NOT a bad way to start the year. A rudimentary training fixture in early spring away to a team of traffic cones with three easy points on offer and a chance to hand out stripes to a few more newcomers.

Steve Staunton couldn't have asked for a gentler introduction to a year he can't afford to go as badly as the one just gone.

It probably goes without saying that if it wasn't San Marino on Wednesday, there wouldn't be seven uncapped players in the squad but that's not quite the point, at least not all of it. Change is good, new blood about the place has been needed for an age.

It's worth noting that for all the scepticism there was about the B international against Scotland in the week of the home fixture against the San Marinese, six of the new recruits played that night in Dalymount Park. Since then, Stephen Hunt and Shane Long have both taken massive leaps forward in the Premiership and Andy Keogh and Anthony Stokes have made high-profile moves to clubs who should at the very least find themselves in the play-offs shake-up over the next few months. And the only one of the seven who didn't play in the B international is Stephen Quinn, the little fizz-bomb of energy who seems to have taken it upon himself to keep Sheffield United in the Premiership or lose limbs trying.

This is all encouraging stuff at a time when the national side is most in need of it and the hope now has to be that Staunton will make use of his new-found boldness.

Giving Long, Hunt and Quinn their debuts on Wednesday would be a grand stall to set out and it can't be long before Stephen Ireland is given permanent residency in central midfield. Let them tonk San Marino and then assess how the land lies before the Wales game next month.

Spring in the air. And in the step.