Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy failed to repeat his victory of a few years back in the annual FAI charity golf outing at Citywest last week.

Even with members of McCarthy's "backroom" staff, assistant manager Ian Evans, goalkeeping coach Packie Bonner and physiotherapist Mick Byrne, the "international" team finished well down the field of 31 entries with 85 points in the hotly-contested competition, sponsored this year by Festina Watches.

"We didn't play too well this time," McCarthy admitted afterwards at the venue, which is the base for the international squad this week as they prepare for their vital World Cup qualifier against Holland at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.

The charity event accumulated a total of £9,000 for the nominated charity this year, Life Centre, the early school leavers project in Dublin's Pearse Street, an organisation which caters for the education of young teenagers who, for one reason or another, have broken away from the standard education system. The golf competition was won for the third year in a row by Marchmount Packaging team. They failed by just one point to "top the ton", although their total of 99 points was sufficient to give them a comfortable victory over joint second placed Nelson Chauffeurs and the Tipperary Southern League, who each had 97 points.

The members of the victorious team on the day were Tony Kelly (19, K Club), Brendan Mulqueen (17, Clontarf), Pat Doran (10, K Club) and Mick Carroll (9, Clontarf).