connolly is a championship standard player and always was. and he always scored a hatful of goals for any championship team he ever played for and was a consistently good performer at that level. He never played on a consistent level for us and was virtually never first choice.Originally Posted by Big Chief
So basically your comment is a load of old arse.
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don't know about worst but myt two least favorite are Phil Babb and David Connely. HATE David "i should be first choice" Connely.
I couldn't care less how many Championship managers deemed him worthy of throwing money at, the bottom line was that he was nowhere near the class. I can still distinctly recall his appearance from the bench against Spain in the 2002 World Cup when he barely touched the ball and was utterly hopeless.
I stand over my views that there were better strikers operating in the League of Ireland both at that time and indeed at present.
The only thing I'm upset about is that game last night, but I won't blame Alan for that.
I remember the Denmark game well and he did have a very good game. And you're right - there was a (short) spell when he looked like a good player. But you could say that about a lot of the players mentioned in this thread and you know the old saying about swallows and summers. I judged AK on the basis of what he did in his entire career, particularly for Ireland and unfortunately he had more awful games than good ones. He became a liability to team and was far from being a solid player. He was only getting picked because we had absolutely no alternative. I remember one game (a friendly against the Czechs springs to mind but I'm not sure) where, under no pressure, he literally tripped over the ball at the edge of the box and we ended up losing a goal.
If you remember, on the back of his initial performances for Ireland, he got a big money move (for the time) to Man City but it never amounted to anything. He just ended up drifting down the leagues.
BTW, Paddy, I have no personal gripe with AK as you seem to imply (feel free to correct me if I picked you up wrong) - I just don't rate him as a player.
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Nowhere near what class? second tier english class? I never said he was good enough to ever be a top class international but worst ever Irish player is utter balls. A quick review of his stats will show you how many goals he scored at championship level for the clubs he was at and his record is a fine one at that level. He is now 32, clubless, and his best days are behind him so obviously some hotshot young LOI lad could be better than him now but thats hardly comparing like with like.
I'll stand over my view that you are talking out of your sphincter on this one.
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OP needs to define the question a bit more clearly judging by the wide frame of reference of many of the responses.
However, no matter how you define "worst", the answer is always going to be Lapira.
Together with all our hearts.
Wasn't Clinton Morrison on the bench that day as well.
I could not understand how he was not brought on instead of Connolly.
Maybe he had not served enough of an apprenticeship for some at that time
Liam Miller or Alan O Brien
Joesph Lipira was up there
We have had some rubbish over the years...mcgoldrick, daish, lapira, kernaghan, my namesake...i could go on.
'I can't even remember when the Seventies was.' - ROBBIE KEANE
Anyone naming Kernaghan as the worst Irish international ever seriously doesn't have a clue
Why is that, he was a complete donkey?
And if you dont agree well thats your opinion.
'I can't even remember when the Seventies was.' - ROBBIE KEANE
So you think Lapira was a better player for us than Kernaghan?
Realistically the likes of Kernaghan, Connolly, McGoldrick, Morris, Kilbane etc... were all decent championship standard players who happened to fill a void when needed, I haven't included Babb as he was awesome in 94 even if McGrath held his hand for the 4 games, but they were far from the worst players ever to pull on a green shirt.
I think Butler & Lapria would be the 2 stand outs of recent times although Alan O'Brien must come pretty close
He came on with 10mins to go of normal time for God sake, what'd you expect, a hat-trick? and if I remember right he nearly sneaked one into the bottom corner at the death. He did miss his penalty but he wasn't alone. I'm with as_i_say on this one bigtime.
I remember him getting man of the match two games in a row on RTE. That was the peak for him though - absolutely shocking. Honourable mention to the Doc for me. Donkey of the highest order.
Lapira only played once and was only brought in to make up numbers. Butler only played half a game
Kernaghan played 20 or 30.
Maybe if Lapira had played 20 times, he may have proved to have been a better player.
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The fact that he played 20-30 as you say suggests he wasn't doing that bad of a jobLapira only played once and was only brought in to make up numbers. Butler only played half a game
Kernaghan played 20 or 30.
Maybe if Lapira had played 20 times, he may have proved to have been a better player.
Especially seeing as many of them would have been during the successful 1994 WC Qualifying campaign.
Maybe if thread was "worst Irish player to get more than 20 caps" or something. 1 or 2 cap wonders like Lapira/Butler/macken were obviously crap cos they only got 1 or 2 caps!
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I can't recall the incident you mention. I think I attended almost all of his 22 caps and certainly the competitive ones.
He had a poor game against Spain in 1993 as did most others in green that day. He played in 7 other World Cup qualifiers in which we conceded 3 goals in total. He certainly wasn't at fault for Jimmy Quinn's goal in Belfast or the Albanian goal in Tirana. I can't recall the buildup or the finish to Kim Vilfort's goal in Dublin. We put out the reigning european champions and Alan turned in some great performaqnces in that campaign.
He lost his place for the finals because we had Liverpool's Phil Babb to play alongside Paul McGrath. Babb was very highly rated at the time and indeed looked a quality player for a time.
He subsequently played in 4 qualifiers in the next campaign where we missed out on a place in the finals after losing a playoff to Holland. I don't recall him being responsible for any of the 5 goals conceded while he playing.
His last cap was a 3-0 win over Bolivia in 1996 - where he captained the side.
He made a significant contribution to our team when we were ranked as high as 6th in the world.
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