Emmet Malone finds the striker cum defender in confident mood ahead of tomorrow's crucial match

His opportunities to play a significant role in a green jersey over the past few seasons may have been limited as others secured positions above him in the pecking order for both Ireland's front and back lines, but Gary Doherty's loyalty to Brian Kerr remains unshaken ahead of tomorrow's game in Nicosia.

The Norwich City defender insists the Ireland boss deserves a new deal whether or not the Republic qualify for next summer's World Cup finals in Germany.

The 25-year-old was here in 1998 when the Irish under-19s won the European Youth Championship under Kerr, and he has no doubts about the part the Ireland manager played in helping him progress through the ranks. Indeed, as he spoke in the shade of the main stand of the Tsirio stadium in Limassol yesterday, he maintained that there was a huge amount of good will towards the Dubliner from those who go back farthest with him within the senior panel.

"Brian is our manager," he said. "He has done a great job. Obviously, you have given him a lot of stick but he has done a great job. We are a really happy team. The morale is good, and Brian brought Roy back, who has been a great influence in the team.

"He hasn't done a lot wrong. You obviously gave him a bit of stick over the France game but, in the France game, we played really well but they scored a wonder goal.

"That was a sickener," he continues. "That is what football can be like. But I think if you look at Brian's record, he has got a great record. He has got a lot of happy players."

When it is suggested that the France game was not perhaps the biggest setback, Doherty acknowledges there have been other difficulties, but feels apportioning blame is unfair.

"Maybe the Israel games are the ones you might look back on and regret, especially the away one when we were cruising and they scored a late goal.

"But Israel have picked up some good results, drawing with France as well as with us. They are no mugs. In international football, you very rarely get poor teams and Israel have come through well."

Those draws, though, combined with last month's defeat, have left the Irish needing two wins in order to stand a chance of qualification, which, everybody knows, would secure the manager's position.

"I think we are all determined, but we don't feel under pressure. Everyone is thinking, 'Right, we have got to win this. Let's buckle down and get the two wins and everything will be rosy - hopefully'.

"We have got to be confident that we can come to Cyprus and play Switzerland at home and win with the players we have. And it would be nice to do it (win these last two qualifiers and qualify) for Brian. We want to do it for our country, but I suppose there is an added incentive as Brian has nurtured us all through.

"There are a lot of young lads in the squad who he has brought through and, if we could do it for him, it would be brilliant."

Doherty has recently re-established himself as a regular at the back in the Norwich team but looks set to start tomorrow's game on the bench, while his most likely role as the game goes on would be as a replacement striker.

Andy O'Brien, meanwhile, is likely to miss out again to Richard Dunne in central defence, where the Portsmouth defender did well until losing his place to the in-form Manchester City player.

The 26-year-old, who never played under Kerr at underage level, is much more circumspect regarding the manager's position than his team-mate, observing that it is "the people up above who decide who is the manager and who is not. As a player you have a duty to do your best for whoever that they decide on. It doesn't matter whether it's at club level or for your country."

The spirit within the squad, he insisted, was strong and he played down the suggestion that the heat here (over 30 degrees yesterday) would be a problem.

"It's hot all right, but it's an evening kick-off and when we arrived in the evening it wasn't too bad. Anyway, when you have a job to do and you're focused on it things like that tend to matter a little bit less. It's going to a difficult game and we know the best we can do is get six points over the next few days, but we're determined to do that. If we do, then we can at least say we did our part at this stage and then see whether the other results go our way."

Damien Duff, meanwhile, trained without apparent problems yesterday despite having seven stitches in his foot which were required after he was injured while scoring for Chelsea against Liverpool last weekend.

The winger has been cleared to play by his club and is expected to be fully fit, while Steven Reid said he hoped to train today after an ankle injury kept him on the sidelines for a second successive day.