SIMON COX APPEALED to Ireland’s fans to come out and let the team make amends for their German horror show.

Tomorrow’s friendly against Greece is Ireland’s first game in the Aviva Stadium since the embarrassing 6-1 World Cup qualifier defeat last month.

Cox and company bounced back from that nightmare by taking all three points in the Faroe Islands four days later.

Now they want to draw a line under the Germany game by getting back to winning ways in front of their home support.

“Obviously you want to always win your next game,” Cox said.

“We want to put a very good performance in and show the people what we are capable of.

It is a sort of plea to come out. We’re hoping to put a performance on for you and hopefully win and try to win well.

Despite cut-price tickets, tomorrow’s match is expected to be far from a sell-out. It’s foolish to expect a full house for every home fixture, Cox says, and the small crowds don’t really bother the team.

“The people that are there try to make as much noise as possible but we try to concentrate on the football and not on the empty seats.

“It’s up to the people whether they decide to come or not to come. You look at ticket prices and things like that. It could be those sort of things really.

You look at the old Lansdowne Road and that was a smaller stadium. Obviously now the stadium is there and it’s capable of holding 50-odd thousand people. I don’t think anybody would expect 50,000 people to turn up every time we play.

I looked at it for the rugby game [Ireland v South Africa] and it was pretty much full for that. But we turn around and think that the people who turn up are hopefully there to support us anyway.

At club level, Cox has established himself one of Nottingham Forest’s first-choice strikers and scored his fifth goal of the season when he equalised from the penalty spot against Leicester on Saturday.

But Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has experimented with the 25-year-old, playing him as a converted winger and even trying him out in central midfield when he came on as a substitute against Oman.

“When you’re picked to play it’s good, but I’d obviously rather play as a striker,” Cox says.

“When you’re picked to play and you’re asked to do a job out wide or midfield or whatever, you want to do it to the best of your ability.

Obviously if [Trapattoni] turns around to me tomorrow and says he wants me to play left back, I’ll fill in. That’s the type of person I am. I’m one of those guys who, if I’m called upon, I’m happy to play anywhere.

When he’s playing out of position in a less familiar wide role, Cox finds that he has to focus more to make sure that he doesn’t fall down on the defensive side of his game.

And though he’d prefer to be playing up front given the choice, he knows that Trapattoni’s willingness to shoe-horn him into the side shows that the manager obviously has a lot of faith in him

“A player like myself, if playing out of position, I try to get the defensive side right first. That’s trying not to let the full-back overlap and things like that.

“I want to get involved in attacking but that sort of comes naturally. But defensively, I don’t think as a wide player that’s my game, so I have to try and get that first and foremost.”

He adds: “Obviously it’s nice to have somebody of his stature like you. It’s one of those things where sometimes you could get liked and then fall out of the picture, but he’s kept faith with me and tried to fit me in which is great for me personally.

You know when you come away, he’s got the confidence to put me in whether it be from the start or as an impact sub.

The trust built up between player and manager became even more important when Trapattoni’s job came under pressure following the Germany game. Cox is firm in his support for the Italian but so too are the rest of the squad, he says.

“The players are fully behind him because he’s our manager. He’s not the type of person to walk away from a job. If he’s going to get the sack, it’s going to be by doing things his way.

“Fair play to him because he’s kept his job. He’s staying and he’s going to do the things that he knows how to do. He’s going to get the players to do the things that he feels is the right way to play and do the things he feels is right for the country.”

He adds: “We need to get a result regardless but I think it will be a little bit more for him.

If we end up winning and winning well, you can dedicate it to him. But I don’t think it’s going to be a game specifically for him. It’s just going to be a game that we as a team and we as a country do have to win.

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