Printable View
Borrowing this from the LOI forum as it’s an easy way to post thoughts on the Irish players you’re watching or the updates you’re getting. Instead of one for each week, we can just grow this into a mega thread as it’s a bit easier… See how it goes…
So far… goals for Hogan (Birmingham, 1 up against Plymouth), Mandroiu (Lincoln, a penalty, 1 up against Blackpool) and Cashin (Derby 3-1 up against Peterborough).
Assists for Manning, Molumby.
Mandroiu assisted Lincoln’s second too. Hogans goal sounds like a tap in.
Delap got an assist for Hull last night too along with Sykes for Bristol in their 1-1 draw. Delap does really well, strong, pace, good ball across - seems to be growing into the game. Knight also involved in the Bristol equalizer (and features in many of the positive highlights with surging runs from midfield) and another good ball across this time from from Sykes, who also missed a bit of a sitter in the first half. And Connolly definitely should have scored…
Highlights here:
https://youtu.be/38eZbWEihag?si=W19o_DU_6B0FoXbj
Live blog live blogging here
https://irish-abroad.appspot.com/Live
That’s far too efficient LOL… I prefer my combo of coffee, streaming and refreshing BBC livescores :D
This thread didn't really get going after it was started, but maybe it should have.
To me this weekend feels like one where we really are starting to see a genuine turning point in terms of the development of younger Irish players. Looking across the leagues:
Premier League - Evan Ferguson (04) goal, Chiedozie Ogbene (97 but a late developer) assist and a debut for Alex Murphy (04). Plus the prospect of Caoimhin Kelleher finally getting a run of games in a Top 6 team.
Championship - Goal and an assist for Andrew Moran (03), goals for Azaz (00), Sykes (97) and the still uncapped Sammie Szmodics, who is the division's top scorer.
In the lower leagues there were also goals for, among others, Dan Mandroiu (98), Killian Phillips (02), Barry Cotter (98) and Connor O'Riordan (03), while Troy the Boy (02) got a goal and an assist in the Eredivisie.
As well as the Premier League and Championship lads it's really encouraging to see Jake O'Brien playing regularly in Ligue 1, Festy in Serie A and AGM (as well as Troy) in the Eredivisie. Even Ryan Johansson's name appeared on a team sheet in the Bundesliga today.
I still think we're two years of development away from having a team we can be proud of but, if we can avoid another disaster like Stephen Kenny when choosing our next manager, I really think we might start to see some significant improvement in our fortunes in the next couple of years to get us to a position where we're looking like a team that could do a bit of damage at Euro 2028, rather than just scrape qualification because we're hosting games.
Is there a way of stickying the thread so it's at the top of page one and easier to find.
done and doneQuote:
Originally Posted by JR89
Goal for Andy Lyons today. Has worked his way back into the team as a starter after a rough time. Goal sounds like a beauty. Left foot, left side of the box, top right corner.
Who knows if he’s ours or not but Tom Cannon getting the last 30 minutes for Leicester against Plymouth and I’m pretty sure it’s his first appearance of the season.
A very rare goalless Saturday for our lads in the Championship.
Sounds like Bazunu had a great game for about 96 minutes for Southampton before making an error to concede right at the end. Up to that it looked like he was going to be the good news Irish story of the day, so a disappointing day overall in the end.
The longer the Premier League season goes on the more it looks like the three promoted teams will be getting relegated again, which is not great from our point of view either.
I wonder is an idea for the thread to try summarise Irish players' match ratings for the weekend? Gives a decent view of who's done ok or not, even if they don't score?
Whoscored has match ratings for every game in the (let's say) top three English divisions, plus Serie A/Ligue 1/SPL/Eredivisie. Below that is probably not worrying about. You can argue about ratings of course, but at least when they're centralised (and not off, say, the club's website) then they should be reasonably objective. They certainly won't care that the player is Irish for example.
Might need a different poster to update each week though!
On that basis, we have -
Premier Division
Palace 1-2 Liverpool - Kelleher an unused sub
Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth - Travers and Kilkenny both unused subs
Wolves 1-1 Forest - Doherty 6.1 (got the last 20 minutes). Omobamidele gone from the Forest bench again
Brighton 1-1 Burnley - Ferguson 6.7; O'Shea 6.6. Cullen and Obafemi not on the bench. Is Cullen injured?
Sheffield United 1-0 Brentford - Adedokun an unused sub
Christ, that's slim pickings...
Championship
Sunderland 1-2 WBA - Molumby 6.7
Blackburn 0-2 Leeds - Moran 6.4; Szmodmics 5.8
QPR 2-0 Hull - Armstrong 6.1 (got the last 20 as a sub); Christie 6.5; McLoughlin 6.6; Connolly 6.0 (played the second half); Dunne an unused sub
Huddersfield 1-1 Bristol City - Knight 6.4
Leicester 4-0 Plymouth - Cannon 6.0 (still has an Irish flag by his name on it :p)
Boro 0-2 Ipswich - Gilbert an unused sub
Norwich 0-0 Preston - Duffy 7.4; Idah 5.8; Browne 7.4; Brady 6.4 (a good rating given he only played three minutes). Keane and Cunningham unused subs
Stoke 0-1 Wednesday - Clark 6.8; McNally 7.2; Stevens 6.3
Watford 1-1 Southampton - Bazunu 6.7; Manning 6.3; Smallbone 6.0 (came on after 86 - not sure why he has an English flag by his name!)
Cardiff 1-0 Millwall - McGuinness 6.8; Robinson 6.0 (taken off at half-time); Emakhu 6.0 (came on with ten to go)
Rotherham 1-2 Swansea - Kelly 6.2 (got the last five minutes)
Scottish Premier
Aberdeen 2-1 Hearts - Hayes 7.1; McGrath 7.8
St Mirren 2-0 Ross County - Brown 7.0
Rangers 3-1 Dundee - Shaughnessy 6.8
Motherwell 1-1 St Johnstone - Blaney 7.0; Wilkinson 6.0 (last 10 only); Carey 7.4; Costelloe 6.0 (last 5 only)
League One
Northampton 3-0 Fleetwood - Lawal 6.0
Leyton Orient 0-3 Derby - Cashin 8.3; Hourihane 7.3; Collins 6.5
Burton 1-2 Stevenage - Bennett 6.4
Exeter 0-1 Port Vale - Sweeney 7.6
Reading 1-3 Barnsley - Connell 6.5; O'Keeffe 6.7; Cotter 6.2 (last 10 only)
Wigan 0-0 Lincoln - Adeeko 6.6; O'Cononor 6.9; Mandroiu 6.4; Roughan 6.0; Duffy 6.2 (the last three all came on in the last 15); Shodipo an unused sub
Blackpool 3-0 Carlisle - Hamilton 6.8; Lyons 7.8; Maguire 6.4
Bristol Rovers 1-1 Cheltenham - Seán Long 6.4; Keena 6.0 (last 10 only)
Wycombe 0-1 Shrewsbury - Keogh 6.6; Sadlier 6.2; Phillips 6.6; Sobowale an unused sub
Eredivisie
Twente 4-2 Excelsior - Parrott 7.3
So the positives - Parrott, Cashin, Lyons, Duffy, Browne, McGrath
And the downers - Szmodmics, Idah, Connolly, Robinson
Taylor started and played 87 for Ipswich and Harness came on to play the last fifteen Pineappler. At first glance alone your thing is in ruins man, ruins.
Have Bournemouth got a massive injury list or did Kilkenny actually make a PL bench ?
Good spots Crafty! Both marked as English on whoscored. I was flicking down it for Irish flags (and caught a couple - like Smallbone - who are down as English). I could well have missed others.
7.1 for Taylor and 6.4 for Harness (again a respectable rating for a 15 minute cameo)
Bournemouth have eight players listed as injured on livescore but tbh beyond Darren Randolph I don't really know if any are starters or what. (For clarity, I at least know Randolph isn't a starter). But Kilkenny was on the bench alright. Was there midweek too, but September was his last time on the bench before that.
Yeah, Cullen is injured. He missed the last game too.
Good idea Pineapple.
Gavin Kilkenny isn't going to make it in the Premier League, but given the way the result was going yesterday it would have been nice to have seen Bournemouth give him his few minutes in the sun, similar to what Wolves did with Conor Ronan last season. He has waited a long time there with no reward , if they're not going to give him a few minutes when they're 3-0 up, when will they do it, and what's the point in him being there otherwise?
Similar to Ronan I can see him in the MLS or a similar league within a year or two, but it would be nice to see him become a Premier League player first.
Just to finish off the ratings from the weekend -
No Ogbene or Coleman today. Alex Murphy was the only Irish player in any of the Premier League squads I think, and he was an unused sub.
Lyon 3-0 Toulouse - 7.3 for O'Brien; chipped in with an assist for the opener.
Killie 2-1 Celtic - Ndaba 6.4; Johnstone 6.8; Scales 7.3 (only Palma scored higher, marginally - slightly surprisingly, Scales has the third-highest average rating of any Celtic player this season , which you wouldn't expect as Celtic defenders shouldn't have that much to do)
Inter 4-0 Udinese - 6.3 for Ebosele; actually one of their better ratings. Was taken off on the hour with the score already 4-0.
Rory Finneran is on the bench for Blackburn tonight.
Midfielder. 15 years old.
& I believe he's dual eligible.
Goals for Browne and Keane in the first half tonight for Preston against Huddersfield. Assist for Sammie Szmodics too.
Had a full round of Champions League and Championship games in midweek - a few decent performances...
Champions League
Celtic 2-1 Feyernoord - Johnstone 7.1; Scales 7.7. Scales named man-of-the-match, and BBC agreed, as elated has noted on his own thread.
Championship
Blackburn 2-1 Bristol City - Szmodics 7.1; Moran 5.5; Sykes 6.8; Knight 7.7. Moran badly caught in possession for the Bristol City goal, which was scored by Sykes and set up by Knight.
Huddersfield 1-3 Preston - Browne 8.0; Keane 7.3; Brady 6.1. Brady got the last ten minutes only. Browne and Keane both on target; Browne named man-of-the-match. Cunningham an unused sub
Rotherham 0-2 WBA - Kelly 5.9 (last ten minutes only); Molumby 6.2
Watford 1-2 Ipswich - Harness 6.5; Taylor an unused sub
Stoke 1-1 Sunderland - Bonham 6.0; McNally 7.1; Clark an unused sub
QPR 0-0 Plymouth - Dunne 7.2; Armstrong 6.0 (injury time sub); Azaz 6.9 (unlucky to be the one to make way when Plymouth went down to ten after 25 minutes)
Norwich 3-1 Wednesday - Duffy 7.1; Idah 6.6. Idah played up top in a 4-2-3-1 it seems; the 3 behind him managed three goals, two assists and a shot off the woodwork between them, but nothing doing for Idah
Leicester 3-2 Millwall - Cannon 6.1 (got the last 20); Emakhu an unused sub
Coventry 1-1 Southampton - Bazunu 6.5; Manning 6.7; Smallbone 7.1
Cardiff 0-1 Birmingham - McGuinness 6.3; Robinson 6.0; Hogan an unused sub
Boro 1-2 Hull - Christie 6.8; Connolly 6.5; McLoughlin 6.3 (last 15 only); Gilbert an unused sub
So positives - Scales, Knight, Browne, Keane
And negatives - Robinson, Molumby, Moran; Bonham