Ireland face autumn friendly with Turkey

Brian Kerr has availed of the free international date available immediately after Ireland's game against Russia in Dublin to arrange a friendly against Turkey, which will be played at Lansdowne Road on Tuesday, September 9th.

The game should prove particularly useful for Kerr, who will still have his full squad together in the wake of the Russia game, while the timing will also allow the Ireland manager to attend the meeting between the Republic's main qualification rivals in Moscow the following evening.

The visitors should also prove attractive and strong opposition. The Turks have risen through the ranks of the international game in recent years and are now considered a significant European force.

At last year's World Cup, they upstaged a number of more fancied teams to finish third, and they are currently two points clear of England in Group Seven of European Championship's qualifying stages with a crucial game against Sven Goran Eriksson's team to come in October.

Ireland's record against the Turks is impressive, with only one defeat in 11 meetings, although most of the games predate by some time the Turkish team's improvement. On the last occasion the countries met, the Irish lost out on a place in the Euro 2000 finals on away goals after two drawn encounters.

Bohemians, meanwhile, have confirmed that their game tomorrow evening against Rosenborg of Norway will be shown live on television by RTÉ. With the game virtually sold out, club secretary Gerry Cuffe said that he was "delighted the wider public is getting an opportunity to see the match," and pleased too that that Norwegian channel TV3 will also be broadcasting the game live.

Cuffe said that given the demand for tickets it is a pity that the capacity at Dalymount is restricted to just 8,000 for the game. But, he insisted, the position is steadily improving at a ground where, until five years ago, there were just 1,300 seats.

"We are constrained by the ruling that everybody be seated," he said, "but even two years ago we only had 4,200 seats in the place, and not long before that the figure was around 1,300, so we're certainly moving in the right direction.

"We have another 1,500 planned for the Des Kelly end in the very near future, and longer term plans for more at the shopping centre end. But we're pleased that the work done in recent years means that we're getting back to the stage where we can get reasonable numbers of people into the place for big games like this."

Manager Stephen Kenny said yesterday he expects all of his players to be available for the game. Colin Hawkins was rested for the cup game against Dundalk over the weekend, and Bobby Ryan is expected to recover from a slight hamstring problem.

"Bobby probably wouldn't have been fit for Sunday night but we'd be confident that he'll make it," he said. "But Fergal Harkin is pushing him very hard for a place anyway so we'll leave it until close to the game before making a final decision."