SOCCER/2010 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER BULGARIA v REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland management team like to play musical chairs when it comes to the media duties in the build up to these games and yesterday it was Liam Brady's turn to handle the questions prior to squad's last session at the training ground in St Alban's, where he also puts in the odd shift as head of Arsenal's youth academy.

Brady possesses a reputation for being difficult when he wants to be but to date he has always been relaxed on these occasions, chatting easily about the Irish team’s steady progress in Group Eight and the challenges that lie around the next corner. Not for the first time, the Dubliner reckoned yesterday the approaching game will be the Republic’s toughest of the campaign to date.

“Yeah, this is our hardest game so far because of the situation and the position we have gotten ourselves into in the group,” he said.

Bulgaria may not quite be the equals of the World champions, he suggests, but, “they know they have to beat us to get back into the group”.

The Ireland team, he acknowledges, more or less picks itself these days, all the more so after Paul McShane picked up an ankle injury on Wednesday that makes him a slight doubt for the game.

Shay Given (hip), Robbie Keane (foot), Richard Dunne (knee), Caleb Folan (knee) and Glenn Whelan (calf) have all had spells on the sidelines during this week’s training sessions but all are expected to feature at the Vasil Levski stadium in Sofia tomorrow night after playing a part yesterday, even if Dunne’s involvement was restricted to the team’s preparations to defend set-pieces.

“We’ve had a few knocks from the game we played against Nigeria last Friday but we’ve kind of nursed them through so we expect everybody to be fit,” says Brady. “We expect them all to be fit, although the one who I would say is in most difficulty is Paul McShane, he picked up an injury yesterday, he twisted his ankle. We have to see how that is today and have a fitness test tomorrow.”

The doubts about McShane’s availability are set to copper-fasten Giovanni Trapattoni’s decision, flagged more than once in training over the past few days, to shake up his defence by starting Sean St Ledger at centre half, while switching John O’Shea to right back to better cope with the potency of Bulgaria’s attacking threat down their left flank.

O’Shea’s partnership with Dunne has developed well under the Italian but, observes Brady, if the circumstances demand a change then, “it’s important to have somebody like St Ledger who looks as if he’s a player who is not frightened of international football. He’s a leader and he’s a talker, he’s fitted in fine since he’s been here and showed against Nigeria he can do a very good job for us.”

O’Shea’s willingness to push forward down the right and ability to retain possession as he does so could also be important in a game where Ireland will, most likely, look to hit their opponents on the break. Brady believes the team has already shown the sort of character needed to do well away from home, especially as the race starts to turn towards the home straight.

“We’ve got two difficult games now – Bulgaria and Cyprus away – and we’ve done very well on our travels so we’re confident we’ll get something from the match in Sofia and move the group forward.

“They’re very strong at home and they know they have to beat us to get themselves back in the group so they’re going to be very dangerous but we’ve got a very experienced squad of players who have handled themselves very well on their travels. We’ve got everything to gain as well, if we can beat them in their own back yard it puts us in a great position.

“I think the manager has set out a way he wants the team to play and the players have taken that on board and we’ve showed a lot of discipline in the way we’ve played games. We’ve been good at set- pieces, for and against, making sure we don’t concede any goals and we’ve scored a couple.

“All those things combined have ensured we got decent results on the road. This is a huge game but we know if we get a result here, the next games are going to be bigger.”

The results to date have generated the sort of belief within the group that can prove invaluable on nights like tomorrow.

“Yeah, it’s been a big factor, the team spirit that’s been shown. We’ve had our rocky moments along the way, we’ve lost a goal in the first 40 seconds against Georgia and had a difficult first half but we went out in the second half and we did well. That’s down to the team spirit and the belief we had. We want to bring that to Sofia because as I said, my experience of playing against Bulgaria (Brady remembers well the two tough games here – the first won, the second lost – in the late 1970s) in their own back yard is that they’re very difficult.”

The hosts, meanwhile, continue to have their own injury problems, with manager Stanimir Stoilov likely to be without midfielder Mihail Venkov, after he injured a knee in training yesterday.

Stanislav Angelov, the Energie Cottbus midfielder who played all 90 minutes of the drawn Dublin game, remains a major doubt with a groin strain.