The timing may not have been the best, but then we should simply be thankful that the FAI has decided to squeeze in a representative match of some description for the National League this season.

It's an area that has been crying out for some sort of coherent and positive approach, but as the erratic list of fixtures played shows, it hasn't had much of either.

That won't matter too much to the players taking part in tonight's game at the Carlisle Grounds where a good few of Mick McCarthy's B squad can show the Ireland boss what they are capable of while the locally-based players will attempt to impress Ian Evans, as well as play for pride.

That their efforts in the National League is being recognised is, of course, wonderful but it's a pity that there isn't a more organised approach to the whole thing, one that could yield far more tangible benefits for the league and for the association's coaching staff.

There doesn't, for instance, seem to be a great deal of point in the likes of Steve Williams, Dave Hill or Liam Coyle being involved in this evening's game. All undoubtedly deserve their places in Dave Barry's panel, but none has anything to prove to McCarthy or Evans.

Likewise, several of the B panel announced last week would appear, on the basis of their club careers across the water, to have little to offer McCarthy at this point in time. A couple, you would like to think, might even be displaced by National League players were this another game. So, shouldn't we asking ourselves what's the point of this exercise?

There are a number of other possibilities that might have been more rewardingly explored by the FAI when they saw the vacant date. For one thing, it might usefully have been devoted to the under-21s whose UEFA qualification campaign has been a little bumpy so far, in part perhaps because the team finds it difficult to get through a game without losing a body or two along the way.

The FAI might have organised a game for the under-21s and who better for them to play than a National League under-21 side.

If the home team was managed by Brian Kerr or somebody else who knows the scene here but is just a little removed from it, the match might have proven a lot more useful a tool for Evans.

It would also, if it were to become an annual fixture, provide an opportunity for us to gauge how successful the clubs here are in their efforts to bring young talent through. Over the years we would see some sort of pattern in the results of the game and that - even if the fact that both panels could train with Evans and Kerr for the week didn't - should produce recognisable benefits for the future.

That's not to say that the National League's more senior players should be done out of the chance to gain representative honours. Far from it. The fact is that there should always be that sort of outlet open to our best players, at least three or four games each season in which the cream of our clubs' talent get to measure themselves against outside opposition.

There is little point in pretending that there is much to be gained from that opposition being senior Irish players based in England, though. Better to organise regular matches against representative sides from other leagues.

An annual tournament involving Scottish, IFA, English and Welsh league selections would, for instance, have its attractions and, like an annual under-21 game, would at least provide a measure of how we are progressing relative to others.

In the meantime, needless to say, it would be nice if Dave Barry's side won tonight while the B team threw up spectacular prospects for the future. Over the next season or two, however, it would be nicer still if these representative games yielded more than an additional result in the list at the back of the league's yearbook.