Emmet Malone finds Robbie Keane in a typically upbeat mood ahead of tonight's crucial game against Switzerland

The day before what is undoubtedly a crucially important Ireland game Robbie Keane again finds himself discussing his club career. There are, it seems, just two types of interview with Tallaght's finest - one based on the "how long will you stick it out at your current club?" line of questioning, the other following a "how good is it to be at your new club?" line of inquiry. And so yesterday, of course, the 22-year-old's recent move to Tottenham was a major topic of conversation.

Keane is well used to these situations and, as Dean Kiely observes when asked about his young squad-mate, the Dubliner appears to possess maturity well beyond his years. Calmly he tells a packed room that he is happy with his new team, delighted to be playing regular football again and looking forward to a prolonged spell at a club.

"But," he adds swiftly, "I always wanted to settle in at Leeds and Inter. I'm not one of those people who'd be happy to sit on the bench and pick up my wages. I love playing football."

Playing football at Lansdowne Road where, he recalls, he used to come to watch every game on a £2 schoolboy ticket, still provides a particular thrill, never more so than on the big nights like tonight. Since his earliest days at Wolves and as he flew through the ranks of Ireland's underage set-up Keane has been proof of that football line about "kids having no fear". And when he is asked whether, as this team's most consistent source of goals in recent times, he feels a burden on his shoulders going into these more important matches, he looks bewildered.

"You lads ask me that every time," he says "and I keep trying to explain that it's something I love. Pressure doesn't come into it, it's just great to be playing for Ireland, to be playing in the big games."

His form certainly suggests he is thriving in international football with seven goals during the last 12 months already placing him within sight of Niall Quinn's international record.

He is, however, no longer a newcomer to the scene and he occasionally has to correct himself as when, in answer to a question about John O'Shea and some of the other players on the fringe, he replies that "it's always great to see the young lads . . . well, I say young lads but what I mean is new fellas coming in".

Of last month's defeat in Russia he says little and when asked whether, as one of the few players to do well that evening, he felt a particular frustration at the night's events he shrugs the question off.

"When you're losing every player feels frustrated. Last month we played badly, individually and as a team, but that's behind us. We want to win this game but we don't come into it feeling a load more pressure because we lost a game a month ago."

Like a few members of the squad Keane has been a little surprised by the scale of the reaction to the defeat in Russia.

"You're not going to win every game," he points out with a touch of exasperation. "The best teams in the world don't win every game. But for some reason people seem to be jumping all over our backs after that defeat."

A win tonight, he reckons, and Moscow will be forgotten. On present form nobody is more likely to consign it to history than the man who hopes his wandering days are behind him.