Deputy Group Head of Sport Mediahuis Ireland. Occasional columnist. Bewildered Luton Town fan. Had potential in the 90s. That's four things you've learned
The last batch for today is from the 2000/01 season when
@ShamrockRovers
played home games in Tolka Pk, Richmond Pk & Morton Stadium includes programme against Kilkenny City and an article from
@tellyjohn
on
#ratsfromtheflats
from Paths to Freedom TV show.
Flare thrown onto side of pitch at Brandywell, probably burning a chunk of the astro, then a child runs onto pitch, picks up flare and runs off with it. Totally normal
Watch Zinchenko play for Man City and you're not sure he's absolute top level, then you see him play among Ukraine and Scotland players and you realise the level it takes to play for Man City
Not defending Richard Keogh's actions for a second but Derby sacking the 33-year-old who is on 25k a week for the next 18 months but keeping the two 20-somethings who are worth a few million each is a great example of how football ethics works
Scenes in Dublin are horrendous but nobody who has worked in town for any length of time can be too surprised by hooded groups of youngfellas - and a few older ones - going around and doing whatever the hell they want
Eamon Dunphy speaking on radio about FAI cronyism and Brian Kerr. Says Kerr should have been involved in Irish football for last 15 years and what happened him was wrong. A pity Dunphy wasn't saying it when he was on RTE panel for all those years.
Bernard Brogan getting out of the house for an afternoon on his own four weeks after his wife gave birth to twins is every bit as impressive as the ACL recovery
57 caps, many as captain, in probably Irish football's greatest era then two stints as manager all while seeming a decent bloke. History will judge McCarthy well
€30 is pretty good value to watch Kerry v Tyrone and Armagh v Monaghan from Hill 16, particularly seeing as it'll cost you €24 to watch them both at home
As a potential positive out of this, every club should be telling its players, members, supporters where the nearest defibrillator is to their pitch. Literally the difference between life and death
If you were trying to define sportswashing then "using the game of golf to get to where they want to be" sums it up perfectly. And that's what McDowell and the others are proud to do, he says.
"The Khashoggi situation was reprehensible...
...But we are proud to help Saudi if they want to use
#golf
to get to where they want to be"
@Graeme_McDowell
on why he's decided to join the £202m Saudi-backed
@LIVGolfInv
, despite the country's human rights record...
Dewsbury-Hall is a great advert for a loan move. 36 Championship games last season for Luton where he was brilliant. Now having a stormer against Liverpool, two days after starting against Man City
Just watching Roma v Barca highlights on TV3. Wonder how many pundits would rewatch a first leg in preparation as Brian Kerr says he did. Also, “big boot from Jaysus”, describing a foul from Juan Jesus, just couldn’t be said by anyone else
Birmingham should be docked points and/or made play a couple of games behind closed doors. Then the next prat who tries that might not get applauded off
Had this idea which quickly became like a Vietcong tunnel where it was easier to keep going than try to go back. Every player Liverpool have signed since they last won the league, their appearances, goals and paragraph on their impact. There's 203 of them in
@IndoSport
At times tonight, Kroos and Modric looked like a couple of ex-pros who join in a five-a-side with eager youngfellas and spend the next hour making them dizzy
Look forward to explaining to the kids about Aertel/Ceefax.
"What if you were reading something on more than one page?"
"There was a Hold button."
"So then it went to next page?"
"No, you waited for it to skip all the way through."
"What if there were 5 pages?"
"Life was tough."
If young Irish players want to learn what it takes to make a living out of football this is the man they should know about. An outstanding career that's still going strong
@CharlieSlater15
⚫️ 38 years young 🙌
⚪️ 540 minutes played in the last fortnight, more than anyone else in the squad 💪
⚫️ Club captain 🗣️
⚪️ Stayed with us through relegation 👊
⚫️ 90+3’ winner from 50 yards 👌
Some man, Michael Doyle. Enjoy your first for us because no one's more deserving 🖤
Maybe it's the influence of The Athletic, or maybe it's likes on social media, but the amount of football journalists reporting from press boxes blatantly fan-boy cheering for one team over another is incredible
Some difference 10 years of good ownership makes to a football club. Luton 2013, 7th in Conference and miss playoffs. Luton 2023, 3rd in Championship and playoffs for 2nd straight year
Piece from today on what happens to rugby's best 16-year-olds v football's best 16-year-olds, and why education is needed to help them up when they fall
Really hope the ghost writers of these pieces are well paid. Amazing the amount of people who think players just sit down and write like this in their spare time
At ages seven or eight or nine, I was not Benjamin.
I was Ribéry.
I was Zidane.
I was Henry.
@benmendy23
shares his road to the
#FRA
national team and his love for Les Bleus.
#WC32
#WorldCup
...and it’s that time of the day to get “randomly” drug tested and only test Serena. Out of all the players it’s been proven I’m the one getting tested the most. Discrimination? I think so. At least I’ll be keeping the sport clean
#StayPositive
A memory of Tom O'Riordan that still makes me laugh is when he rang Olympian Gillian O'Sullivan's house and was told she'd gone for a walk. His response was "should I ring back in 10 minutes or three hours?" An absolute gent who was incredibly helpful to young reporters. RIP
21-year-old Rhasidat Adeleke talking about inspiring the next generation. They're inspiring this one, the next one, the last one and many others. What a brilliant bunch
"Is there a bigger game in Everton's history?" asks Martin Keown about Wednesday's home game with West Brom. Even for a man who speaks nonsense with such intensity, that's special
Absolute bullshit of VAR system here. Can’t review a dive that leads to first goal, don’t review a potential offside but review handball with no intent from a yard away
This is well worth buying the paper for tomorrow.
@McDonnellDan
travels to Creggan to meet the people behind James McClean. Worth every one of the 5700 words
Politicians from different parties managed to work together, it seems, to deliver something that will benefit the country. Be great if they could now do the same with homelessness, hospital waiting lists etc
Just when the game looked to be getting away from them, Richie Hogan drags Kilkenny back into with a wonderfully taken goal. Kilkenny 1-15 Galway 0-20. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 9.30pm on
@rte2
#rtegaa
#thesundaygame
Yesterday 0 locally acquired cases were reported, 1 in hotel quarantine. It’s been 20 days since the last locally acquired case. 11,656 test results were received,
#EveryTestHelps
.
More later:
#COVID19VicData
#COVID19Vic
Column on Finn Harps, 700km on the road in five days while players are also working and the commitment and volunteerism it takes to keep a First Division club going
If you're looking to be a sportswriter, have a read of this. 900 words, clean, good angles and lines and filed within five minutes of the final whistle
To paraphrase a line from great fiction, for this was the greatest sporting drama, all Madrid
#ucl
comebacks are alike but each one amazing in its own way
You could say same for Pep collapses
It's not history repeating itself. It's history having effect
In just over 3 years, Southampton have sold Shaw (£27m), Lallana (£25m), Lovren (£20m), Chambers (£16m), Clyne (£12.5m), Schneiderlin (£25m), Wanyama (£11m), Mane (£34m), Pelle (£12m), Fonte (£8m), Rodriguez (£12m) and Van Dijk (£75m). They also got money for Pochettino & Koeman