Darren Randolph has warned Austria they could be in for a frustrating evening as Ireland attempt to maintain a promising start to their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Martin O'Neill's side head for Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium on Saturday determined to build upon a return of seven points from their opening three fixtures which has put them joint top of Group D with Serbia.
Austria currently lie in fourth place, three points adrift of the top two and one behind Wales after a 3-2 defeat in Belgrade, and Ireland keeper Randolph believes that his team-mates can pile on the pressure.
He said: "If you're an away team, you want to go and frustrate the home team as much as possible.
"It's kind of must-win for them and for us, we'd like to get minimum a point to keep us up there in the group, so there's going to be pressure on both teams.
"They'll obviously want to improve on their last result, so it's going to be a tough game, a tough place to go."
A positive result in Vienna would complete a creditable couple of years for O'Neill's men, who have to date lost only three of the 15 competitive fixtures they have played in 2015-16 - against Poland in their last Euro 2016 qualifier and to Belgium and hosts France at this summer's finals.
Randolph said: "It would be a very good end to the year, and it would set us up nicely then going into next year and the rest of the games.
"It helped, obviously, the World Cup qualifiers starting so quickly after the Euros. We took a lot of confidence from the tournament and the performances and got off to a good start in this group, so another positive result on Saturday, hopefully taking points from one of the teams that is going to be there or thereabouts, would help us."
Randolph has established himself as O'Neill's first-choice keeper, having been handed his chance when Shay Given suffered a knee injury during the famous 1-0 victory over world champions Germany in October last year.
However, he remains a frustrated understudy at club West Ham, with Adrian currently the man holding the gloves, although he is ready to step in if and when the opportunity arrives.
He said: "I just need to keep training myself and when I do get the chance to perform, do so. It's down to me then."
Watch Austria v Republic of Ireland on RTÉ2 from 4pm and listen live on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
