Mick McCarthy will not shirk the responsibility of chasing the game when he lays out his strategy for tomorrow's World Cup playoff against Belgium at Lansdowne Road.

Torn between putting the Belgians under persistent pressure or putting up the shutters to deny them the away goal which could prove ruinous, he is ready to solve his crisis of priorities by emphasising the positive.

"As the home team, the onus is on us to go and try to win the game," he said. "I'm sure they will be defensive in their approach and our challenge is to break them down.

"It doesn't mean that we will be taking unacceptable risks but we have to be positive to the point where our skill and our self-belief will take us into scoring situations.

"I know what to expect and the players know what to expect. And having weighed it all up, I believe that we will win the tie. Some people have said to me that a scoreless draw would not be wholly unacceptable and there is some validity in that.

"But you could do your head in working out what is and isn't a good result for us. For me, a good result means winning the game."

McCarthy went back to the medieval surrounds of Kilkea Castle in Co Kildare yesterday, to acquire the peace and quiet which he hopes can induce a winning formula. And he promptly gave substance to the point by locking the gates to outsiders for each of two training sessions.

He was, he said, working on setpieces, although he believes they have not been a problem to date. That he hastened to add, did not include Gheorghe Hagi's 35-yard free kick which sailed over Alan Kelly's head during the receent Romanian game, a mishap which he attributes to a loss of concentration.

If the media pressure continues to grow, it hasn't, as yet, forced a change in the manager's policy of delaying his team selection until he arrives at Lansdowne Road for the game. Stoically unmoved by the pronouncement of his Belgian counterpart, Georges Leekens that this cat and mouse ruse has little or no merit, he was prepared to add nothing to Sunday's statement, beyond stating that he would not water down midfield, by playing two specialist wingers.

He confirmed, however, that confirmed that Terry Phelan has recovered from an ankle injury and that Neale Fenn is fit and available to fill the vacancy opened by Michael Evans's accident in training on Sunday.

Further than that he is not prepared to go, although it will be a big surprise if he fails to nominate Tony Cascarino and David Connolly as his two front men in a 4-4-2 formation.

Certain of selection also is Andy Townsend, absent from the 1-1 draw draw with Romania because of a knee problem but now sufficiently fit to lead out the team in what he acknowledges is his biggest game since the European Championship play-off with Holland at Anfield two years ago.

For him, the possibility of going to the World Cup finals for a third successive occasion is as exciting as ever. But now, he believes the responsibility on senior players like him, is even heavier than it was in 1990 or in America four years later.

"I feel we are obliged to play well to ensure that the guys in the squad who have never been to the World Cup finals have the chance of playing at the highest level of all," he said.

"You saw in Ian Wright's eyes after England had qualified in Rome what it means to a player, even a senior player, to get to the finals. Imagine what it would do for people like David Connolly or Ian Harte to follow him there.

"Unlike them, I was 26 when I played in the finals for the first time. And when I came back from Italy, I was so full of it that my feet barely touched the ground.

"In a very real way, it's important for the future of football in Ireland that we qualify. We need to do so, to ensure that the impetus is still there when the Damien Duffs and the Robbie Keanes eventually make it through to the senior squad.

On the loss of Roy Keane, his comrade-in-arms in central midfield and a willing lieutenant when he needed people to be brave in the torrid heat of America three summers ago, the team captain is specific.

"That loss is hard to put into words but the bottom line is that it's a massive blow" he says. "Roy's always been a hell of a player but when he damaged his knee in the game up at Leeds, he couldn't have been playing better."

"It's ironic now to recall that at one time people were questioning his commitment to Ireland. But I think he delivered his answer by the way he performed in his last five or six international games for Ireland.

"He's always been regarded as a great club player. This year, he came of age as a great international player, a superb competitor who became more responsible on and off the pitch. I think we'd all feel a lot more confident if he was still around."

With a sense of diplomacy befitting his status in the team, Townsend declines to make direct comparisons between this and the squads which went to Italy and America.

"It's inadvisable to do so, not least because the current team has yet to qualify. It's true to say that there are not nearly as many big name players around now as there were in both of those assignments. Against that, however, there is much more emerging talent in Mick McCarthy's squad."