Midweek Soccer: Young Irish in action

The Rooster

Anyone watch the Spurs-Burnley game last night. I only saw the first few minutes (being forced to watch fookinStargate) but Stephen Kelly seemed to start very well. How did he perform overall?

Interesting that he was playing left back. Given the doubts over O'Shea, Maybury and Harte there would be an opportunity for a good young left back to force himself not only into the squad, but into the Ireland team. Could Kelly be that man?

I dont think any of the young Gunners are Irish. unfortunately.

Benitez has said he'll play a young/reserve team tonight, and he's confirmed the Biscan, Diao and Warnock will all start in midfield. That should leave the right sided spot between two Irishmen, Potter and Partrigde. I'd love to see Partridge get a chance, but given that Potter has done well in his cameos so far, he should hold on. But hopefully Richie will be on the bench and get a decent run out.

Might be a chance also that Paul McShane gets a run out for the mancs.

Celtic v Rangers is on TG4 tonight, so hopefully McGeady will start. Interesting that Richie Foran got a couple of goals last night for Motherwall. Thats 5 goals in 11 starts. He cant be far away from a call-up

eirebhoy

Kelly is a right back and only played LB last night to fill in for the injured Edman (not due back for 2 weeks). When Carr got a 3 match ban last season Kelly played all 3 games. Santini didn't really want to risk Kelly (he's also only back from injury recently) but Jol seems to have faith in him.

There actually was an Irishman in the Arsenal squad, Patrick Cregg. He's an 18 year old, listed as a midfielder but can play up front AFAIK. Came on for the last couple of minutes to make his debut.

I didn't know the Celtic match was on TG4, cheers.

Potter and Partridge didn't even make the Liverpool squad unforunately.

Carr is still injured so not in Newcastle squad.

Edit: 2 Irish players scored the only goals for the Arsenal reserves the other night against Chelsea in front of 5500, Stephen O'Donnell and Anthony Stokes

A natural finisher, Anthony excelled last year, making three reserve team appearances and scoring four times from eight Under-19 appearances - all as a 15 year-old.

He scored 12 goals from 17 Under-17 outings, and netted four from two FA Youth Cup games.

The young Irishman has trained with the first team on several occasions.

por

The Rooster wrote:

Interesting that Richie Foran got a couple of goals last night for Motherwall. Thats 5 goals in 11 starts. He cant be far away from a call-up

The only way I can see Foran getting a call-up is if Roddy realises his life long ambition and becomes Ireland manager. Foran has been knocking around for a few years now palying in poor legues with poor teams (Carlisle, Oxford, Motherwell) and he has a history of getting into bother with both Ireland and Carlisle

ianomccabe

partridge most definitely did make the liverpool squad.
he's on the bench tonight

eirebhoy

ianomccabe wrote:

partridge most definitely did make the liverpool squad.
he's on the bench tonight

And I hear Potter will start. BBC's squad must be wrong:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/3988401.stm

ianomccabe

yeah it is,
benitez told announced the team to his players yesterday.
its fairly the same with big igor running the midfield

Chucky the tree

the duffy lad who played for burnley was irish wasnt he? On loan from portsmouth? he had a shocking miss with a header though.

Villain

eirebhoy wrote:

Anthony Stokes

My Brother managed him was he was teaching in Leixlip, he said he was a great player, Arsenal paid him 1 million up front to go and bought himself and his parents a house. Should be a great talent for Ireland if he continues to progress.

super_furry

Partridge came on for Liverpool and according to the Liverpoolfc.tv commentary was very impressive.

mayordenis

super_furry wrote:

Partridge came on for Liverpool and according to the Liverpoolfc.tv commentary was very impressive.

yeah it sounded like he was very good and made quite an impact on the match.

Ronan|Raven

Hmm if only the first team could score as many

eirebhoy

Partridge and Potter set up the 2 Pool goals. At last Partidge is getting the chance to back up all my praise for him.

Robben is playing like the Duff of old and got MOM after only coming on as a sub.

McGeady done that flick (in my sig) again but this time it was against 2 Rangers players. He has 2 of the fastest feet in the world.

Reid scored and set up the other for Forest.

ianomccabe

richie was superb when he came on tonight, setting up mellors goal with a fine ball.
could have had a penalty too when quedreu took him down in the box lets hope he can get a run now under rafa

Big Nelly

anyone have links to coverage? wasnt any highlights on Sky Sports of Liverpoll game last nite when I finally got home!

eirebhoy

Big Nelly wrote:

anyone have links to coverage? wasnt any highlights on Sky Sports of Liverpoll game last nite when I finally got home!

If you use Bittorrent:
http://football.hn.org:6969/index.html

Liverpool highlights are 288MB for some reason.

eirebhoy

eirebhoy wrote:

McGeady done that flick (in my sig) again but this time it was against 2 Rangers players. He has 2 of the fastest feet in the world.

...and here it is:
http://members.boards.ie/eirebhoy/mcgeady%20trick%20v%20Rangers.avi

Pity about the cross.