Brian Kerr is now two games into his first real campaign as Ireland manager. Mick McCarthy's legacy to Kerr was a poor start in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, and a rift with Ireland's captain and most influential player. Despite these disadvantages, Kerr came within a whisker of bringing Ireland to Portugal, and the Irish support seemed to excuse him this failure. Having bridged the gap with Roy Keane and successfully reintegrated him into the squad, Kerr has now begun his first real campaign, and arguably has a squad superior to that available to McCarthy 2 years ago. We can expect the football public to be less forgiving if Kerr falls a second time.

At the time of writing, the Irish have played two games, a handy opener at home to Cyprus and an away tie with Switzerland. It's difficult to see how Brian Kerr would learn anything from a game against Cyprus. Without wanting to spark off an international incident with another divided island, they were awful. Throughout the first half, Ireland carved open their defence at will. If we had two decent strikers, instead of one who is unfit and one who is unable, we would have been six or seven ahead at half time.

Yes, that might seem harsh. After all, a 3-0 win is not a bad result, there are no easy games in international football blah blah blah. That's rubbish – sometimes there are easy games, and at home to Cyprus is one of them. By the time Clinton Morrison scored, he should have already netted at least twice. He had two clear headers and failed to hit the target (let alone beat the keeper) each time. The chance he eventually took was probably one of the more difficult he faced in the entire game. When he scored Ireland's opener in the draw with Switzerland, I thought for a brief second that I might be facing a meal of humble pie, with my own words as a side-salad. Unfortunately for Clinton and Ireland, but fortunately for this writer's petty ego, he was largely anonymous for the rest of the game. He is not crafty enough to make the runs that other strikers make. He is not big and strong enough to hold up the ball for his teammates. Clinton Morrison is a nice guy. Nice guys don't win football games. He is not a top quality striker, and it is difficult to see that he ever will be. He will do well to maintain a place in the Birmingham City team, given this season's additions of Emile Heskey and Dwight Yorke.

Against Cyprus, Morrison's striking partner Robbie Keane had one of his poorest performances ever in an Irish shirt. His penalty got his name on the score sheet and in doing so equalled Niall Quinn's record, but that pretty much sums up his contribution for the 90 minutes. He was not much better against Switzerland, however to be fair to him, the offside flag was incorrectly waved at him twice in the second half, and who knows what might have happened otherwise. This was as much football as Keane played all season having recently recovered from injury, and he was no doubt lacking in match sharpness. We have seen enough of Robbie Keane to know that there is better to come. Here is a player who simply oozes confidence. Since he made his debut against Argentina, his work rate and enthusiasm have endeared him to the Irish crowd. Unfortunately, during his spell in Italy he developed an unpleasant habit of diving, or “gamesmanship” as some commentators refer to it. I myself prefer the term “cheating”, but lets not get sidetracked. Keane is our most natural goal-scorer in decades and once fit he is someone we can rely on to perform on the big occasions. We can tolerate a few bad games because we know he is just back from injury, and will play a lot better as the campaign progresses. Remember his late equaliser against Germany? And was there anyone in a green shirt you would have rather seen step up for our second penalty against Spain? Enough said.

Andy Reid grabbed the headlines against Cyprus, with a stunning goal and a well-deserved man-of-the-match award. Against Switzerland, it looked like he grabbed 40 winks. He was ineffective, offering little or nothing to the cause. His performance has now left commentators wondering if he is, as Eamon Dunphy once described Eric Cantona, the “big man for the small occasion”. The jury is out. Liam Brady has said that Reid could do with losing some weight, and he would seem to have a point. Maybe its just Reid's natural shape to be a bit solid around the waist but if that's the case, then as a professional footballer its his responsibility to counteract it and work that bit harder in the gym. He does not have the body of an athlete (unless you include darts…). An excellent performance against Cyprus, largely anonymous against Switzerland, will the real Andy Reid please stand up?