Fans feel fever pitch in high stakes showdown

SOME 15,000 Irish supporters will gather in Nicosia tonight for the Republic of Ireland’s crucial World Cup qualifying game against Cyprus.

Not for the first time, Irish football fans will effectively take over a foreign ground. With Cyprus playing only for pride, most locals will be in bars or at home watching Greece play Denmark live on television.

The stakes are much higher for Ireland who, barring unlikely results elsewhere in Group 4, will have to win in the 23,000-capacity GSP Stadium to keep alive their chances of reaching the World Cup finals in Germany next summer.

Many Irish fans are making the big game the centrepiece of an extended late summer holiday. Temperatures this week in Limassol, where the Irish squad made their base, at one point reached 30C.

But it’s no holiday for Brian Kerr, although the Irish manager has certainly been feeling the heat. Speculation that failure to qualify could cost him his job, and increasingly strained relations with the media, have been to the forefront in much of the build-up to the game.

Kerr is annoyed by what he sees as negative media coverage and yesterday saw him facing some of his critics at a tense press conference in Limassol, during which the manager declined to discuss his contract situation, preferring to focus on tonight’s game.

He has important decisions to make about his line-up in the absence of Roy Keane, Andy Reid and Clinton Morrison. While Reid and Morrison are suspended for the game, Keane will also miss next Wednesday’s match in Dublin against Switzerland because of a broken toe.

If the Irish can win tonight, the likelihood is that they will then be seeking victory over the Swiss in order to give themselves a place in the play-offs for World Cup qualification.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get enough points so far but if we get enough at the end, that’s what will be most important,” Kerr said yesterday.