Irish seek FIFA help over play-offs

FAI general secretary Brendan Menton will battle to preserve a twolegged play-off against Ireland's Asian opponents after the Republic sealed second spot in Group Two behind Portugal with a convincing 4-0 win over Cyprus. Ireland's difficulty is that they still do not know who will emerge from the two Asian groups as there are still another three weeks before Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates complete their qualifying campaign.

With the onset of milit ary attacks in Afghanistan, there are many difficulties ahead for the FAI before the second, away leg, scheduled for November 15.

On the pitch, Niall Quinn, on his 35th birthday, scored his 21st goal for his country to claim the all-time goalscoring record when he headed home Sunderland teammate Kevin Kilbane's cross to score Ireland's second.

Quinn said: 'Hearing the crowd singing Happy Birthday was incredible and their reaction when the goal went in was amazing.'

Ian Harte opened the scoring with a wonderful left foot free-kick from 25 yards while Roy Keane and David Connolly sealed the victory with second-half goals.