Republic boss Giovanni Trapattoni claimed a decision was taken not to “run any risk”.

Speaking on Sunday to Beat 102-103 before his withdrawal from last night's friendly Long had said: “We had a long pre-season so I am fit and ready to go”

The striker is desperate to put Ireland’s disappointing Euro 2012 campaign to bed as his team-mates did with a solid display last night.

He said: “Obviously it didn’t go according to plan out there, we were expecting a lot more of ourselves.

“After it I got three weeks off and I managed to get away with my family for a quick holiday and back into pre-season so I didn't have too long to get unfit which is something on the bright side.”

He sees the Liverpool game on Saturday as the ideal place to put the summer behind him.

“I have a good record scoring at Anfield. I didn’t get to play against them at the Hawthorns last season, but hopefully I will get off to a good start like I did last season and get a goal in my first game and kick on from there.”

“We had a good record against Liverpool last year and even in the home game we felt like we were hard done by and in the away game we went there and got three points.”

The Tipperary man sees West Brom coach Steve Clark as a welcome addition to the set-up at the Hawthorns.

Long said: “He plays a very attractive style of football, he was at Chelsea with Mourinho and he's bringing that style of football into West Brom. We played really well against Nottingham Forest and we passed the ball really well. Hopefully we can bring that into our first game against Liverpool.”