LET’S BRING BACK THE FANFARE

Mccarthy determined to get Boys in Green onside again

last night vowed to entertain Ireland fans in his one and only campaign before Stephen Kenny succeeds him.

“I’m delighted with the good will shown to us by the fans and I just think that people are looking forward to getting back to watching games,” said Mccarthy.

“And I’m looking forward to trying to entertain them.”

While Mccarthy has added a sprinkling of fresh blood in the shape of Jack Byrne, Josh Cullen and Mark Travers, the rest of the squad remains the same.

The challenge facing him is to get a better tune out of those familiar faces than O’neill did at the tail end of his five years.

The belief is they are better players than they showed last year – not least in front of goal which is an area Mccarthy has worked hard on this week.

“What have we done? The first training session, I wasn’t happy with the amount of chances that we were creating, or players getting in the box,” he said.

“TC [Terry Connor, the assistant] put a great session on exactly for that, on the third day, and we gave them them the feedback on the night.

“We showed the difference between how you can do it. We’ve got to do it in a game of course, doing it in training is one thing.

“But we’ve worked on it, and that’s pretty much all you can do, give players information in terms of wanting people in the box, putting crosses in the box.

“However you get in there, just try and create more chances and have more bodies on the move, trying to score if we create the chances, and hopefully we do.”

Mccarthy had more or less settled on his starting team before the players gathered in Dublin last weekend – but left himself scope to change his mind.

Quizzed on his starting team last night, he said: “Some have really stood out and impressed me. I’m really pleased with them all, but