Reid it and leap

DEBUTS have been like the London Tube since Steve Staunton became Ireland manager: miss one and you won’t have to wait too long for another to whizz by.

Nearly 20 players have been introduced to international football in the last 19 months as Staunton attempts to build a squad capable of qualifying for a first major finals since the 2002 World Cup.

Some of them — Joe Lapira anyone? — won’t feature too frequently on the road to South Africa but newcomers like Paul McShane, Kevin Doyle and, hopefully, Stephen Ireland should be vital components in the years ahead.

And yet, on the evidence of the last two games, if the future well-being of this Ireland team rests on the shoulders of any one man, it is not any young tyro but on a 25-year old who earned the first of his 25 caps against Canada four years ago.

In both Prague and Croke Park, Andy Reid was the one Irish player who looked comfortable on the ball, the only one who might possibly be able to unlock a defence without resorting to high balls or crosses from the tramlines.

Ireland’s lack of inventiveness going forward was never more apparent than in Slovakia last month when one of the chief attacking strategies saw Shay Given rain long punts down on Kevin Kilbane’s head on the left wing.

Given ‘tactics’ like that, Reid’s composure in the engine room looks to be invaluable. Man-of-the-match in that debut, he has found the net four times for Ireland to boot and his performance against Germany two days ago was enough to earn another piece of crystal.

“It’s not about what I do,” said the Charlton skipper. “It’s about the team. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win we were looking for but I thought we were the more ambitious team, the team doing the running and the team most likely to win the game.

“We caused them a lot of problems and they couldn’t get the ball back off us at times. The two lads who came in — Joey (O’Brien) and Andy (Keogh) — were fantastic. They handled the situation brilliantly.”

Whatever about the merits of individual performances on Saturday night, the fact remains that Germany arrived with a clutch of key players absent and needing only a point to secure their place in next year’s tournament.

Shouldn’t we be taking that into account?

“I don’t care whether they were (holding back) or not. We still had to go out and do our job. We went out and did that. Unfortunately we didn’t get the goal but we gave a good account of ourselves.”

It says a lot about Ireland’s run of failures in recent years that, should they qualify for the 2010 World Cup, Reid would be one month short of his 28th birthday making his bow in a major tournament.

He prefers not to look at it through such a bleak prism. Ireland might be conspicuous by their absence from the Euro 2008 guest list next year but Reid believes the current campaign can be used a stepping stone, just as the FAI envisaged when they appointed Staunton.

“In my opinion, these are quite exciting times. We’ve got a lot of young players coming through and they can only benefit from the experience of this campaign. We’ll all be looking to the next campaign and to qualifying out of the next group.”

They have it in their own hands to make that job that bit easier. Beat Cyprus on Wednesday and they should secure third place in Group D, a finish that would boost their 2010 seeding.

“That’s what it’s all about. This game is gone, it doesn’t matter now. We need to get a win on Wednesday so we can put a bit of pride back in the squad. It would be nice to finish on two wins, finish the group on a high.”

Staunton suggested last week that an ankle problem may prevent Reid facing both the Germans and the Cypriots this week but the player himself professed himself fully fit on Saturday night.

His presence is all the more important given the absence of Lee Carsley due to suspension. The Everton man is another midfielder to have proven his worth since rejoining the squad in the aftermath of the 5-2 debacle in Nicosia 12 months ago but his ban affords us another glimpse into what Staunton has in mind for the future when Carsley hangs up his boots.

“It will be a chance for other players, like this (German) game was,” Reid said. “We should have a few players coming back. It evens itself out. Whoever pulls on the shirt will do their best and give a good account of themselves.”