IT'S a sign of just how far Reading have come that three of their players stepped onto the Croke Park turf on Wednesday night. It's a sign of how far Kevin Doyle has come that when his club faces Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon as many, if not more, Irish eyes will focus on him rather than Robbie Keane.

It won't have been lost on Keane, who has received criticism for some of his anaemic international performances, that his absence only fuelled the debate that Doyle is now the better prospect to lead the Republic's attack. Brave and mobile, the 23-year-old's attributes were best summed up by the way he took the goal that has fuelled faint hopes that Steve Staunton's side could, somehow, qualify for Euro 2008. Doyle had no right to steal in front of his marker, let alone twist his body to head the ball beyond the goalkeeper. And this from a player only just coming back from a troublesome hamstring injury.

"To score in front of 70odd thousand, and for it to be the winning goal. It's a great feeling, " Doyle said afterwards. "It keeps us in the hunt for qualifying. It was good to be playing in a team where everyone was enjoying it. It leaves a nice taste."

That enjoyment has so often been lacking in recent Ireland matches and it wasn't just Doyle's energy but that of his Reading teammates . . . Shane Long and, in particular, Stephen Hunt . . . who supplied it. They played without fear, as they have done all year.

Asked if the players had been motivated by the criticism Doyle said: "When you are playing for your country in front of a full house and things are going well, then I don't need to be spurred on."

Doyle has never lacked motivation. Never lacked belief. By Doyle's age Keane had been involved in transfer deals worth a staggering �38m. The sum total of what Doyle has been traded for?

The �78,000 Steve Coppell finally parted with to bring him to the Madejski in June 2005. Even then, Long was thrown in as a make-weight.

But more extraordinary has been Doyle's progress.

Not sao long ago he was working behind the bar at the Cooper's Inn, his family's pub in Wexford, and mucking out stables for his father, who breeds horses. He had been offered trials by several English clubs but turned them down, reasoning he was too young to leave Ireland and that, if he was good enough, they'd come again.

It wasn't quite that simple.

Doyle signed for St Patrick's Athletic, stayed for two years and then moved back to Cork. He earned callups for the Irish under-21s, scored goals and Coppell came to watch, probably encouraged by Reading's academy director Eamon Dolan, the brother of Pat. But Coppell took some convincing and later said Doyle was probably the most scouted played in history.

Doyle himself never doubted. Indeed, somewhat controversially, he had a clause inserted into his contract at Cork that would allow him to leave for a paltry fee should a big club come calling.

In Doyle's first season he not only scored a phenomenal 18 league goals in the Championship but was voted the division's player of the year.

He has continued to progress in the Premiership, striking another 10 goals . . .

plus two for the Republic . . .

despite missing games through injury. At one stage he vied with Didier Drogba as top scorer. Unsurprisingly, and with other Premiership clubs sniffing, Reading have moved to secure Doyle on a longer-term deal.

It says much for the player that the contract was agreed and signed with minimal fuss and without the involvement of an agent. There has also been a boon for the Berkshire club with shirt sales in Ireland now becoming a serious proposition. "I don't need much motivating, " Doyle said on Wednesday. It appears to apply to his career so far.

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