MICK MCCARTHY is planning to assemble the national squad a full six days before the World Cup meeting with Iceland at Lansdowne Road on Sunday November 10th. McCarthy said yesterday that he hopes to have all his players in Dublin on the Monday before the game, an ambitious plan facilitated by a closed week in the FA Premiership.

The exception could be Liam Daish, the Coventry central defender who will be required for his club's meeting with Everton on November 4th. Daish was not in the squad for the most recent game against Macedonia, however, and there is no indication, as yet, that he is destined for a recall.

International team managers complain with some justification that they don't have enough time to work with their players and it we can squeeze in an extra day here or there, we take it," said McCarthy. "We certainly benefitted from having the players together for a couple of weeks at the end of the season and hopefully it will again work to our advantage now."

McCarthy, who is scheduled to name his preliminary squad next week, will base his players in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan returning to Dublin the day before the game.

If demand at the box office is the authentic means of measuring success, the second phase of Ireland's football evolution is precisely on schedule. FAI officials report that it's Charlton mania all over again as his successor approaches the third obstacle on the path to the World Cup finals in France.

A spokesperson said that ticket enquiries had been almost non stop since the win over Macedonia and that the preliminary indications suggested requirements would easily outstrip supply.

Lansdowne Road has not been sold out for a soccer game since the European championship meeting with Latvia almost 12 months ago when Ireland's title hopes were in freefall.

An attendance of almost 32,000 at the Macedonian game was marginally below capacity for a competitive fixture but close enough to suggest that McCarthy's new look team has caught the public imagination.

The travelling army of supporters was undeniably down for the first World Cup game in Liechtenstein but depending on the result of next month's fixture, those in the trade expect a return to something approaching the norm for the games in Macedonia and Romania in April.