Holland takes armband but craves a different promotion
Holland captained Ireland when they beat Scotland in Brian Kerr's opening match against Scotland in Glasgow and he spoke yesterday of his delight at being invited again to replace the injured Kenny Cunningham in leading the team, this time before the home supporters.
Holland declined the opportunity to leave Ipswich at the start of the season when he was courted by Aston Villa but Ipswich's failure to secure promotion has left him more amenable to a possible move.
"It has been a disappointing season," Holland said. "I said at the start of the season it wouldn't be a good season if we didn't get promoted. We haven't done that so it hasn't been a good season.
"I don't know what the situation is at the club but I've got three years left on my contract and obviously I'm happy at Ipswich and would be happy to see that out."
Yet he conceded that circumstances had conspired to change his position from that which applied when he turned down Villa "The club's financial situation is well documented and a lot will depend on the finances during the summer.
"To move on you need someone interested and if someone comes knocking on the door during the summer I'm sure the club will listen; I want to play at the highest level as well and I do want to play in the Premiership."
Holland has played in 30 internationals for Ireland and he enjoyed a superb World Cup last year. His goal against Cameroon that levelled a tense match 1-1 and provided the platform for Ireland to qualify for the second stages was a thing of beauty. He suffered, however, as all the players did when they tumbled disappointingly to Switzerland in the European Championship in Dublin in October and he said: "In the European Championship we've now got ourselves back on track and we're in a position where if we win all our games from here we'll top the group.
"It's not going to be easy. We saw in Albania that they're a decent side, Georgia are too, and then obviously we have two bigger games against Russia and Switzerland.
"Without question these are the most important ones where we've got to reverse the first two results. If we win all our games we'll be there or thereabouts."
Holland said he had enjoyed a good run of form this season despite Ipswich's problems "I've just been named 'Player of the Year' at Ipswich so this season has gone pretty well on a personal level. The last couple of international games against Albania and Georgia I think we did pretty well in."
He outlined his attitude to tonight's game "People say that friendlies are useless, I certainly don't agree with that. This fixture plays a massive part in us getting back to Lansdowne and getting used to the crowd and getting used to the surroundings. I feel we're back on track and this one now is an important one in terms of getting prepared for the big ones in June and it's important to get two victories from those."
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