Republic of Ireland Under-21s are in desperate need of improvement as they head into tomorrow night's Uefa Championship qualifier against Bulgaria in Athlone.

The Republic have lost their first three Group Three matches without scoring a goal, with their latest setback coming in a 1-0 loss to minnows Montenegro in Podgorica at the weekend.

The squad is boosted by the return of Sunderland striker Anthony Stokes and captain Darren O'Dea, while Leicester's Athlone-born Alan Sheehan will be keen to start in his home town.

Owen Garvan, Darren Randolph and Stephen O'Halloran are all still out due to injury while Ipswich's Billy Clarke, who did not travel to Montenegro due to injury, is now an injury doubt.

Manager Don Givens is desperate to see his side break their scoring duck.

Despite dominating the game against Montenegro and creating a litany of chances in the 3-0 defeat to England, the Republic could not find the net and have yet to score.

Givens, who acted as caretaker manager for the senior side's Euro 2008 clash in Wales last weekend, admits qualification looks unlikely with second-placed Portugal already nine points adrift.

Instead, he concedes their ambitions have been lowered accordingly.

"We do need to get some points on the board. Second place goes into a play-off but that looks a long way off at the moment to be honest," said Givens. "We've had it with the under-21s before where we've had poor runs then had 12 games unbeaten so anything is possible. Realistically all I'm thinking about is a good performance and converting chances.

"Anthony Stokes and Darren O'Dea have come in after being with the seniors but Keith Treacy has gone back to Blackburn after coming back from Montenegro with a slight hamstring problem," said Givens.

"If he'd broken down he could be out for five or six weeks and he's doing well with Blackburn, very close to the first team, so that came into the decision making to send him back.

"From what I saw of the tape of the Montenegro game, in the second half particularly, he looked like he could be an asset for us.

"Anthony and Darren are both experienced players and have been involved with the seniors. Darren has played Champions League.

"That's a good boost for us to have that kind of player amongst us and hopefully it'll help one or two of the others to raise their efforts.

"Darren had a run then the hamstring injury knocked him back down the pecking order and that's a reason why we decided to send Keith Treacy back, so he won't be knocked back."