JIM CRAWFORD was a relieved man after the majority of his squad were able to travel for tomorrow’s European qualifier with Montenegro.

With the country on the UK and Germany’s red list, there had been doubts as to the availability of the non-home-based players in his squad.

Yet it was confirmed on Saturday that a 29-group squad would fly out, with everyone from the Luxembourg squad retained apart from Tyreik Wright (who picked up an injury on Friday), Sam Blair, Kameron Ledwidge, Oisin McEntee and Louie Watson.

“I knew it was going to be last-minute stuff. It is a relief because you always want the best possible team that is available to you. So we found out late on the Friday. We work closely with UK and Irish clubs and I think everybody understood the complexities around the whole situation.

“When everybody was given the green light, we were delighted to get moving. Preparations altered slightly with regards numbers in training sessions and what have you, but look, you’ve certainly got a competent staff here that can manoeuvre the numbers whether it’s unit work, small-sided games or what have you. It’s been great. It’s seamless at the minute.”

On the challenge of putting the concerns surrounding the Montenegro fixture to one side ahead of Friday’s clash with Luxembourg, Crawford added: 

“In the build-up to the camp, that’s what I had. Without understanding what was going to happen, I just had to focus on the Luxembourg game because that was the most important game to us in the group at that particular time.

“As challenging as it was for a head coach, your entire focus has to go into Luxembourg. I would have parked up maybe 30 minutes a day talking to various people, ‘Has there been any movement on the situation with Montenegro?’, and that was that then. 

“You just had to put it in the background because Luxembourg was a huge game for us, so as soon as that game was over, then you turn your concentration and your energies towards Montenegro, and it was good news for the majority of the players that can travel over after the game. 

“As I said before, we’ve got to be thankful to the English FA, clubs, managers and what have you that gave the players the green light.

“It was a challenge, it was something new, that’s for sure, but I think you have to have that narrow focus on what’s important now, and that was the game against Luxembourg.”

Ireland tomorrow face off against a side with just four points from their opening five qualifiers, nonetheless, Crawford is expecting a stern test as he looks for a win that would boost his team’s qualification hopes ahead of next month’s vital double-header at home to the top two sides in the group table currently, Italy and Sweden.

“Montenegro will be tougher opposition than Luxembourg, for sure. They’re tenacious, well organised, probably one of their strengths would be their counter-attacking ability. They have a really impressive striker in [Nikola] Krstović who is big, strong, powerful, a willing runner.

“So we certainly need to be clued in when we have the ball, because as soon as possession is turned over and they come alive, they’ll attack with numbers with the boy Krstović and three or four in behind him on the counter-attack. It’s something that we’ve spoken about and the players are aware of.

“We do show clips of the opposition and we put together little 10-minute movies to have a look at and then have discussions with players in team meetings. It’s refreshing seeing what the players see in the game and it’s very similar to the staff. So we can agree on an idea of how to a) exploit their weaknesses and b) their threats. So there have been a lot of positive meetings about Montenegro and a lot of credit goes to the players with regards to that.”

He continues: “They’ve a lot of really good individuals and you only have to look at their previous games – okay, although they were beaten by Sweden twice and Italy, they were all tight games and irrespective of the scorelines, when you study the games closely enough, you’re saying to yourself, ‘Montenegro could have scored a few goals here’. It could have been an entirely different game.

“For example, they were beaten 1-0 by Italy, but they had an unbelievable opportunity in the opening few minutes and if Montenegro score that, it could have been a different game all together, so we know they’re very dangerous, we know that and it is going to be a far bigger test than Luxembourg was.

“The players understand that. It’s going to be a more physical game than Luxembourg and we have to be certainly aware of their real threat, which is their counter-attacking ability and they are far more clinical than Luxembourg.”

One of the challenges that Crawford and his staff must navigate is the tight turnaround between games. In the last qualifying window, there were four changes to his starting XI between the Bosnia and Luxembourg matches, and the manager hinted there could be a similar level of change this time around from Friday’s fixture.

“It’s always a concern with the quick turnaround between games how players will do. What we want to do in our games is to play with the highest intensity that we can. Sometimes it takes a lot out of players.

“Historically in games with a quick turnaround, you don’t get that level of intensity as much as in the first game. There’s no doubt about it, the comparison of the data we received from Bosnia to Luxembourg the last window, there was a difference. And I do think it can be a factor at times.

“But there are also other things you’ve got to weigh in. Obviously, there are going to be some forced changes with Tyreik unavailable. We haven’t decided what the starting XI is yet but I’d imagine there will be a couple of changes.”