Row with Roy is over

It happens all the time in football, it was patched up that night and forgotten about the next morning.

It was also blown out of all proportion, and it had nothing to do with his decision that night that he wanted to go home. That was taken for personal reasons, then reversed.

That storm, too, blew over. It is forgotten about now, a team meeting yesterday cleared the air and we are back in harness and focused again on World Cup advancement.

There will be no fall-out for now although Roy has now said he will quit international football at the end of this tournament. Until then he and the rest of the squad are getting on with the business in hand.

The one thing I can promise you is there will be more training ground rows. At this level, this close to a major tournament, that goes without saying. It is almost to be encouraged. If players didn't care, if they weren't tetchy, nervy and anxious, there would be something wrong.

That sort of emotion is not a worry - nor is Roy's situation.

In fact, our biggest danger here is the threat of underachievement.

We have the individuals who can make a real difference at this level, players ready to grab the chance ahead of them in the next fortnight like Damien Duff, Robbie and Roy Keane. We have a squad strong enough and young enough to cope with the weather and the opposition when we face Cameroon, Germany and Saudi Arabia in Group E.

We have a manager who has matured into the job in the six years he has been in charge, a manager more than capable of emulating anything Jack Charlton achieved with Ireland in 1990 or '94.

All we need to do now is deliver, collectively and individually. This team has more potential than the side that got to the last eight in 1990 and bags more stamina than the side that made the last 16 in Orlando.

It is that 1994 team that holds the lesson for the current Irish side. We underachieved in the USA, lost to a bad Mexico side because we were unable to cope with the conditions and the heat and humidity of a noon kick-off in Florida.

That always bugs me when I look back on my World Cup experience.

Yes, my life changed forever when I saved that Timofte penalty against Romania in 1990 but I know people should remember us for America as much as they do for Italia '90. It didn't happen like that and that's one lesson I preach to the Republic players, almost on a daily basis. They must deliver when the chance arises.

Working with the Irish team as goalkeeping coach means I am almost as involved now as I was in previous World Cups. Coaching will never beat playing, any old pro will tell you that, but it does come close.

And when Shay Given shows the world that he is the best young keeper in Europe at these finals, I will be as proud as his father.

Shay can live up to that expectation here. He is already better than David Seaman or Nigel Martyn and even better than Fabien Barthez.

The difference between Barthez and Shay is attitude. He has the confidence, but not the cockiness of the French keeper and that is why he will prove himself a better custodian than Barthez in Japan. Arrogance leads to mistakes in a keeper.

We have seen that repeatedly with Barthez over the past 12 months and, thankfully, that's not something that could ever be levelled at Shay.

He hit a rough patch two years ago that has been the making of him. He lost out to Alan Kelly with Ireland and Steve Harper at Newcastle and Shay had to look in the mirror and ask a few hard questions.

Shay realised then that he was not going to be the world's No 1 without a lot of hard work. Shay put his head down, put in the hours and is now first choice for Bobby Robson and Mick McCarthy.

That is his right and I really believe that he will justify my faith in him at this summer's World Cup.

Behind him, we are lucky to have Dean Kiely and Alan Kelly waiting in the wings. Dean impresses me the more I work with him, his attitude and application are first-class and those are vital attributes when you play in conditions as unfamiliar as Korea and Japan.

Alan is third choice now, but he is itching to get involved. He has the World Cup experience the other two lack and he has been passing that on, working their heads as much as we work their bodies. The big test for keepers here will come with the new adidas Fevernova ball. It is light, it is whippy and it is pacey.

It is also easy to use the ball as an excuse. I always laugh that Craig Johnston was to blame for my error against Holland in Orlando eight years ago because he developed a new ball for those finals.

I use that excuse as a joke. No player can blame the ball when it all goes wrong, and I don't believe it will go wrong for Ireland here. A good result in the opener against Cameroon and full concentration against Germany and we can go all the way to the quarter-finals again.

That was as much as we achieved back in 1990. It changed my life then and it can change the lives of these young Irish players forever.

They're good enough the Keanes, Duffs and Givens of this World Cup.

All they need to do now is prove it.