Emmet Malone takes a look at Robbie Keane's scoring feats for the Republic of Ireland

Andy Reid's post-match assertion that Robbie Keane's hat-trick against San Marino on Wednesday represented "two fingers to the knockers" might well be viewed as an admirable display of loyalty by a team member to his captain, but the fact remains the Tottenham striker has a good deal more to do if he is to silence his critics.

Keane's goals brought his international tally to 29 in 70 games, an Irish record and a highly respectable ratio. However, the figures hide the fact the 26-year-old has consistently struggled to find the net in the Republic's biggest games since the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, where he scored three times in four appearances and appeared to promise a huge amount for the future.

Since then, the Dubliner has scored 16 times in 33 appearances for Ireland with nine coming in 19 competitive games. Just as the Irish team has failed to beat a team of note in a competitive game since September 2001, however, so Keane has failed to score against a team of real quality in a game where there was anything at stake since his spot-kick in Suwon against Spain.

In 788 minutes of football over nine games against Russia, Switzerland, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, the striker has failed to find the net once. His only goal, in fact, against a team that turned out to be a serious group rival of Ireland's came in the home game against Israel.

He limped out of that game after 25 minutes having started brightly. But he failed to make the hoped for impact when the two sides met in Tel Aviv and, even if the games against the Israelis are included in his post-2002 World Cup statistics, he has found the net just once in over 10 hours of competitive football against Ireland's stronger opponents.

In contrast, Keane thrives against good teams in friendly games and weak teams in competitive matches. When there have been no qualifying points at stake he has found the net against the likes of the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Croatia.

And at first glance his overall competitive record looks impressive too - it actually amounts, at 19 goals in 39 games, to a significantly better strike rate than he achieved in non-competitive games. This is rather easily explained on the basis the FAI don't look to play friendly games against the likes of Albania, San Marino or the Faroe Islands.

These are, as it happens, precisely the sort of nations against which the Irish skipper has racked up the competitive goals. In the Euro 2004 campaign he managed two goals in six appearances - one each against Albania and Georgia.

Next time around it was four (two of them penalties) in nine with one coming against Cyprus, two against the Faroes and that early effort against Israel accounting for the fourth.

This time around he has been contained by the Germans, Cypriots and Czechs before finding his scoring touch against the part-timers who came to town on Wednesday and bringing his tally for the current campaign to an ostensibly impressive three in four games.

That he bagged his first international hat-trick on home turf is no great surprise either for, excluding the World Cup finals which were, obviously enough, played in neutral countries, Keane has only ever scored two competitive goals away from home - one against Malta in September 1999 and one in the 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in Amsterdam 12 months later.

Indeed, since those World Cup finals he has run up some 878 minutes of competitive football on foreign soil without scoring a single goal.

On Tuesday he heaped generous praise on young Reading striker Kevin Doyle who, as it would turn out, was to score his first international goal against the Sammarinese. Keane said at a press conference that while Doyle likes to play just off the central defenders he prefers to occupy a deeper role in the hope of "making things happen".

Against the better sides, however, it is far from clear how much he really does make happen even when he contributes in other ways. The reality is that unless Doyle matches even the most extravagant of expectations in the very near future, Steve Staunton must find a way of generating a better return from Keane's undoubted talents.

At Spurs, he looks at times to have the potential to be a top-class out-and-out striker but he rarely gets, or avails of, the opportunity to play that role for any sustained period of time. For Ireland he will, of course, continue to merit his inclusion in whatever way he is deployed because there are no real alternatives but the fact he has scored not far short of half the Republic's goals since the summer of 2002 shouldn't be allowed to obscure the simple fact that neither Keane nor his international team-mates find the net nearly often enough against quality opposition in matches that matter.

Unless that changes, Staunton's hopes of sparking a revival of the team's fortunes during the remaining three years of his contract will amount to little more than wishful thinking.