finals by the time Mario van der Ende, the Dutch referee, blows the final whistle.