A slightly different outcome on Saturday and there might have been sugar-sweet talk at the week's final pre-match press conference yesterday of ending this international double header with a little Turkish delight.

As it has turned out, however, not even a win over the World Cup's bronze medallists at Lansdowne Road tonight would be enough to put a positive spin on what will be remembered as a decidedly disappointing trip home for Brian Kerr's players.

The Ireland manager had made it clear over the past couple of days that he was unhappy with the severity of some of the media criticism levelled at a couple of the Republic of Ireland's starters after Saturday's draw against the Russians.

By lunchtime yesterday, though, Kerr was fairly upbeat about this evening's contest as well as his team's prospects of still progressing out of Group 10 and keeping alive their hopes of making it to next summer's European Championships in Portugal.

On the face of it this evening's game is of little importance but with a win almost certain to be required against Switzerland in Basle next month Kerr will be hoping that a match against such highly-rated opponents will help to lift players who under-performed at the weekend, while allowing those who looked on from the sidelines to make a case for inclusion in the last of the Republic's group games.

There will certainly be changes. With Shay Given, Kenny Cunningham, Lee Carsley and John O'Shea all having left for England aat least four of places in his starting 11 are already up for grabs.

Clinton Morrison, meanwhile, has been told that he won't start and with Matt Holland, who will captain the team if fit, still struggling slightly with the ankle injury he picked up against the Australians, more than half of those who started at the weekend could be missing tonight.

After Alan Lee was also ruled by injury, Kerr yesterday called in Glen Crowe, whose form has impressed the Ireland manager in recent weeks, to provide cover up front.

Kerr is likely to retain the rest of Saturday's starters in an effort to maintain some sort of continuity and extract something of real value from this occasion.

With Richard Dunne and Andy O'Brien, both of whom are set to feature over the course of the game, apparently competing to partner Gary Breen in Switzerland, it seems safe to presume that the Sunderland centre back will start as, most likely, will Steve Carr at right back.

Damien Duff's role could well be altered if Kerr decides to have a look at Gary Doherty and David Connolly playing together up front but the Ireland coach would only confirm yesterday that Doherty, like Nicky Colgan and Mark Kinsella, who will be skipper on the night if Holland doesn't make it, will be involved from the start.

In the circumstances Duff may again be asked to lend mobility, pace and inventiveness to the attack as Ireland take on probably the best team to visit Dublin in some time, even if it is not quite as motivated as the Russian one that headed for home after Saturday's game.

The Turks, he said, "have probably made more progress than any other country in the whole of Europe during the past 25 years. What they have achieved is remarkable but they've done it through investing in their under-age structure and their league which is a highly competitive one now, one that's become very attractive for foreign players to come to."

Last summer's success at the World Cup in Japan and Korea is ample evidence of what has been achieved and Senol Gunes's men have maintained their form into the current European qualification campaign in which the Turks lead Group Seven by two points with England in second place.

On Saturday they beat Liechtenstein by three goals and might well have had a couple more in a game they dominated from beginning to end.

They only started the game with three of the side that lined out for the kick-off of last April's visit to their main qualification rivals and it is unclear whether their failure in Sunderland has prompted a reshaping of the side by Gunes who has 12 of last summer's World Cup squad,including a number of prominent figures who didn't start at the weekend.

That could mean returns for the likes of Fatih Akyel, Bulent Korkmaz and, one of the outstanding performers last summer, Hasan Sas, but the Turks were giving very little away yesterday so it will be close to kick-off time this evening before we are clearer regarding Gunes's intentions.

"I presume there wouldn't be a question of them not taking any qualifying match as seriously as another so maybe it's just that they have a lot of players who they consider to be very close to each other in terms of ability," said Kerr yesterday. "But they'll have wanted this match because they saw us as a capable English-type team that can give them a good game so it wouldn't make any sense to squander that by playing anything other than their strongest side here."

Asked how he rated the Turks as compared with the English Kerr said the issue didn't really concern him. Not yet at least.

"If we were to end up coming up against one of them in the next round of the competition then I'd be a lot more concerned about getting to know about them in a bit more detail. They're both good sides and we know that the Turks will be tough opponents for us."

The opportunities are there, he insists however, for players involved tonight to ensure the side that started at the weekend is reshaped to accommodate them in Basle in a month's time. That motivation combined with the need for one or two of those who did feature to establish that the weekend's performance can be swiftly and substantially improved upon should make for a better showing by the home side.

Hopefully it will be an entertaining game between two teams with much to prepare themselves for in the weeks ahead.

Possible teams.

IRELAND: Colgan (Stockport County); Carr (Tottenham Hotspur), Dunne (Manchester City), Breen (Sunderland), Harte (Leeds United); Finnan (Liverpool), Kinsella (Aston Villa), Holland (Charlton Athletic), Kilbane (Everton); Doherty (Tottenham), Duff (Chelsea).

TURKEY: Recber (Barcelona), Davala (Werder Bremen), Bülent (Galatasaray), Alpay (Aston Villa), Ýbrahim (Besiktas), Sas (Galatasaray), Tugay (Blackburn Rovers), Buruk (Inter Milan), Ergün (Galatasaray), Sükür (Galatasaray), Tuncay (Fenerbahce).