Ireland reaction: Confirmation is expected soon that Ireland will continue their preparation for the start of the World Cup qualification campaign in the autumn with games against Jamaica and Nigeria in London at the end of the season.

Negotiations are said to be ongoing on a mini-tournament, earmarked for Upton Park, between the Republic's game in Dublin on May 27th with Romania and the meeting in Amsterdam nine days later with Holland.

The games will bring to six the number of matches Brian Kerr has left to play as he weighs up his options ahead of the visit of World Cup games against Cyprus in Dublin on Saturday, September 4th, and the game in Switzerland the following Wednesday.

The quality of the opposition may come as a little bit of a disappointment, particularly as Ireland's reputation and marketability have been considerably enhanced by last month's draw with the world champions Brazil and this week's defeat of Europe's form team, the Czech Republic.

For Kerr, though, there is an obvious upside to the abandonment of the proposed trip to the US. With no long flights or time differences to be dealt with during the time the squad will be together the Irish manager effectively has an extra couple of days to work with his players.

Just how much is achieved will depend to some extent on the strength of the group he manages to pull together after a long and hard season but if he has the majority of his squad available to him, Kerr, who has said we will see a greater element of experimentation in his sides between now and the autumn, may well choose to revisit the issue of Robbie Keane's striking partner.

In the last couple of games the manager has given Clinton Morrison the chance to show he can form an effective partnership with the Tottenham striker but despite the 24-year-old's growing ability to make a contribution to the team's general attacking play, Wednesday's performance against the Czechs served to underline his shortcomings as a finisher.

At Birmingham the improvement in Morrison's fortunes that followed a frustrating first season, has been based almost entirely on his success in a supporting role to Mikael Forssell. Even in an increasingly strong City side, however, he has never come remotely close to rediscovering the sort of goalscoring form he managed at Crystal Palace where he racked up 71 goals in 181 league and cup appearances.

His record at Birmingham is a more modest nine in 59 games and of the three goals he has managed this season two have come in games where Birmingham's opponents have conceded four or more goals.

Kerr acknowledged this week that other aspects of the striker's game have improved during the past season and a half, citing his improved decision making in pressure situations as a particular area of progress.

Certainly he has good points but the reality is that his progress is not in line with what might have been expected. He scored five goals during his first 11 (all but three of them from the bench) international appearances.

Morrison has at least, however, seized the opportunity to learn what he can do at the highest level whereas David Connolly has spent too much time playing outside of the top flight, where he would presumably have benefited from testing himself against better defenders.

Having disappointed when given his chance against Switzerland, Connolly has slipped down the pecking order and even his strong early season form at West Ham appears to have faded somewhat with the 26-year-old scoring just one of his side's 14 goals in their last 10 outings.

Alan Lee's performance on Wednesday night showed some promise but unless he makes almost unthinkable progress between now and the autumn Gary Doherty looks set to remain a serious option for Kerr in attack.

With at least four ahead of him in the queue for a place at centre half it remains Doherty's best chance of featuring on a regular basis in the forthcoming qualification campaign.

Against the group's weaker sides he may well even continue to cause defences some problems but his spells in attack at Spurs have shown he is rarely capable of troubling defences that contain a bit more quality.

Damien Duff, of course, is another strong option while Andy Reid could also be considered given his versatility but as we have consistently seen with Chelsea this season Duff is at his most dangerous and influential, which is how you want him, out on the left and allowed to attack the defence.

Reid, meanwhile, has done little yet to prove that he could play in the more advanced role at this level.

He may get the chance to show us what he can do between now and the summer but there is now something of a dilemma facing Kerr. He must decide whether to use the forthcoming games to weigh up his best alternatives or attempt to coax Morrison into becoming the goalscorer we all want him to be.