Tony Cascarino has become the latest former Ireland international to criticise Roy Keane’s actions as Ireland assistant boss – stating that the former Man United great was ‘anything but a professional’.

Liam Brady believes the lack of emerging talent is linked to Kerr’s absence from an active role in Irish football and that he should be brought back into the fold.

‘I thought that John and myself had agreed to stay on…but we’ll see.”

Don’t expect a thriller

Martin O’Neill has said he would be disappointed if James McClean was not feeling frustrated about his restricted game time at West Brom.

Martin O'Neill has named his starting team to face Moldova this evening.

“We have to win the games and the equation is really simple,” was Martin O’Neill’s decisive summation yesterday, as he contemplated Ireland’s World Cup qualifying landscape with two group games to go.

While he fervently hopes that any end of era in Irish football is still a matter of months rather than days away, Martin O’Neill has said he expects a “natural exodus” of senior players once his team’s interest in World Cup 2018 is over.

While he fervently hopes that any end of era in Irish football is still a matter of months rather than days away, Martin O’Neill has said he expects a “natural exodus” of senior players once his team’s interest in World Cup 2018 is over.

Hell hath no fury like a player scorned! Last season Aiden McGeady re-ignited his club career during a loan spell at Preston, finishing the season as their player of the year. That form earned him a permanent move to Sunderland in July.

The dream start of a fourth-minute Shane Duffy goal gave way to something more like a prolonged nightmare for Martin O’Neill’s team in Tbilisi on Saturday, as an abject performance and a third successive draw in qualifying put a significant dent in Ireland’s World Cup ambitions ahead of the crunch meeting with Serbia tomorrow night.

At the Irish team’s hotel in Castleknock yesterday, a few of the senior players told Martin O’Neill about how much of a challenge they think Saturday’s World Cup qualifier in Tbilisi is going to be — and the manager was delighted to hear of their concern.

It’s fair to say Alan Browne and Aiden McGeady are at different ends of the international football spectrum.

The last step is always the hardest. Just ask Chris Hughton. Two weeks ago he saw his Brighton side secure promotion to the Premier League after a 2-1 win over Wigan. 

It was a mixed weekend for the Irish contingent at Championship outfit Preston as Aiden McGeady’s sixth goal of the season rescued a 1-1 draw at home to Nottingham Forest on an afternoon when Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle were hauled off at half-time.

The fabled Icelandic thunderclap might have reverberated around Lansdowne Road now and again but, in truth, this was a game which represented the calm after the storm, on the temperature scale a production rather closer to ice than the fire of Friday’s torrid affair.

I said in this column before kick-off on Friday I would have happily taken a draw against Wales. Well, Ireland did get a valuable point on that night, but only at a very heavy price.

The conventional picture of Irish wingers at the start of this season would have had Daryl Horgan on his way up passing Aiden McGeady on his way down.

What’s it like to play under Roy Keane? Or, more to the point, what’s it like to be on the end of a rebuke from Keano as his eyes narrow and the pitch of his voice rises?

Aiden McGeady maintained his recent fine form as Preston continued their play-off push with a 2-1 win over QPR in Saturday’s Championship clash at Deepdale.

League of Ireland fans might justifiably be relishing the sight of Daryl Horgan hitting the ground running at Preston but Martin O’Neill is probably even more gratified by the resurgent impact one of the older wingers in town is having at Deepdale.

Aiden McGeady often flatters to deceive but the winger had an afternoon to savour on Saturday, scoring twice in Preston’s 4-2 win over Brentford.

Olivier Giroud scrambled a late winner as Arsenal came from behind to survive an FA Cup scare with a 2-1 win at Championship Preston.

Liam Mackey of the Irish Examiner highlights five things to take from Ireland's win over Austria.

The Ireland team to face Austria has been named ahead of their World Cup qualifier inside the hour.

Aiden McGeady began the latest chapter of his career by scoring on his Preston debut on Saturday but his fine strike from 25 yards wasn’t enough to earn his new employers anything in their Championship clash with Barnsley.

Mark Twain once beautifully defined an expert as “some guy from outta town”. That being so, the guys and gals whose heads are entirely off the planet must be the greatest experts of them all.

Initially, it sounds like Jeff Hendrick is going to give a predictably routine footballer’s response when he is asked how the Irish players are filling in their downtime between games and training sessions here at Euro 2016.

Damien Duff wants Aiden McGeady to shrug off a disappointing season at club level and light up the European Championships.

Republic of Ireland 1 Belarus 2: It might have been 2-1 to Belarus on the scoreboard at full time but, of course, the really big result of the night still hung in the balance after the final whistle had blown at Turner’s Cross, as the 11th hour approached and, with it, the revelation of the Irish squad which will represent the country at the European Championship finals in France.

Friday night marked four years almost to the day since Ireland’s last adieu to their Dublin faithful ahead of a European Championship bid and there were moments aplenty to make you wonder at how much has changed in that snapshot of time.

Many people are of the opinion that international friendlies at this time of year are meaningless but I have never viewed them that way, writes Liam Brady

Republic of Ireland 1 Switzerland 0: Amidst the official Good Friday drought, the Aviva Stadium might have seemed an inviting watering hole for some in the attendance of 35,450 but, if not exactly intoxicating, the friendly fare on the pitch certainly provided a lively enough distraction and even some all too feisty exchanges as Ireland edged past Switzerland thanks to a Ciaran Clark goal after just two minutes of the game.

It was Damien Duff, speaking earlier this week in Dublin, who floated the notion of Ireland perhaps ‘doing a Leicester’ at Euro 2016 — at least in terms of narrowing the gap with teams deemed to be their superiors, like group opponents Belgium and Italy.

Aiden McGeady has revealed Martin O’Neill left him in no doubt if he hoped to resurrect his game — and make Ireland’s European Championships squad — he needed to bring an end to his Goodison Park limbo.