Shay Given sees the funny side of things during the Irish training session in Malahide yesterday

The man sitting opposite comes with a big reputation. He has worked with Olympic champions Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton. And in time, he will go on to help Craig Bellamy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, the England rugby union team and Liverpool FC.

But in 2004, Steve Peters isn't famous. He is recommended to me because I'm having doubts.

I've moved from Millwall to Blackburn. I'm earning more money than I could ever have imagined. I'm playing Premier League football week after week and yet I feel I don't belong.

I need help. I'm told about Steve. We meet. We talk. He explains to me how the brain works. He calls it 'The Chimp Paradox' and splits the brain into three parts.

The human part of the brain is rational; the chimp part is emotional and the third part is the computer part which stores your memory. Steve listens to my anxieties about not belonging and advises me to apply logic, to realise I am a good player or else a club would not have paid big money for me; otherwise Mick McCarthy would not have brought me to the 2002 World Cup.

I take in what he says. It helps. But does it change me? Is meeting Steve the moment my career turned around?

No. That comes from a performance. On New Year's Eve, 2005, David Bentley's cross is partially cleared by the Wigan defence. I read the defender's intentions and run forward, volleying the ball at 98mph into the top corner of the net.

It's the fastest goal recorded in Premier League history and from that moment on, a lightbulb goes on and the doubt goes away. Do I belong? Absolutely.

I thought about this personal struggle earlier this week when I reflected on Ireland's mediocre home record in competitive games against sides ranked in the world's top 40.

INSPIRE

Since Jason McAteer's goal, and the 1-0 win over Holland, we've hosted Germany, Switzerland, France, Slovakia and Russia twice each. We've met Israel, Bulgaria, Italy, Sweden and Austria and the Czech Republic. Sixteen games over 14 years.

And we've won just once - against Slovakia, drawing nine and losing the other six. We've been ahead against Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Austria, Israel, Bulgaria, Italy and the Czechs. And we've held on just once.

We need that 'lightbulb' moment. We need a performance to inspire us, a big win. We need actions to speak louder than words.

That was how my career turned around.

Steve Peters' words were of assistance. Yes.

But that goal against Wigan helped so much more. That changed me. Never again did I doubt my ability. All I had to do was click on YouTube and watch that goal time after time.

"I belong here," I'd tell myself.

Those are the words these Irish players need to say to one another over the weekend. They need to live in the present not in the past.

They have to look at the 16-game record and apply logic to those stats. Yes, the results have not been great. But how relevant are they to the players who didn't feature in those games?

They have to look at those statistics positively and tell each other that they are the men who can change it, the men who can generate an atmosphere in the Aviva Stadium, who can produce that big win.

If it is to happen then big performances will be needed. Self-doubt has to be banished. Character is required, the type we used to see from Roy Keane every time he played.

It can happen. We can win. Records are there to be broken. And O'Neill has a habit of breaking them.

As a player, he saw Nottingham Forest progress from the middle of the Second Division to the summit of European football.

With Northern Ireland, he captained a team to the last 12 of the World Cup, to home-and-away victories over West Germany and for the majority of another successful qualification campaign in Mexico '86.

Then, when he stepped into the managerial world, new barriers were broken. Wycombe Wanderers had never played in the football league until O'Neill brought them there.

Leicester had not been to a Wembley Cup final since the 1960s. O'Neill got them to three finals, winning twice. Then Celtic. Rangers had dominated Scottish football for the previous decade. O'Neill altered that.

With this in mind, it is entirely believable that he could be the architect of an Irish victory in a competitive game at home against a couple of above-average sides. Scotland and Poland, after all, have their limitations.

We can beat them. We can ditch that abysmal home record and set ourselves up nicely for the remainder of the campaign.

Win and we're level on points with the Poles. Lose and you can forget about an automatic qualification spot. It'll be the play-offs or bust.

Yet I think we will prevail by a couple of goals. The feel-good factor created by the Irish rugby team can rub off on these boys. It's time the McAteer goal was consigned to history and a new team started making its own history.

For this to happen, men like James McCarthy need to step up. So far, we have seen McCarthy just once in this campaign.

His presence will be needed tomorrow. So too Seamus Coleman's.

Could 2015 be the year of an unlikely hero, a latter-day Alan McLoughlin? If so, Daryl Murphy, the Ipswich striker, could fill that role.

Someone has to. We can't rely on Robbie Keane forever. We need new heroes. And we need to give the fans something to shout about.

It's five years old now, The Aviva, but Irish football has yet to have a housewarming party there. Tomorrow is the time for that party to start.

Indo Sport