The only useful aspect of this visit to Greece is that it serves as the clearest illustration of where Irish football is at right now, according to Mark Lawrenson

This is a football match without purpose, a friendly during a lull period in the international calendar at a time when Ireland have no manager, no chief executive and few of their top tier players available.

If the FAI were cuter, it would not have gone ahead.

Tonight's game will be remembered only for the strange debut pairing of Manchester United's John O'Shea, the bright star of the future, and Glen Crowe, our one representative from the domestic league. That, in a way, says it all.

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Glen. Sixteen years is a long wait for a League of Ireland player to get a full cap and given the chasm between the Premiership and smaller leagues, the probability is that Crowe will be the last of his kind.

I just wish that he had a stronger unit around him because although Don Given's selection is adventurous, it would be nice to see Crowe given his opportunity surrounded by more seasoned internationals. But he is young and brimming with confidence and hopefully he will get a chance or two.

These are weird circumstances for O'Shea to at last set off on what ought to be a glorious Irish career. Suffice to say he should have started against Switzerland and is certain to be an automatic choice for whoever gets the Irish post.

It is a thankless task for Givens also. The spat with David Connolly was unfortunate. When I originally heard he had refused to go out of sheer pride, I thought, that's it, good night. But the player claims to have received stitches in his leg, a fair enough reason to duck out.

Even if he had a fit of pique, the likelihood is the slate will be wiped clean when the new manager arrives. It has to be if Irish soccer is to move forward and implement the findings of the Genesis report.

I am just slightly worried about Irish soccer just now and urge the FAI to look in the direction of Scotland and take caution. They are bankrupt of morale and decent players and while our own circumstances should never deteriorate to that point, they could.

Football is cyclical. When greatness leaves a team or an organisation, it can be hard to regenerate.

I just hope the FAI are burning the midnight oil to get a progressive chief executive in place. Once that occurs, it is imperative that that appointment is responsible for the selection of a new manager.

I know many of the candidates that are being floated around and really I think we need a guy who has been around the block, someone acquainted with the highs and lows of the game. We are entering what ought to be a period of consolidation. For that reason, I would offer Joe Kinnear, a guy who knows the nuances of Irish football, a contract until 2004 and see how he goes. I just think he is the right man at this particular time, with so much uncertainty and flux surrounding the Irish game.

Tonight's game takes place in such isolation that the outcome doesn't really matter. It does give the fringe guys, the likes of Stephen McPhail and Colin Healy a welcome opportunity to showcase themselves. But the fact is we don't have a manager for them to impress.

As soon as our European campaign went pear shaped, the FAI ought to have at least tried to persuade the Greeks to abandon the game. They will hardly make much money from it and won't really learn anything about themselves. I just think that with the FAI in such turmoil, it is no time for an international.

But players like to play and some of the Irish guys starting tonight have been struggling to get a break at club level so this fixture will come as a relief. And who knows, maybe a positive result will restore some much-needed good news for the Irish game.

But the serious work begins in the long build up to the resumption of our qualifying campaign. All is not lost but the climb back is long. If Givens leaves with a perfect record, so much the better. But this is not a match too mull over too deeply, for too long.

In an interview with Keith Duggan