Old reliables rested as Irish seek vital win

By the standards of a man who never balked at hoofing a ball into the stands at Lansdowne Road because he had "never seen anybody score from there," it's as close to a gamble as we may see during this World Cup qualifying campaign.

Sitting nicely at the top of Group Two with five matches played and five more to come, Mick McCarthy yesterday confirmed he will rest a couple of his reliable performers for this evening's match against the part-timers from Andorra.

With Kenny Cunningham and Robbie Keane already carrying yellow cards, and in danger of missing the Portugal game in June in the event of picking up another, McCarthy has recalled Richard Dunne to partner Gary Breen in central defence and will start David Connolly up front alongside Gary Doherty.

A third switch, the reintroduction of Mark Kennedy to the right flank where Jason McAteer might well have played, could be similarly attributed to the manager's longer-term planning, although there is every chance that, having replaced McAteer with the now injured Damien Duff in Barcelona last month, the Manchester City winger would have got the start regardless.

Also out injured is Roy Keane and so Matt Holland returns to win his ninth cap as McCarthy sticks with what he described yesterday as a "tried and tested" group of players.

Against a side that has never as much as drawn a competitive game in international football the changes shouldn't affect of what looks like being a onesided contest. But contrary to McCarthy's assertion that even a 1-0 win would please him, the changed rules in this World Cup qualifying tournament mean that his team could do with scoring a few goals. The scale of the beatings inflicted on Andorra could well yet be a major factor when it comes to separating the group's top three teams.

None of the changes come as a surprise, though, with McCarthy having repeatedly stated in recent weeks that the yellow cards would be a factor when it came to selecting his team. And despite opting to omit Cunningham, Robbie Keane and McAteer from his starting lineup, McCarthy admitted he will probably have all three on the bench just in case, Not that he feels that is a likely scenario given the experience of the replacements.

"I don't want those lads getting suspended. But the fact is Dunne's played in there before and as for Kennedy instead of McAteer and David instead if Robbie, they're all tried and tested so there's not too many changes really."

Connolly will doubtless see his return as an opportunity to make a bit of a point to his manager, having been taken off after just 25 minutes of the first game between these two sides. But while McCarthy again accepted the Feyenoord striker had probably performed more strongly than Keane in last month's two games, "it's just that over the previous 18 months Robbie has been one of most consistent players, he's scored more goals".

The 23 year-old , in fact, looked to have been harshly treated in Barcelona where he was comfortably more impressive during those early stages than his striking partner. Tonight, the 23-year-old Connolly will play alongside Gary Doherty for the first time and it should prove a profitable opportunity for the pair. Connolly will be hoping to improve on seven goals in 26 appearances for his country, while Doherty will be confident of getting off the mark at this level.

Meanwhile, Breen, who finds himself back playing beside the man he partnered so successfully in Ireland's first three qualifying games, will skipper the team - assuming the shoulder injury picked up during yesterday morning's training session at Lansdowne Road does not prove serious.

"He should be okay," said McCarthy yesterday. "He got a bang on it, just caught the nerve, but there doesn't seem to be anything too bad there."

Overall, there is little to suggest the Republic will have any difficulty with the task in front of them. During his first campaign in charge McCarthy had his problems with the visits of the group's weaker teams to Lansdowne Road but there is little comparison between Iceland or Lithuania and Andorra.

Anything less than a win this evening would be a terrible setback for the Republic. Even a low-score victory would be damaging, considering goals scored in all group games count ahead of head-to-head results in the event of two or more teams finishing level on points.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Given (Newcastle); Kelly (Leeds), Dunne (Man City), Breen (Coventry, capt), Harte (Leeds); Kennedy (Man City), Kinsella (Charlton), Holland (Ipswich), Kilbane (Sunderland); Doherty (Tottenham), Connolly (Feyenoord).

ANDORRA Sanchez (Bertamirans); Escura (Jupiter), Jonas (FC Andorra), I Lima (Sant Andreu), A Lima (Gava), Txema (Andorra); Gonzalez (Andorra), Ruiz (Andorra), Sonejee (Andorra), Jimenez (Andorra); Sanchez (Andorra).