This Year's Championship

Next year's Championship could have some interest for Irish-watchers:

Reading: Doyle & Stack
Leicester: Connolly & McCarthy and the youngsters that Crafty Toe Poke has been talking about
Hull City: Delaney, Burgess, Andrews
Wednesday: Whelan, Partridge (confirmed yet?), Coughlan
Sheff United: Quinn, Geary & Kenny (if he's still there). Didn't someone else sign for them last week?
Luton: Foley
Ipswich: any of the youth squad heading for promotion?

I'm sure I've forgotten players at these clubs and others too.

It's good when there are clusters of Irish at these clubs - makes it more interesting! family commitments mean a lot of staying in on Friday nights these days & I don't get eL coverage here in London.

Neither Partridge nor Coughlan (personal terms) have been signed yet :( The silence on Partridge is deafening.

QPR - Rowlands.
Millwall have a few Coogan, Dunne
Luton - Foley, Keane and O'Leary
Burnley signed two O'connors.
Stoke - Clarke.
Wolves - Kennedy.
Watford - Devaney.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Leicester: Connolly & McCarthy and the youngsters that Crafty Toe Poke has been talking about

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Alan Sheehan (from Athlone) was starting to break into Leicesters first team
towards the end of last season

Ipswich have a number of young irish lads that might break into the first team - Supple, Synott, Garvan, Nash, Clarke and Lordan. All bar Nash are members of their FA Youth Cup winning team. Clarke and Supple were particularly impressive for them in that competition so they might get a few games.

Millwall also have Mark Quigley. Actually has he been released? I heard a rumour he was let go.

Leeds have Paul Keegan, Gary Kelly, Paul Butler and a few young Irish lads.

Wednesday also have Barry Corr a striker that they have just signed from Leeds.

Maybury's with Leicester aswell

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Sheff United: Quinn, Geary & Kenny (if he's still there). Didn't someone else sign for them last week?
.

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Gary Mulligan from Wolves

All right then, how's about some kinda spreadsheet that keeps tabs on the nuumber of games these boys (or even all our lads :eek: ) play over the course of the next season? I think sauch a thing would be a valuable resource. Do people agree or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Any offers anyone? And who'll keep it updated? Any volunteers? (Come on tetsujin, stats-bhoy, you know you want to... :eek: :D )

:ball: PP

I don't mind doing it if something more concrete could be set up (webpage to update it easily)?

There's Alan McCormack at Preston. I know his family. He made a few sub appearances last season and sat on the bench a few times and played with Southend on loan. This season will be big for him. Doubt he's a future Irish international but I think he's 21 and has at least one underage cap.

Does the times not still do a piece every Mon on the Irish players in England, how many games they've played, goals scored etc?

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Originally Posted by Plastic Paddy

All right then, how's about some kinda spreadsheet that keeps tabs on the nuumber of games these boys (or even all our lads :eek: ) play over the course of the next season?

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Doesn't the Irish Times do this on a Monday?

My initial point was a bit of a loose one anyway. I suppose all I was trying to say is that wouldn't, for example, Reading vs. Hull or Leicester be interesting to watch with 5 or 6 realistic contenders for an Irish squad place, and some with potential to press for a start in the next few years? Hopefully these sides have a chance of getting another cluster of players into the Premiership. I'd have less chance of persuading Mrs Stuttgart to watch, say Plymouth, because Micky Evans in in their squad!

Sunderland & Sheff Utd were the 2 teams I was most interested in last year, prior to Kav joining Wigan anyway. I used to look out for Cardiff's games but I just cringe every time I see Alan Lee these days.

Doesn't the Irish Players in England thread already cover this? Thanks for the invite PP, if there's enough interest and I can get webspace, I'll try and put together some sort of page along those lines. Been a while since I did anything like that though, so it might take a bit to get right

I'd love a website with every player listing like the sticky above. If there was something like that put up I would have no problem looking at reports of games to see how the Irish did and put a little review down for each. tetsujin1979 - If you're willing to put something I'll do anything I'd be able to do. I've no experience with building websites but I can use Frontpage if thats any help. :) There's a month to the season anyway.

I see Reading are poised to sign Leroy Lita:

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/...l=championship

That's not good news for Kevin Doyle as I now reckon Lita and Kitson will be their first choice pairing up front.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

tetsujin1979 - If you're willing to put something I'll do anything I'd be able to do. I've no experience with building websites but I can use Frontpage if thats any help. :) There's a month to the season anyway.

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Ok then, I'm working on a personal project at the moment, but I expect to have that out of the way in about a week or so. Get back to me then and we can talk more about it.

Leon Best southampton...was talking to a mate of mine the other week and he says he aint going out on loan at start of next season as the chances of him getting in the squad regular are good, or thats what redknapp has told him, so fingers crossed

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Originally Posted by livehead1

Leon Best southampton...was talking to a mate of mine the other week and he says he aint going out on loan at start of next season as the chances of him getting in the squad regular are good, or thats what redknapp has told him, so fingers crossed

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Phillips has left, Camara is back at Wolves, looks like Crouch is on his way, so that's Southampton's 3 senior strikers from last season out the door. I've seen Redknapp mention Dexter Blackstock a few times as a player to watch this season, but it's good to know Leon is in his thoughts as well.

Stack, Doyle, Hayes, Stapleton and Hunt were all in action for Reading yesterday. Doyle scored a brace while Hunt and Hayes also scored. Stapleton was particularly impressive according tot he report:

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk...686200,00.html

Paul McShane and Wayne Henderson start for Brighton.

Darren O'Dea on the bench for Celtic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Paul McShane and Wayne Henderson start for Brighton.

Darren O'Dea on the bench for Celtic.

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Interesting. Strachan already seems to have great faith in some of the kids at Celt!c. Unfortunately McGeady is looking a bit sluggish at the moment but a few of the Scottish lads are playing well under Strachan.

It was great to read the positive comments about McShane in eirebhoy's post on another thread.

I have to say I was disappointed by Paddy McCarthy's performance against Sheffield United, he looked lost & out of position on a few occasions. But I thought David Connolly did very well for his goal, even if it took a fortuitous deflection.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Interesting. Strachan already seems to have great faith in some of the kids at Celt!c. Unfortunately McGeady is looking a bit sluggish at the moment but a few of the Scottish lads are playing well under Strachan.

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I thought McGeady was playing in a strange role, in the game I saw him play in, he was going from wide right to a sort of inside left position, leaving the right wing completely exposed. With Telfer still a new player at the club, and the defence woeful, no wonder they conceded so much, did Maloney play this role on saturday?

Sorry Tets, I didn't see any of Saturday's game. My TV sport allocation was taken up by cricket this weekend!

Rowlands played well against Hull, couple of decent shots on goal, back to taking on players. Deleaney didn't play well when he came on, no sign of any other Irish players in the hull team.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

I thought McGeady was playing in a strange role, in the game I saw him play in, he was going from wide right to a sort of inside left position, leaving the right wing completely exposed. With Telfer still a new player at the club, and the defence woeful, no wonder they conceded so much, did Maloney play this role on saturday?

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The midfield was:
--------Nakamura--------
Thompson-Lennon-Petrov

Nakamura was given a free role basically, he was everywhere. Thompson and Petrov were not confined to the left or right either, they were allowed roam.

Nakamura is exactly the type of player McGeady should be looking to follow. That is McGeady's position, behind the strikers.

Connolly scored a hattrick for Leicester tonight.

I don't know how McShane did for Brighton tonight but the fans love him:
http://northstandchat.biz/showthread.php?threadid=52907

Just seen the first comment on McShane since the match finished on that board:

"The back four actually played ok tonight, 2-0 flattered Reading and Dodd and McShane linked up well together with McShane being my Man of the match."

I really hope he keeps this up. He could be the top class all round centre half we haven't had since McGrath.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

I really hope he keeps this up. He could be the top class all round centre half we haven't had since McGrath.

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Priceless! wasn't everyone saying the same thing about O'Shea :D

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Originally Posted by Qwerty

Priceless! wasn't everyone saying the same thing about O'Shea :D

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I've never seen O'Shea get mom at centre half so not me anyway. :)

Glenn Whelan played full game for SWFC, and Damien Delaney played for Hull.

Leon Best (boo, or cheer, who knows?) scored & played well apparently.

Partridge & Coughlan both unused subs, but Ben Burgess came on for Hull with 6 mins to go.

Lee, Boland, Kelly & Butler all played 90 mins in Cardiff vs Leeds.

Gary Doherty wasn't even on Norwich's bench.

Kevin Foley and Rory Delap both played at right-back for Luton & Southampton respectively.

Mark Kennedy set up Wolves' first goal in a win over Palace, for whom Jon Macken played the whole game. Judging by the line-up in the paper, Kennedy played midfield, not left-back like I suggested yesterday.

Alan Dunne played right-back for Millwall against Coventry for whom Michael Doyle played left-midfield. No sign of Barrett.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

"The back four actually played ok tonight, 2-0 flattered Reading..."

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That's seagulls bias because Brighton were only in the game for spells and rarely threatened. Reading were the better side and took their foot off the gas in the second half.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Glenn Whelan played full game for SWFC, and Damien Delaney played for Hull. Leon Best (boo, or cheer, who knows?) scored & played well apparently. Partridge & Coughlan both unused subs, but Ben Burgess came on for Hull with 6 mins to go.

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Thanks for that. Without wishing to be too pedantic, Partridge came on in the 78th minute as a sub. Best went off injured in the first half. Broke a toe.

Nothing wrong with being pedantic - my source was incorrect!

Latest on the rumour mill is that Wednesday have made a bid for wannabe Irishman, Lee Trundle.

Speaking of wannabe Irishmen, Liam Lawrence was excellent at Anfield according to The Times. Does anyone have any idea as to his status?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Speaking of wannabe Irishmen, Liam Lawrence was excellent at Anfield according to The Times. Does anyone have any idea as to his status?

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Trying to declare for Ireland, I read an interview with him in FourFourTwo abot a year ago when he said he was trying to get in touch with Brian Kerr about it. Nothing doing since though :(

That's been bantered about since he was at Mansfield. Nothing of note in a while though

Bloody typical. I do a huge amount of horsetrading with the wife so I can watch QPR vs SWFC on the telly. "But the future Ireland captain (Whelan) is playing and a young winger just released by Liverpool, unfairly", I tell her. Then Glenn Whelan gets injured after 20 mins & now I've got to sit through unlimited baby & chilbirth programmes for the next week. Whelan looks good though, Partridge didn't impress at all I'm afraid.

Yep. Agree with you. I was disappointed with Partridge's performance. However, it was his first league start of the season and away to QPR was a difficult one. He tried to take the full back a few times and failed miserably. One or two nice touches though - he has until Decemeber to secure a longer contract so fingers crossed.

The Times, in its Monday round-up of every game outside the Permiership has a "Blinder / Stinker" award in those games it doesn't give full match coverage to. Paul McShane, Damien Delaney & Mark Yeates all got "Blinder".

In an interview with Joe Royle he paid tribute to the club's academy, mainly due to Darren(?) Bent being included in the England squad. But he also singled out Owen Garvan saying that if a 17 year-old can run midfield like he did today the academy is proving its worth.

Alan Quinn was singled out in The Times as having had a great game too.