Mary Hannigan talks to the Norwich centre back cum striker about the downside of being too versatile.

Twenty minutes to go, 2-0 down to Manchester United at Old Trafford, Norwich City manager Nigel Worthington had a look at his options on the bench. He decided he'd go for the new fella, throw him on up front, give the team a target man. Plenty of height, a physical presence, he might unsettle the home defence. When he got the signal from his new manager Gary Doherty must have concluded that his career was turning into Groundhog Day.

He hardly helped his crusade to become a full-time centre-half at club level by doing exactly as his manager had asked of him on his debut: he did offer a physical presence up front that Norwich hadn't had all afternoon; he did start winning balls in the air, and he did unsettle the United defence, which had Roy Keane and Mikael Silvestre at its centre that day. And five minutes after coming on he helped create the goal that brought Norwich back in to the game.

Four days later he made his full Norwich debut at St James Park, again up front, and did well, ironically proving to be something of a nuisance for Andy O'Brien, one of Doherty's chief rivals for the place he covets in the Irish defence. And, to cap it all, he won Norwich a point, equalising 17 minutes from time.

Doherty has made five more appearances for Norwich since then, every one of them as a forward, which isn't quite how he saw it panning out in August when Worthington signed him, on a three-year deal, from Tottenham for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £800,000.

"Gary is at the stage of his career where he wants to be recognised in one position and not as a utility player," said Worthington at the time. "He gives us options, but I'm signing him first and foremost as a defender."

"That's certainly where I thought I would be playing when I signed for them," said Doherty yesterday. "But they wanted options, they wanted a target man, so I've been playing up front. I've been doing well, but I'm hopeful they'll change that approach, when I go back I think I'll be playing more at centre half."

That hope is based on the fact in his last four Premiership appearances Norwich, bottom of the table, scored just one goal, before he was dropped for their last game, a 2-2 draw at home to Portsmouth. Meanwhile, the defence has conceded 14 goals in eight games: no team has a worse record in the Premiership. Worthington, Doherty trusts, will now see a greater need for his services at the back.

Despite these early frustrations, Doherty says he has no regrets about leaving Spurs, for whom he made 78 appearances after joining in 2000 from Luton. "The point came when I felt I had to move on if I wanted to progress, especially when they signed Noureddine Naybet," he said of the Moroccan defender, one of 14 signings made by Jacques Santini (or, more accurately, by Spurs' sporting director Frank Arneson) since he arrived at White Hart Lane during the summer.

Two steps back to take one step forward? "I think so, yeah," he said of the move to Norwich, "that's the way I'm looking at it. I just needed to get away and get a fresh start. But I want to be playing in defence at Norwich, I've always said that's my best position. It's different at international level, it's just good to give the manager options and, realistically, my best hope of winning more caps is as a centre forward."

It was, said Kerr, a "tight decision" on Saturday night when he opted to replace the injured Clinton Morrison with Andy Reid and not Doherty. He has the same decision to make again for tomorrow night's game after Morrison was ruled out for a month.

"I thought Andy did really well on Saturday, but if Brian goes for a big man up front against the Faroes I hope I'll be the one he picks," said Doherty. "I'm like any other sub, I want to play. I'm always desperate to get another game."

The omens are mixed for the 24-year-old. He's featured in 15 of Kerr's 22 games, starting five in defence and six up front, coming on as an attacking substitute four times. He has, though, started in only two of Ireland's nine competitive games under Kerr (home and away against Georgia in the last European qualifiers; he scored in both). He'll hope to make it three tomorrow night but if, instead, he's summoned from the bench to provide "a physical presence up front" it won't be uncharted territory.