EURO 2004 QUALIFIER/Republic of Ireland v Georgia: Ivo Susak tells Emmet Malone why he believes his side can shock Ireland.

With just three away wins in 12 years of competitive football, it would be easy to dismiss Georgian footballers as travelling about as well as their country's wine.

However, the team goes into this evening's game against Ireland on a remarkable high after the recent defeat of neighbours Russia, and with a man in charge who knows all about making the best of rather meagre resources.

Ivo Susak did the rounds back in his native Croatia, working at several clubs before travelling to France '98 as one of Miroslav Blazevic's assistants and then taking charge of the country's under-21 side.

A spell at Slovenian side Maribor followed, where he helped the team maintain its dominance of the country's domestic scene.

More recently, he has ended Dinamo Tbilisi's four-year run without a trophy, guiding his side to the league title in the final round of games last week, a matter of days after they had also clinched the cup.

Now he finds himself the focus of the nation's undivided footballing ambitions with an enthusiastic public back home hoping that a team that started this Euro 2004 campaign poorly in Switzerland can add to the four points they have taken at home from the games with Switzerland and Russia.

If he's daunted by the prospect of living up to the challenge he certainly doesn't look it.

"When we come to Ireland," he says, "we know that they will start as favourites, but there are no absolute favourites in football these days and paper favourites must prove themselves on the pitch."

When he took over the team in the build-up to the game with the Russians he inherited a panel that included a number of quality players, but also one which had been troubled by internal division and tensions between leading players and his predecessor, Alexander Chivadze.

"The first thing I had to do," he says, "was to restore the players' self-confidence and I think that that was achieved quite quickly. What difference I have made after that can perhaps be better judged by others than by me."

With just one game under his belt at this stage, his tactical approach in this evening's game is difficult to predict and, while he talks about using a sweeper, others close to the squad anticipate the Georgians lining out in a fairly straightforward 4-4-2 formation.

Kerr and Chris Hughton have both talked about reacting to how the Georgians might play, but he makes light of the importance of the opposition's approach, citing a conversation he had with Christophe Daum after the then-Bayer Leverkusen coach had decided to play 3-5-2 against an Italian side in the Champions League. "I asked him how did he expect to cope with their 4-4-2, and," he grins, "he told me that they should be worrying about how to react to his 3-5-2".

Still, his use of the team's star player, Milan defender Kakha Kaladze, may depend on where he sees the Irish posing the greatest threat. Even at 22, the former Dinamo Tbilisi man has shown himself well capable of playing at either centre or left back, while there is even the suspicion that, on this occasion, he will be used as a defensive presence in midfield.

Dundee's Zurab Khizanishvili is another of the side's rising stars with several much bigger clubs said to be interested in signing the defender over the summer, while Malkhaz Asatiani - who started up front against the Russians but may drop into midfield for this game - also has a growing reputation outside of his country.

More important than the individual talents, he says, is the spirit that has been fostered within the group, something that he has had to try to develop without being able to communicate with the players directly.

"There is a separate language of football," he says through one of the squad's several translators. "And, in the end, they understand it whether I am speaking Croatian, Esperanto or just gibberish.

"Against Ireland," he smiles, "they will be in no doubt what it is that I want them to achieve."