Soccer: McCarthy backing Keane to come good

Mick McCarthy finished with more questions than answers despite his side completing a 3-0 victory against the part-timers of Andorra in Barcelona.

And the biggest dilemma on his mind was the barren scoring form of normally-lethal Leeds United striker Robbie Keane.

The 20-year-old Dubliner was tagged Ireland's answer to England's Michael Owen when he burst onto the Republic scene two years, even as an occasional first-teamer at Wolves.

He has notched a respectable seven goals in 24 internationals, but the £13million Elland Road loanee has not hit the target for Ireland since September in Holland.

After drawing another blank in last Saturday's 4-0 win in Cyprus, he spurned a cartload of chances to end his famine against the low-grade Andorrans.

Clean through at least three times, he either shot straight at goalkeeper Alfonso Sanchez or ballooned over the bar. He cut a dejected figure even in his new white boots.

McCarthy admitted: "If you measure confidence in goals and goal-attempts then you would have to say it is not happening for Robbie.

"But all he can do is keep working hard with his club because club form usually transmits itself to international form and I'm sure he'll score lots of goals again."

Yet Keane is also in a lean spell with Leeds - no goals since early February and he was dropped for their most recent league game.

McCarthy said: "To be fair, we've relied on him too heavily in the past. It is nice to see other players sharing the responsibility for scoring now.

"But I still think Robbie is a tremendously gifted forward and his time will come again."

McCarthy also admitted he was "just glad to have won the match" against unsophisticated rivals whose only ambition was to frustrate.

Andorra have not won a competitive international in 17 attempts and were never at the races here in the Nou Camp's Barcelona "B" stadium, which they borrow for international home dates, although it was still largely a no-win situation for the Irish as well.

McCarthy threw on Tottenham tank Gary Doherty for the lightweight David Connolly before the frustration became too much to bear.

Finally, 33 barren minutes were ended when Ian Harte potted his second penalty in a week after a tumble by Roy Keane over the goalkeeper when the ever-running Manchester United ace was going nowhere in particular in the area.

It was not until the last 14 minutes that strikes by Kevin Kilbane and Matt Holland added some respectability, but Ireland had sufficient opportunities to dwarf their record 8-0 win against Malta 18 years ago.