Get new boss in quickly, stresses Givens

DON GIVENS stressed the importance of appointing a new Republic of Ireland manager ‘‘sooner rather than later’’ after his team played out a low-key goalless draw against Greece.

Under-21 manager Givens is in temporary charge while the FAI seek Mick McCarthy's successor.

They hope to have their new man in place before the next international, a friendly in Scotland in February, and Givens believes a swift end to all the speculation will be in the best interests of the team.

''It is important that a new manager is appointed sooner rather than later,'' said Givens.

''All the boys are wondering what is going to happen and they will be reading the papers in the next few weeks with all the speculation, so it will settle everything down if it is

decided sooner rather than later.''

Givens had stressed the need for a good result after Ireland suffered successive defeats in their opening two Euro 2004 Group 10 qualifying matches.

And he was satisfied with the outcome, especially as he was forced to field an under-strength team.

"Avoiding defeat was paramount for us," said Givens.

"I would have liked to win but I am delighted not to have been beaten, it was a professional performance from the boys.

"There were a lot of plusses. Richard Dunne performed very well at left-back and John O'Shea looked good for someone who is early in his international career.

"The new boys did well and Glen Crowe was excellent in the first half, he didn't look out of his depth.

"Overall I am satisfied with the result. The way the team was set up we were always going to be more defensive than

attacking. I could see us being very solid defensively, but in the first half we were the better team and had the better chances.

"That dried up after half-time because we were pushed back a bit, but we defended well and I never felt we would concede a goal although I never felt we would score either in the second half."

Spectators in the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, the home of Panathinaikos, were embarrassingly sparse while the pitch was in a poor state, but Givens felt the lack of atmosphere did his team's favour.

He added: "The small crowd worked to our advantage and I'd have been more worried if the stadium had been packed, because that always lifts the home team.

"The pitch was not of the best quality, it was very bobbly and that made it difficult to control the ball."

Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland remain in 14th place in the FIFA World rankings released yesterday though a number of the Boys' in Green's European Championship Group Ten rivals have moved slightly.

However, in all cases, the moves have been because of international fixtures involving non-European teams as there have been no internationals in Europe since October's rankings were released.

Russia, dropped one place to 24th because of the rise of Japan and Uruguay with Columbia vacating their place in the top 20, while further down, Georgia dropped four places to 81st.

Albania, climbed one spot to 95th while Switzerland remain in 45th place.

Closer to home, Northern Ireland dropped two places to 100th position, their lowest position since last summers nadir when they dropped to 107th while Scotland drop two places to 57th and Wales climb to 65th, their highest position since 1995.