The safe approach can steal the bounty

Given the choice between the tried and the far more rigorously tested, Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy's understandable devotion to the safer bet came to the fore last night when he named the team to face Cyprus in this evening's World Cup qualifying game.

While the temptation to remain loyal to Richard Dunne for his remarkable performances in Amsterdam and Lisbon had clearly been difficult to resist, McCarthy nevertheless opted for one of his most experienced and reliable campaigners, restoring Kenny Cunningham to the heart of his defence.

The decision cleared up the only remaining question regarding the side, with McCarthy having already confirmed his intention to start the game with David Connolly up front and Kevin Kilbane on the left.

It also marks an end to Cunningham's 11-month absence from the international side, one that at the end of last summer looked capable by itself of seriously denting Ireland's chances of qualifying for the next World Cup.

At that point, it was impossible to foresee that Dunne would perform so strongly when thrown into the gap created by the Wimbledon captain's knee injury.

The difficulty with the younger man, however, is that it is not yet possible to predict with any great degree of confidence how he will perform in any given match.

McCarthy said yesterday that it was the most difficult decision he had had to make during the build up to the game, but the fact that he repeatedly confirmed that he had made it early suggested that it was not, in the end, such a close call.

Overall, there are four changes from Ireland's last outing, the friendly win over Finland with Roy Keane, Jason McAteer and David Connolly also coming in as Steve Finnan, Matt Holland and Dominic Foley drop out. The absence of Alan Kelly and Steve Carr, both of whom started the autumn's other games, add to the sense that the continuity achieved in the opening three qualifiers has been lost.

It is in attack, however, that the most significant change has occurred. The selection of Connolly, pretty much forced upon McCarthy by Niall Quinn's back injury, will mean a slight shift in approach, although when asked about the extent of the tactical rethink the Ireland manager observed that: "I can't recall against Holland and Portugal that we were hoofing the ball up to Quinny, I think we're a better side than that."

Connolly himself admitted afterwards that the target-man approach had paid dividends for the national team down the years. He even said last month that he preferred to play off a bigger striker. But he remained quietly confident about the prospect of linking up with Robbie Keane again in his first competitive start since the second Euro 2000 play-off against Turkey.

"I hardly think it's a problem, after all, my club team scored five at the weekend like that, no big man and playing football."

In fact, it might be his experience of the Dutch second division, where he averaged just short of a goal a game in another neat footballing side, that proves more relevant this evening.

Observing the situation from the sidelines in Cyprus this week was former Ireland international Ronnie Whelan who manages Olympiakos in the capital and he for one clearly believes that this striking partnership will prove particularly difficult for the hosts.

"I think Cyprus prefer playing against big centre forwards," said the Dubliner, "because they have two or three tall centre backs who can cope. The small, nippy forwards will cause them trouble.

More than once this week, McCarthy has found himself talking about the difficulties that his team experienced on their trips to Malta and Macedonia during the Euro 2000 campaign.

And, for all his strikers' nippiness, if the host team's record is anything to go by then tonight's game does have the potential to end up being as tricky as the illfated trip to Skopje.

The Cypriots are not a good side; not even Stavros Papadopoulos, the amiable manager who played against the Republic when they won 3-2 here in 1980, makes that claim on their behalf.

But they are certainly prepared to graft for results against better visiting sides, a fact illustrated by their defeats of Spain and Israel (twice) as well as their draw with Russia in qualifiers in recent seasons.

As Papadopoulos readily admits, they are neither good nor strong enough mentally to recover from the concession of a goal, a fact readily illustrated by their collapse against the Dutch here in October.

On that occasion, the visitors struggled until the 69th minute to open the scoring after which, says the Cypriot manager, "my players destroyed what should have been a very good night for them".

"We have," he remarks, "talked about what happened a great deal and I can only hope that everybody has learned from the experience".

Their strikers, Ioannis Okkas and Michael Constantinou (both of whom are based in Greece), as well as the more recently established Yiasoumi Yiasoumis, who has scored six goals in eight internationals, are all capable players.

However, it is Milenko Spoljaric in midfield who is really the one entrusted with the task of keeping the Cypriot show on the road.

The naturalised Yugoslav, a fairly skilful playmaker who has scored eight times in 20 appearances, is comfortably the home side's best player and his performance will be crucial to their chances of frustrating McCarthy's men.

Injury may deprive the side of another influential midfielder, Panayiotis Engomitis, but more important will be the ability of the Irish to take the wind from their sails from early on.

As the Ireland manager has already conceded this week, failure to make a breakthrough fairly early could make a very hard slog of the night.

Nobody doubts that, ultimately, Ireland should win the game, but recent history suggests it may not be quite plain sailing.

CYPRUS (probable): Panayiotou (Anorthosis); Theodotou (AEK), Konnafis (Omonia), Melanaritis (Anorthosis), Charalampous (Olympiakos), Charalambous (Anorthosis); Malekkos (AEL), Spoljaric (Apollon), Engomitis (PAOK, Greece); Okkas (PAOK, Greece), Constantinou (Iraklis, Greece).

IRELAND: Given (Newcastle United); Kelly (Leeds United), Cunningham (Wimbledon), Breen (Coventry City), Harte (Leeds United); McAteer (Blackburn Rovers), Keane (Manchester United), Kinsella (Charlton Athletic), Kilbane (Sunderland); Connolly (Feyenoord), Keane (Leeds United).