Criticism is par for the course for McCarthy men

Many things have been said about the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup campaign, which so far has been nothing less than heroic.

But one fax sent to the team hotel here on the eve of tomorrow’s second round clash with Spain summed it up perfectly for Mick McCarthy.

It came from one of the Irish manager’s golfing partners back home and McCarthy explained its contents.

He said: ‘‘It started off: ‘Holland and Portugal in the qualifying group? No chance. Qualify for the World Cup? No chance? Lose your star player? No chance. Progress from a group with Germany and Cameroon? No chance. It looks like you’re going to have to win it to prove you have a chance’.

‘‘I think that sort of sums up the way people think about us and we keep on doing it, we keep on churning out results. We keep on winning games and qualifying so maybe it suits us to be that way.

‘‘But I don’t feel that way. We know if we go home having got to the last 16 it will be regarded as some sort of success, but if we were to just believe that and rest on our laurels we’d regret it to the end of our days.

‘‘If we’re to go out, there might not be anything we can do about it but at least we’ll go out there having a go at it and give it our best shot. Say you have done your best.’’

The Irish coach added: ‘‘We had a board up in the dressing room for our first game which said: ’No regrets’.

‘‘It’s a terrible thing if you come off the field or go out of the tournament thinking: ’We could have done more’. ‘‘But I don’t think we will have any regrets whatever happens because we will give it our best.’’

McCarthy knows he faces a Spanish team loaded with talented individuals, but his policy is not to change the way his team plays, which means there will be no special plans to deal with the likes of Raul, Mendietta, Morientes and Co.

‘‘We didn’t do it for Dennis Bergkamp when we played Holland in the qualifying campaign so why would we do it now,’’ said McCarthy.

‘‘We don’t do it for any player, it would change the way we play.

‘‘Why should I pay them so much respect that I believe we have to man-mark one of their players?

That will affect the way we play and once it affects the way we play we are on the back foot because we have done something different.

‘‘How about them, do you think they will be looking at Damien Duff and Robbie Keane and seeing how they are going to deal with them? Teams have made special arrangements and we have coped and come through the games well.

‘‘So no, we won’t make special arrangements. We’ll get through it as a team because that works for us. We’ll handle it as a team and get someone to take care of them if and when they are there.’’

McCarthy’s entire squad trained in the Suwon stadium today which means he has no injury worries going into the game.