Although Kinsella has established himself as midfield sidekick for Republic skipper Keane with his international performances over the past two campaigns, it was Holland who got the manager’s vote for Saturday’s first leg win.

‘‘Obviously I was disappointed but you just have to take it on the chin and I understood the manager’s thinking,’’ said Kinsella.

‘‘Matt has done well in the last few games since I had my hernia operation in the summer but there’s certainly no hard feelings and we’re confident we can do a job together now.

‘‘We want to show there is more to this Ireland team than just Roy Keane.

‘‘People always say we’ll struggle when Roy is out and of course he’s a massive loss.

‘‘But when he missed the game in Estonia in June it was Matt and I who played and we did well. If we can get that same kind of performance now we’ll be fine against Iran.

‘‘I think we have a good understanding. We are the same in a lot of things. We live only about half an hour from one another in Essex and our careers have taken similar paths.

‘‘I joined Charlton from Colchester at just about the same time Matt was signed by Ipswich and we’ve grown up in the game on similar lines.’’

McCarthy said: ‘‘Mark is the obvious one to come in for Roy. The toughest thing for me was telling him on Saturday that he wasn’t going to start. He’s been a fantastic player for us and now he’s got his chance again, albeit in circumstances we didn’t want.

‘‘But like Roy at Manchester United both Mark and Matt have captain’s responsibilities at their club and that’s going to help us.

‘‘They were outstanding together against Estonia and they are both good players, great characters on and off the field.’’

Ireland will certainly need strong on-field leadership in front of the 100,000-plus Iranian crowd.

Despite the status of Holland and Kinsella at their Premiership clubs the international captaincy is likely to go to Aston Villa defender Steve Staunton provided the 93-cap veteran can prove his fitness after finishing Saturday’s match with hamstring and back strains.

Striker Niall Quinn is probably a bigger doubt with familiar back problems after taking a battering from the Iran defence in Dublin.

And McCarthy admitted: ‘‘I won’t be able to assess the injured lads until I see what they can do in training tomorrow.

‘‘But I would think Staunton has a very good chance and I’m certainly hoping so because he was outstanding for us again on Saturday.’’

If 6ft 4ins Sunderland striker Quinn is ruled out, McCarthy could call up Wimbledon’s David Connolly in a more mobile front-line pairing with Robbie Keane.

He also has the option of playing Leeds ace Keane as a lone striker and adding Coventry’s Lee Carsley to the midfield mix.

But the last time he tried that kind of formation Ireland, having survived for 92 minutes against Croatia in a Euro 2000 qualifier, were sunk by Davor Suker’s stoppage-time winner.

The tactic was labelled a flop and since then Ireland have not been beaten playing 4-4-2 in 16 competitive internationals.

McCarthy has vowed: ‘‘We’re not just going to sit back on Thursday and take what we have after the first leg. We will not just go in there protecting something.’’

Kinsella said: ‘‘If we score a goal it means Iran have to get four to beat us on aggregate and although we are not celebrating anything yet we’ve never conceded that many goals in a match.’’