THE CLEAREST hint yet that Paul McGrath may be on his way back into the Republic of Ireland team was delivered yesterday by Mick McCarthy in his first public appraisal of the shallow performance against Iceland.

Assessing the second phase of his World Cup programme in the light of last week's scoreless draw, the manager dwelt inevitably on the demanding away games in Macedonia and Romania in April.

By that stage McGrath may well have been away from international football for a year and five months past his 37th birthday. But he has not, it seems, been eliminated from the equation. "Those are two difficult games by any measure and I have never discounted Paul McGrath, or Gary Kelly for that matter, from my plans.

"I tried to call in Gary for the last game and if Paul failed to make the squad for either of the last two fixtures, his name has always been in my mind.

"Nobody has to convince me about McGrath's contribution to Ireland teams. He's been outstanding over the years and depending on how he does over the next couple of months he could again be involved."

McGrath acknowledges that the long haul back to match fitness after a five month break from the game is not yet complete. But Jim Smith, the Derby manager, believes that McGrath is gradually getting there.

"Paul's looked more like the player he was in our last two games," he said. "Already he's had a big influence here in as much as we don't give away as many silly goals these days. And he's going to get better as his timing improves.

A week after the dismal draw against Iceland McCarthy is coming to terms with his first crisis since succeeding Jack Charlton. And if he remains sceptical about the motivation for some of the criticism, he was not wholly unprepared for it.

"Had we won, of course, it would all have been so much different. But my old job at Millwall taught me that the scoreline - colours everything in media dealings with management, and when it goes against you every decision you make is questioned.

"Take Roy Keane, for example. Three days before the game I asked a friend to save Monday morning's papers for me, for no matter where I played him I knew I was going to get stick.

"By starting him at the back and moving him forward for the last half hour I was, to some extent, inviting criticism. But I've no regrets, and faced with the same priorities again I would be tempted to do exactly the same.

"Sure, he did well when he went to midfield. But I also thought he snuffed out one of two potentially dangerous situations for us at the back in the first half."

McCarthy is unapologetic about his decision to leave the FAI Opel awards function with his management team and some of the players before the meal had been served.

"It was my decision, it was made after consultation with FAI officials and I stand over it," he said. "We had been in the hotel for more than three hours and once the awards ceremony was over I gave players the option of leaving if they so wished.

"Thirteen of them stayed on but others, mainly those with early flights to catch the following morning, left the function. I went back to the team hotel for talks with the back up team. It could be another four months before I meet up with them again and there was business to discuss.

"I believe there is an element of mischief in all of this among people who are attempting to stir things up. And it shows in some of the stories I've been hearing about John Aldridge's retirement.

"There was no aggro between John and myself after the game. Almost certainly he felt aggrieved and I've no doubt that the timing of his decision to quit was driven by emotion.

But it was all done in a very amicable way. I've no reason to believe that he will rescind it, nor would I ask him to do so, but I've no doubt that if I was stuck and I rang him up at some time in the future, he would agree to help us out."

For the moment doubts remain about holding a World Cup warmup game in February, but McCarthy accepts that the chances of arranging a B fixture next month are virtually non existent because of the timescale involved.

That game was proposed as a means of involving some of the players on the fringe of the senior squad. Instead McCarthy must content himself with checking on the form of players in club games.

Significantly he chose to start at Loftus Road on Saturday where Mark Kinsella, a name which may yet surface in his World Cup calculations, shared in Charlton's 2-1 win over QPR.