Irish Abroad 2008/2009

[Dodge]

And why didnt we cap that Mc Ginn lad??

Because he's an above average LOI player, who happens to be from Northern ireland

Oh and gartland wouldn't be in the top 3/4 centre halves in Ireland

[irishultra]

couldnt disagree more. whose better than him?

[Dodge]

Gavin, Maguire, Oman, Burns, Peers

[irishultra]

Maby on form Gavin yeah but the rest Gartland is better IMO.

[tetsujin1979]

whats the latest on S Kelly ???

Still nursing a thigh problem. No update on a return. According to a report in September it would be a month before he came back!

And why didnt we cap that Mc Ginn lad??

He played U-23's for the North, dunno if he played at any other underage levels. Might have something to do with it?

[Dodge]

McGinn made his debut for the NI senior international team in their last game (Hungary?)

[Closed Account]

3 Irish in the Telegraphs
Top 10: January Championship transfer targets

But thats quite regular fare at this stage

4. Kevin Doyle (Reading)
Currently the best player in the Championship, according to the Actim Index, the 25-year-old could very possibly celebrate the new year with Premier League football. As well as brief interest from Spurs, Aston Villa were linked with the striker all summer, but baulked at the £8m fee. That he signed a new contract recently would make him even more expensive. However, his performances so far this season – and 15 goals - could have proved he is worth the price.
5. Stephen Hunt (Reading)
It was Hunt who collided with Petr Cech back in 2006, but the midfielder will be remembered for more than just being the reason that the Chelsea goalkeeper wears a scrum cap. The Actim Index puts him as being the best midfielder in the Championship so far this season. Everton manager David Moyes could be persuaded to offer £6m. Sunderland were reportedly interested a few months ago, but presumably their managerial issues would leave the way open for Everton.
7. Owen Garvan (Ipswich)
Everton and West Ham are tracking this 20-year-old midfielder, who has already been included in Giovanni Trappatoni Ireland squad. Sunderland had been tracking Garvan, but his performances are sure to have alerted other top-flight teams. However, he signed a new three-year contract in the summer which ties him to Portman Road until 2011, so any interested clubs would have to stump up a hefty sum.

[SkStu]

Gartland is not a particularly exceptional centre half in eL - as Dodge mentioned above Oman and Burns are better (havent seen enough of the rest). He is prone to losing the rag and making bad tackles/decisions.

That said, i think he could carve out a pretty decent career for himself in the Championship/Scotland.

[the doc]

I watched a replay of Preston-Birmingham earlier.

Carsley did very well, and made some potentially goal-saving tackles as usual at the edge of the box. He definitely still seems up for it and would probably suit our system.

For Preston:

Eddie Nolan was the best Irish player in the game. He's a right back and he looks like he could be a real star. He did well in defense, and even better in attack. He made some great off the ball runs and really helped his winger out.

I hardly noticed Sean St. Ledger, but that's a good sign for a centre-half. Made one very good tackle that I can remember. I'd need to see more of him to say one way or another, but at the end of the day he was part of a back 5 that kept a clean sheet against one of the top teams in the league. Commentators seemed keen on him as well.

Stephen Elliott showed some nice touches and turns of skill, but it never really came to anything. It was a very tight game and it wasn't really the kind of open environment he can thrive in. The commentators were saying that he only made the starting lineup due to injury, and the guy who came on for him set up the winner, so he'll probably be dropped for their next match. Overall I wasn't too impressed with him, but hopefully he can re-discover the form that led to his first Ireland call up a few years ago.

Try looking at pne-online.net

[tetsujin1979]

Shane Lowry on the bench tonight for Villa.
Good to see, but I wouldn'r read too much into it. O'Neill has already said he didn't care about the result, since they're already through to the next round.

[bwagner]

great for both the young lads , Id love to see both go to a good championship club for the rest of the season.

[SaucyJack]

Would Shane Lowry be the first Australian born player to line out for Ireland, either under-age or senior level?... he'd be our own tony Dorigo.

Gartland is now on trial at Leicester, maybe that's his level.

http://www.eleven-a-side.com/eircoml...ws.asp?n=35345

[Closed Account 2]

James McCarthy scored twice today for Hammies vs Motherwell

[paudie]

John O'flynn scored again for Barnet yesterday in a 2-2 draw with Darlington. Seems to be doing well in a poor team.

[Adrianovic]

Anybody here of Brendan Moloney who played for Notts Forest on Saturday. According to the link below he is Irish.

http://www.soccerbase.com/players_de...playerid=46368

I'm a Kerryman and a Forest fan, so obviously I've been keenly following Brendan's progress at the club for a little while.

Recalled from his loan spell at Rusden, he was thrown into the team against Barnsley as a last throw of the dice by the manager Colin Calderwood - as we were desperately exposed at right back throughout the season.

Given how shakey our back four has been, Brendan has been a breath of fresh air. He's very mature for his age and comfortable on the ball, getting forward in support of his winger. It's this positional awareness that's bailed out our centre halves on a couple of occasions, leaving the wing to clear up in the middle of the box.

After five games, Moloney's only mistake was away at Coventry, when he was slow into the game and let a man arrive at the back post to score after 90 seconds, behind his back. Despite this, he did recover well and featured prominently in a much improved second half performance by the team.

Blackpool came to the City Ground the next week and pretty much offered nothing going forward, so he didn't have much to do in the way of defending. However, again, he overlapped nicely and ensured Forest pinned them in, even if there were no goals. Moloney picked up the man of the match award from the sponsors.

Most recently, he turned in a good performance away at Southampton and played a key part in the second goal (which is a bit of a screamer as it is). Brendan is the lad who picks up the ball and drives forward, before passing it off:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ilxHcif20Vo


Overall, he's now first choice right back at the club, although there is a chance we could sign someone more experienced in January - I would expect Moloney to have a big future at Forest and for Ireland.

[seanfhear]

Brendan Maloney looks like a giant in that utube footage

which could be a plus for us as we have a lot of small players

[Adrianovic]

He's 6ft 1inch, so tall enough for a full back to help out with defending set pieces.

[bohsRap]

Overall, he's now first choice right back at the club, although there is a chance we could sign someone more experienced in January - I would expect Moloney to have a big future at Forest and for Ireland.

Any chance of playing him at centre-half? Seem to have a few right fulls.

[Adrianovic]

Any chance of playing him at centre-half? Seem to have a few right fulls.

Doubtful.

I think he can job there, as well as right midfield, but full back would be his natural position. Forest have a derth of right backs and quite a few centre backs around, so there's not much chance of him getting a game there either.

[tetsujin1979]

Irish Abroad for Friday, 26th December 2008: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroa...ate=2008-12-26
Robbie Keane scored his second and third goals in two games
Stephen Ireland scored his ninth of the season
James Wallace made his fifth appearance on the bench of the season
Liam Lawrence made his first appearance in a matchday squad since the end of September
After not picking up a single booking all season long, Damien Duff was shown the yellow card for the second game in a row.
Chris McCann had the unfortunate honour of scoring at both ends in Burnley's game with Barnsley
Gary Doherty scored his first of the season
Paul Heffernan scored his third goal in three games
Scott Davies scored his ninth of the season

Irish Abroad for Saturday, 27th December 2008: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroa...Details.xquery
James O'Brien made his first start of the season
Adam Rooney netted his ninth of the season for Inverness Caledonian Thistle
After starting the previous game for Celtic, Darren O'Dea came on against Rangers for his sixth appearance of the season
Alan O'Brien completed three consecutive games for the first time since I started the site

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, been busy with Christmas stuff, site is up to date now.