Simpson?

[Donal81]

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all. Secondly, I received that soccer DVD about great Irish victories of the tv age for Christmas. There's a striker whose surname is Simpson - they don't give his first name - who plays against France in 1981 and also in another match. As we've had so few strikers, I was surprised that I'd never heard of him. Anyone got a clue? Late 70s, early 80s? It's well before my time but I asked my da and all my uncles and they've never heard of him.

[Stuttgart88]

Simpson? Doesn't ring any bells.

Mick Robinson played that day I think, probably with Frank the Plank.

[PaulB]

Never heard of a simpson, strikers around that era were stapo, robinson, paul mcgee,givens,mickey walsh

[Donal81]

That must be it, so, I must have misheard it. I've never heard of the chap, Mick Robinson. Who was he?

[drummerboy]

He was an Anglo Irish, who played with some success for Preston, Man City, Liverpool and Osasuna in Spain, where he still hosts a football programme there.

[Stuttgart88]

I also heard he did the voiceover in the Spanish version of Shrek!

[Donal81]

Nice one, that clears that up. He actually looks like a handy player. Just at tip off before the French game, he turns to the rest of the players and gives a clenched fist "come on" kind of roar, I haven't seen that in a while.

I'd recommend the DVD but it starts to scrape the barrell towards the end, such as our 'stirring' victories over Albania and Georgia. I remember them as being miserable affairs, in which the Irish played poorly. I attended the Albania one and thought we were fairly awful.

There's also a bizarre comment from Philip Quinn of the Indo on the classic win over the Dutch in 2001. He says we were on top at half-time but just hadn't made the breakthrough. I don't know what game he was watching...Also, the 3-1 win over the Saudis in 2002. As the headline in the Times the next day ran, "one day we'll say it was easy."

[Donal81]

Sorry, 3-0 win over the Saudis, not 3-1.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Sorry, 3-0 win over the Saudis, not 3-1.

feckin tell me about sorry!!! I'd a tenner on Ireland to win 3-1 with Gary Breen scoring. (36/1) Thought he was a sure thing to get on the end of a header rather than his actual toe/outside of foot poke.

I spent the last 10 minutes screaming for the hapless Saudis to come up with one miserable friggin goal :(

[Junior]

feckin tell me about sorry!!! I'd a tenner on Ireland to win 3-1 with Gary Breen scoring. (36/1) Thought he was a sure thing to get on the end of a header rather than his actual toe/outside of foot poke.

I spent the last 10 minutes screaming for the hapless Saudis to come up with one miserable friggin goal :(

would we have still qulaified with a 3-1 win? can't quite remember and can't be arsed looking it up. But thought we had to win by 3 clear goals? (or was it 2? jaysus it was only 2 years ago :eek: )

[Kingdom]

would we have still qulaified with a 3-1 win? can't quite remember and can't be arsed looking it up. But thought we had to win by 3 clear goals? (or was it 2? jaysus it was only 2 years ago :eek: )


It was only two goals we had to win by, because the Cameroons only won one nil

[pineapple stu]

Yep, and even that required the Camerooneranians (remember the Mastercard balls? :p ) to draw with Germany, which they didn't do in the end. 2-0 and we were guaranteed, no matter what, though.

[Éanna]

He was an Anglo Irish, who played with some success for Preston, Man City, Liverpool and Osasuna in Spain, where he still hosts a football programme there.yeah, he hosts the spanish version of match of the day (el dia despues- the day after) There's a link to an interview with him in the Guardian here (http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1135138,00.html) Great interview actually. He doesn't have a lot of time for the powers that be in english football- very entertaining :)

and here's a pic of him

[tetsujin1979]

I also heard he did the voiceover in the Spanish version of Shrek!

That's right, he did the voice of the Ugly Sister behind the bar the king visits, voiced by Jonathon Ross in the English version