David Connolly will join Niall Quinn in a new strike force for the Republic of Ireland in their return European Championship play-off game against Turkey here in the Attaturk Stadium on Wednesday.

Within minutes of settling into the team hotel, at the end of an eight-hour air, sea and road journey, McCarthy confirmed that Connolly will fill the vacancy caused by the suspension of Robbie Keane.

And Quinn, ruled out with a neck strain less than an hour before Saturday's disappointing 1-1 draw at Lansdowne Road, will reclaim his target man role from Tony Cascarino.

Reviving the tired spirits of players close to disillusionment after the concession of another late goal, this time an 84th minute penalty converted by Turkish midfielder Tayfur is a mission which ought not to be understated.

More than anything perhaps, the Irish players had feared a repetition of those injury time goals in Croatia and Macedonia. And while the time frame wasn't quite so dramatic, it was late enough to hurt after Robbie Keane's 80th minute goal had looked like sending his team-mates to Bursa with a lead.

Now, with the accomplished Coventry striker out of bounds after being booked for a second time in the championship on Saturday, and with first choice goalkeeper Alan Kelly returned to Blackburn because of a groin problem, the challenge of escaping the consequences of a score draw at home is huge.

But McCarthy is not yet ready to concede.

"We've made it difficult for ourselves - but then we seem to have been making much the same comment for the last couple of months," he said.

"But let me emphasise, we're here to win the tie, not just to make up the numbers on Wednesday. And has there ever been an Ireland team that gave up without a struggle? Certainly not in my time as player or manager."

Now he's looking to Connolly, who smartened the front line on his arrival as a 76th-minute replacement for Cascarino in the original game, to get among the Turkish defence and nick the goal of goals which, against all the odds, could qualify Ireland for the finals.

Undeniably, McCarthy's appreciation of the skills which Connolly first manifested in the summer of 1996 has cooled, a product perhaps of the player's ill-fated move to the Dutch club Feyenoord.

Yet he retains sufficient of his old enthusiasm to believe that the player can do a useful job for him here. "He's still lively, still capable of getting in behind defences and, of course, still scoring, albeit at a lower level of club football in Holland."

Quinn, who fought a day-long battle to shake off his neck problem on Saturday, is expected to have made a full recovery by Wednesday.

"By working so hard to get myself ready for the first game I possibly aggravated the damage; but all being equal, I hope to be ready to play by Wednesday," he said.

With Alan Kelly departed to his club base, Dean Kiely will start in goal. Kelly's older brother Gary has been summoned from Oldham Athletic to provide the cover. McCarthy wasn't alone in the opinion that Kiely looked remarkably composed for a newcomer in the 30 minutes he spent on the pitch on Saturday, even if he was comprehensively beaten by Tayfur penalty.

"I thought the lad looked extremely comfortable and that didn't surprise me greatly. He's a confident goalkeeper who is playing out of his skin with Charlton Athletic these days and who will no doubt do a big job for us on Wednesday."

In addition to Kenny Cunningham, who suffered a recurrence of his knee problem, Gary Breen (knee) and Lee Carsley (Achilles) are having treatment; but all three players are expected to be start.

After the apprehension voiced when the original travel arrangements were made known, the journey through the ravaged Turkish landscape was not as harrowing as imagined. Bursa suffered only minimal damage during the recent earthquakes; but it is a measure of the apprehension of citizens in this industrial city, with a population of just over one million, that shanty towns have sprung up in the suburbs with people prepared to live in sparse tents rather than return to damaged homes.

Yet, there was a big crowd of local football fans outside the Irish team's hotel when McCarthy led his players off the coach, and there was little evidence of the hate placards which Chelsea said they faced on their arrival in Istanbul for their recent game against Galatasaray.

Although the number of supporters accompanying the team is significantly down on recent games, some 60 intrepid souls travelled with the official party yesterday. And a further 200 are expected in from Dublin tomorrow to augment the hardy ex-patriots who are converging on Turkey from across Europe.