ALAN Kelly has admitted his sadness at Giovanni Trapattoni's departure as Republic of Ireland manager.
The 74-year-old lost his job after five-and-a-half years last month following World Cup qualifier defeats by Sweden and Austria which put paid to Irish hopes of making it to Brazil next summer.
Goalkeeping coach Kelly was part of the Italian's staff throughout his reign after working with predecessor Steve Staunton, and Trapattoni's exit proved emotional for him.
Kelly, who has worked this week under interim manager Noel King and high performance director Ruud Dokter, said: "It was five-and-a-half years. I have been in the job nearly eight years now, first with Steve Staunton and then Giovanni Trapattoni, and when you have worked with people and you have been involved in matches that have been tense, you have won, you have drawn, you have lost together, of course you form a bond with everybody.
"But unfortunately now Giovanni has gone, you have got to move on.
"Noel has come in and me, I'm a proud Irishman and you are rowing behind whoever is in charge, and that's no different with Noel and with Ruud, and I will do whatever I can to help them and to help the team to get a result."
The trio could hardly have chosen a tougher arena in which to attempt to carry out that mission than tomorrow evening when they and their players head for Cologne and a showdown with Group C leaders Germany.
Joachim Low's men know victory will secure their ticket to Brazil, and having trounced the Irish 6-1 in Dublin 12 months ago, they will be supremely confident of completing the job.
Kelly sat helplessly on the bench at the Aviva Stadium that evening as Trapattoni's men capitulated in uncharacteristic fashion, and while King insists he is not even thinking about that, it will provide added motivation for those members of the travelling party who were involved.
Kelly said: "Very much so, that's the thing that's on everybody's mind, the 6-1.
"But if you look at the team then, it's completely different, if you look at the squad, it's different as well. We have to go into this game and treat this game on it's value.
"Everybody knows about Germany, everybody knows about Bayern Munich, the type of football they are playing. You can't run away from it, you can't hide from it, you have got to try to deal with it.
"That's what we have been doing with the training this week and that's what we will continue to do tomorrow and going into Friday."