MICK McCARTHY yesterday denied that he is at loggerheads with his team captain, Andy Townsend, over the system of playing three defenders and two wing backs.

Queried on reported criticism by Townsend over the tactics deployed in the Macedonian game, he said: "I think that if you sit the team captain down here beside me, you will discover that he does not disagree with the system we've been using.

"I trust Andy as my captain and I believe he knows it. But I repeat there is no disagreement whatever between us, on the way we should go about playing.

"I read a report that some players were dissatisfied but if this is the case, they certainly didn't say so when I asked them face to face. They informed me they agree with it.

"Somewhere along the line, players, I feel, get caught between two stools, between passing the ball and harrying and pressurising the opposition as we've always done.

"I've always said that the system we're trying to play, should contain an element of both. But the idea of defenders passing the ball among themselves and then knocking it back to put their goalkeeper under pressure, as we saw in Macedonia, is not and never has been part of my coaching manual.