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Like all here i keep a close eye on the performances of all Irish players but an interesting statistic in todas Sunday Times was that of the 8 games played on Saturday, the MOM was awarded to 4 Irish players:
Steve Finnan, Stephen Reid, Shay Given & Matt Holland. As a percentage of the total number plying heir trade in the premiership it is fairly impressive. I also though Richard Dunne was top class against Utd, Trevor Sinclair got the award for that one.
Interesting, Sky Sports rated Finnan 6, Reid 8, Holland 6 (OK), Given 7.
Monkeys do the rating on Sky Sports!.. its no reference point.
Liam Lawrence might have been mom yday had a cracking game ...
I think if Dunne had played the whole game against United, he would have won MOTM, kept Van Nistelrooy and Rooney reduced to shots from distance. Himself, Distin and James showed the United central defence how it really should be done. As I've said elsewhere, he's coming back to form after an indifferent spell. The Manchester Evening News awarded him 8 out of 10 for the match, as a comparison Sinclair got 9 and Ireland got 7.
There's been a lot of Irish in all divisions playing very well lately. But the press either don't see fit to mention it or haven't even noticed it. As always Irish media reporting on English football almost never addresses the performance of the Irish, they just pander to the [insert big club's name] supporting lobby.
Steve Reid, John O'Shea (honestly) and others have been on great form lately. Did you see how Reid carried the ball 50 yrads at pace before getting fouled outside the box? Doyle, Given, Finnan, Robbie (until Anfield!!) and so on. O'Brien, bad tackle excepted, played very well by all accounts. Plenty of youngsters playing well in Championship.
Dunne's form was really poor until Saturday I thought but he coped excellently - and not for the first time - against Rooney.
I think If I was a journalist working for the Irish papers I would do an article every week on the form of the Irish players and maybe a spotlight on an Irish player doing well at a lower league club or someone doing really well in the Eircom League. The times as well as having the stats on the Irish players should maybe have someone who puts into words these cold stats.
Doesn't the Irish Times do something along those lines every monday?
Its purely stats though.
On the assumption that they don't do so, already, I'd like to think that RTE's "Premiership" programme could include an analysis of the Irish in their match by match synopsis too. I'd love to have the mandate to produce a proper Irish football weekly programme!
is the jordan fella that plays for city irish??
was at the newcastle game on saturday and some fella called obrien came on for newcastle is he irish?
no and yes.