Fahey hopes five will be lucky number

Others, the injured Glenn Whelan among them, have put it more forcefully in the past but there was no disguising Keith Fahey’s preference for a five-man midfield when the subject arose earlier this week.

Memories of Ireland’s porousness in Poland, which have lain dormant through an Olympic summer overloaded with a Ryder Cup and the usual sporting fare, are floating back to the fore with Germany’s imminent arrival.

Rewind still further and the thoughts of Russia, Slovakia and Armenia weaving pretty patterns in and around Whelan and Keith Andrews in Dublin 4 during the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign add a seemingly watertight case for extra bodies in the engine room tomorrow.