Kerr ready to blood young guns

Brian Kerr makes no excuses for giving some of the Republic of Ireland’s squad players a taste of senior international football in the Unity Cup.

Ireland suffered their heaviest defeat for nine years when they were beaten 3-0 at the hands of Nigeria in the tournament’s opening game at The Valley on Saturday.

The match had come less than 48 hours after Kerr’s side beat Romania 1-0 in a friendly at Lansdowne Road, which marked the return of Roy Keane to international football.

However, the Manchester United midfielder was not included in the squad for the two Unity Cup matches, nor Saturday’s trip to face Holland in Amsterdam.

The absence of other first-choice players through injury, such as Damien Duff, or commitments at their clubs with the play-offs has meant Kerr turned to some of the younger members of his squad.

New recruits include QPR’s Martin Rowlands, Clive Clarke of Stoke and Celtic prodigy Aidan McGeady.

The Republic boss believes the experience such players will take from these games, which continue against Jamaica tomorrow, will ensure they will not be phased should he call on them during the forthcoming World Cup qualifying campaign.

“Martin Rowlands has played in a couple of games and done reasonably well, if we hadn’t had this group of games, people like him wouldn’t have got the opportunity,” reflected Kerr.

“That will continue tomorrow, obviously we are a bit away from what we wanted to have, but it will be a young vibrant team.”

Kerr added: “I would have liked the balance of the squad to be different, but we have what we have and we have to work with those players.

“Almost all of them have come through the under-age system and for some of them it has come earlier than we probably would have wanted to.

“It would have been better if they were coming in among a group of more experienced players.

“It is about giving them the chance and trying to get results while we are doing that, but it is not so easy.”

Despite having no qualms about his squad rotation policy, Kerr is looking for a improvement in performance against the Reggae Boyz, who lost 2-0 to Nigeria yesterday.

“I thought they were a big, strong team,” said Kerr.

“They are adventurous and will give us a real game, there is no doubt about that.

“But I am more interested in how we are going to go because we did not do ourselves justice on Saturday.”

Kerr has just one injury concern after Blackburn midfielder Jonathan Douglas picked up a slight knee injury in training.

Manchester United’s John O’Shea is set to return to the defence after being rested on Saturday, but Steve Finnan, Kenny Cunningham, Matt Holland and Robbie Keane all start on the bench.

Mark Kinsella will captain the side, while Hearts defender Alan Maybury is expected to win another cap along with Clinton Morrison, the Birmingham striker set to come back into the side after being rested against Nigeria.

There could also be debuts for Coventry’s Michael Doyle and Nottingham Forest’s John Thompson as well as McGeady.

Sheffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny is ready to replace Nicky Colgan in goal to win his second cap and his first start.

“One of the things we needed to do was give goalkeepers other than Shay [Given] the opportunity to play and get the confidence required to play at this level,” said Kerr.

“Nicky did well overall and made some outstanding saves.

“In the games he has played for us he has been full of confidence. We have given him some of the experience he needs.”

Whatever the result tomorrow, or indeed against Holland on Saturday, Kerr feels the end-of-season friendlies will leave Ireland in a stronger position as they prepare to meet the likes of France and Switzerland in their World Cup qualifying group.

He declared: “We are trying to develop a system and a pattern of play that uses the players we have to the best of their ability which they are comfortable with.

“We are trying to get the best and widest squad we can that will have the ability to come into the big qualification games over the full period without it being an ageing issue.

“That is certainly going to be the case when we come to the end of this week.

“They should be comfortable with each other and know the ways of international football when they come into it.

“That will be the end product out of this, that the group will be even wider than I would have expected before the matches started.”