Embarrassment of riches the silver lining for Kerr

Liam Mackey

To be fair to Grant, he was speaking just moments after his side had drawn 3-3 at home with Croatia in a friendly on Wednesday night, the kind of score-line that gladdens the hearts of neutrals but tends to give coaches so much food for thought as to bring on a bout of indigestion.

Still, after the Republic of Ireland's impressive performance in defeating Portugal 1-0 at Lansdowne Road which stretches the side's unbeaten run at the venue to 15 games it would be hard to find anyone with a negative word to say about Brian Kerr's team, as they look forward to a resumption of World Cup Group 4 action in Tel Aviv on Saturday, March 26. On the same night, France are at home to Switzerland, making this a potentially red-letter date in terms of establishing a front-runner on the road to Germany 2006.