O'Neill hopes for goals ahead of Slovakia clash

Martin O'Neill met the media in Abbotstown on Easter Monday, one day before the international friendly against Slovakia at the Aviva Stadium.

At the team's post-training press conference O'Neill expressed the following concerning his choice of players heading into tomorrow night's game against the Slovaks.

"Robbie Keane has not recovered in time, Kevin Doyle’s injury is being cleaned out, it’s doing well, they along with Murphy are missing," O'Neill revealed.

“It's been a bit of a disruption (the injuries). Of course I would like Doyle to play at least for an hour if not the whole game, I was thinking Keane would be involved at some stage plus Jon Walters so it's a disruption, but these things happen."

The squad now has only one recognised striker in Shane Long so up front changes will need to be made.

"James McClean has played up front before, I've seen him play for Wigan there, so we can change things around anyway," O’Neill explained.

On the Goalkeeping front there is perhaps good news for veteran Shay Given as his Stoke City teammate Jack Butland was injured during England's friendly with Germany on Saturday and this in turn may give him a way back into the international setup.

"I'm not picking Stoke City's team but it does give Shay an opportunity to play regularly between now and the end of the season and of course this gives him a really good chance (of coming into play for Ireland),

“I’ll get to speak to him over the next  24 hours."

Following Friday’s 1-0 victory over Switzerland Ireland are now unbeaten since October, however, O'Neill feels the squad needs further improvement to reach its potential at Euro 2016 this summer.

“We made adjustments to the side (against Switzerland). I'd like to score a few more goals if we can and I’d like us to try be a bit more confident in possession, while we want to win these games it's a bit of a trial at the same time."

A number of players who made their debuts against Switzerland will also get a chance to show their skills again when Slovakia visit Dublin on Tuesday.

"(Jonathan) Hayes and (Eunan) O'Kane are possibilities and players who have been around the last eight days would like to get some time on the field, Wes Hoolahan also has a good chance of starting," the Republic of Ireland boss concluded.