Keane ok as Ireland find ideal antidote to the bumps and bruises
Ireland's assistant manager, Chris Hughton led his squad of players into the surf on their return to their Portmarnock base on Sunday and, in consequence, all 22 players were able to take part in yesterday's training session.
Three of the players elected not to engage in the customary match that brought the session to a close - Roy Keane, Stephen Carr and John O'Shea. Brian Kerr confirmed that all three would be fit to play against the Faroe Islands tomorrow at Lansdowne Road (7.30 pm).
Fears that a knock on the knee suffered by Keane might cause him to miss the game were dismissed by Kerr: "Roy Keane is fine. He did more than anyone else this morning in the training, he just didn't play in the game at the end.
"The training was divided between the lads who had played the game on Saturday and the lads who hadn't played. Then they came together at the end but he did plenty of work this morning, he did plenty of running and he seems fine."
Carr and O'Shea confined their session to jogging and stretching exercises. Carr twisted his ankle late in the game in Paris while O'Shea was suffering from a knock to a groin muscle.
Kerr revealed that an examination of the video of Saturday's match against France had convinced him that Ireland should have had a penalty in the second half. The incident he referred to was sparked off by France's goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, when he clashed with Andy O'Brien.
"I thought it was a penalty kick when I saw it. After seeing it on video I'm convinced it should have been a penalty ... as the ball was crossing by him, he got an elbow in the head.
"I'm upset that we didn't get a penalty. It would been a crucial time to get a goal and be ahead in the match. It's strange the referee and linesman didn't see it, but it was quite blatant.
"Andy has been the victim of one or two lately and given his general demeanour and the way he plays the game...he's not one for upsetting other players, he plays the game very fairly and cleanly as a centre-back. It's over now and let's get on with it."
Ireland's achievement in drawing with France was exactly the encouragement they needed to restore confidence damaged by their less than satisfactory performance when they drew with Switzerland in Base.
A win over the Faroes now would leave Ireland sweetly poised to make a very positive bid for automatic qualification for the finals when the qualifying competition resumes in the spring of next year.
The Faroe Islands have never played Ireland at any level and with part-time players drawn from a tiny population of 50,000 they are very much the weakest of the teams in this qualifying group.
But they showed they can be dangerous by drawing 2-2 away to Cyprus on Saturday.
"I said when Faroes lost their first match 6-0 to Switzerland that I was surprised. But I think there were a few problems for them that day; it was very, very hot.
"I spoke to Henrik Larsen (Danish international, coach to Faroes) in Stockholm recently and he told me that was a big issue. But we can hardly turn up the heat in meteorological terms on Wednesday but I hope we'll make it hot for them in every other way."
Kerr is demanding the "madness" which descended on the Stade de France on Saturday help turn Lansdowne Road into an equally intimidating venue.
"The passion and desire was there in the game on Saturday from everyone, in particular the supporters who definitely helped inspire the players. We need to have that in home games as well. We need to transfer that madness, I would call it, in our supporters into our home games.
"We need all that colour at Lansdowne Road to make it a much more intimidating venue for every team. You could say it has to come naturally from the supporters. Well it came naturally the other night, and now I would like it to come naturally at our place as well.
"Whether the same people travel to the away games, but the support the other night and the fervour was really, really impressive. At home games we are waiting for it, although I know we have to make it happen as well."
One of Kerr's real strengths is the depth of his knowledge of Ireland's opponents. His examination of opponents is meticulous and he will spend every spare minute between now and match-time looking at videos of the Faroe Islands in action, assessing their strengths, searching for weaknesses, defining their game plans.
"They were unlucky against France (0-2). I've looked at the match a few times and they had a fair few chances. Both of the goals should have been disallowed for offside, in my opinion. They gave them a right game. They went to Cyprus on Saturday and got a two all draw. The Faroes were leading 2-1 from half-time and it was another good performance in different circumstances."
The Faroe Islands are certain to ask questions of Ireland but Kerr has already drawn up a list of positive answers. He is expected to retain Andy Reid as a partner for Robbie Keane at centre-forward now that Clinton Morrison is ruled out with a cartilage problem.
"The best approach we can have is to mix the game up and not be predictable in the way we play. We need to play at a high tempo as we did in every game so far.
"In the home match against Cyprus (3-0 success) we started at a high tempo and moved the ball around quickly, that would be the best approach we could adopt."
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