It’s easy to start thinking that after 10 days of these sessions that everything that can be asked of the players has been. Then somebody just comes straight out with a doozie.

"Would you like to rear-end Roy Keane?" a startled looking Alex Pearce was asked yesterday by someone following up a question about the management team's M50 mishap on Tuesday.

"Eh, would you?" The recently signed Derby defender asked back as the journalist admitted that the question had "come out wrong". Pearce, upright and rather proper, played it all with a pretty straight bat. Beside him, Robbie Brady was clearly enjoying the moment a good deal more.

It’s a big week for the Dubliner whose potential importance to the team was underlined by the quality of his set pieces and general play against England on Sunday.

Like everyone else, though, he is aware with that while there was some pride on the line against England, this time there are points to be played for and the Scots will, as a result, be intent on making life just a little more difficult for Ireland.

“Yeah it’s a big game,” he says. “We knew this was the big one coming in. England was a good test for us at the weekend but that’s behind us now and we’ve a massive game this weekend. This is the one we’ve all had our eye on and hopefully we can pull out all the stops and get the three points.”

Immediate impact

Brady made an immediate impact at this level when he scored one goal and made two others on his debut at left back against Oman under Giovanni Trapattoni three years ago but he has yet to really make his mark on anything like that scale when the stakes are as high as they will be this weekend.

His intention a couple of years back would have been to establish himself playing further up the field but he is, he says now, happy to take on whatever role is handed to him and he well remembers, he insists, the significance of the role Ian Harte played as Ireland last reached a World Cup finals back in 2002.

“Of course, he was one of the best ever with his left foot,” he says of the former Leeds United defender. “That probably set me off wanting to take set-pieces, watching the likes of Ian Harte.”

The Drogheda man was sometimes criticised for the quality of his defending but he chipped in with three goals during that qualifying campaign and 12 over the course of his international career.

After his part in dropping of points to Poland, there is some pressure on Brady to contribute more at both ends himself this time out but the 23 year-old insists he is undaunted.

“No, I’m happy enough, I quite enjoy it actually. I like the big games and the expectation and hopefully I can put in a good performance at the weekend and show it.

“There were a couple of little cagey moments [in March],” he admits. “But it’s just getting used to the position because it’s different to the one I was playing with the club.

“With the left wing back role you’ve got an extra man behind you. It is a learning curve but like I said, with the lads playing behind me and little tips here and there, I feel as if I’m getting more comfortable with the position every time I play.”