IRELAND boss Giovanni Trapattoni has told his players that last month's horror show against Australia in Limerick will not cost them their places in the team for Saturday's World Cup game in Cyprus.

The Ireland manager has remained loyal to his key players since taking charge of the team last year but many fans wondered if a change was needed after the meek 3-0 surrender to Australia.

However, Trapattoni said: "Two or three individual performances were not normal in the last game but in the last month since then those players have grown. I think our condition for the Cyprus game will be better than in the last game as many of our players have played 90 minutes for their clubs since then.

"Kevin Doyle was injured in the Australia game but he is better now, I could see in training yesterday that his condition was much better, and the same goes for other players.

"When a team is not compact, it is possible that one or two individual performances can be down, when the team is compact everyone is strong. When two or three are not in the best condition, the team may not play well," added Trapattoni, who is happy to see his players get regular first team football with their clubs and, in the case of Richard Dunne, a move.

"It's important for us that the players play 90 minutes, and going to Aston Villa is good for Richard. One year ago, Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews and Caleb Folan were only playing a few games for their clubs, but now they are playing 90 minutes."

Cyprus are once again underdogs for their game against Ireland, partly due to the result of their most recent game, a 6-1 friendly defeat by Albania but Trapattoni has sternly cautioned against reading too much into that.

"We must be under no illusions, as Cyprus' 6-1 defeat to Albania was a misleading result, I saw the game," he said.

"Makridis and and Konstantinou are suspended for the game on Saturday, so Cyprus have two players missing, two very important players. But Cyprus have other good players, up front and in midfield, we have four or five midfielders, they have eight!

"I know that football in Cyprus is good. Many years ago I played there with Juventus and we only won 1-0, Cyprus have technical and fast players. They are a good team and they have experience."

- Aidan Fitzmaurice