Brian Kerr, the Republic of Ireland manager, will put his under-18 squad through their paces one more time in Belfast this morning before deciding on the starting line-up for this evening's UEFA Youths' Championship qualification play-off first leg game against Northern Ireland at the Oval.

Aside from injured duo of Richie Partridge and Exeter's Geoff Breslan, who has been replaced in the squad by Cork City's Greg O'Halloran, Kerr has a full squad to choose from.

The team is likely to be closely based on the group of players which brought Ireland through the tournament stage of the qualifying process. That should mean starting places for Celtic pair Colin Healy and Ger Crossley and Jason Gavin of Middlesbrough, as well as West Ham's Shaun Byrne. Northern Ireland, attempting to reach the Youths finals for the sixth time in their last nine attempts, will be close to full strength too, although Leeds United striker Warren Feeney has been replaced by clubmate Simon Watson. The striking partnership for the game is likely to be made up of Blackburn's Gary Hamilton and either Jonathan Topley (also of Blackburn) or Northampton's Andrew Morrow.

When these two teams last met, two years ago at under-16 level, Northern Ireland won 4-1 and home manager Roy Miller still has many of that team available to him this evening. The second leg of the play-off will take place on May 11th with the winners going on to the championship finals in Sweden this summer.