The Irish Abroad - Latest Round-up

Premier League

Séamus Coleman was celebrating on two fronts this weekend as he became a father for the first time to a baby girl. To mark the arrival of his first child, Coleman scored a rare header from a Tom Cleverly corner to put Everton 2-0 ahead away at Stoke.

 

 

The game also saw James McCarthy play in a third successive match since returning from injury, which kept the former Wigan midfielder out for a month.

 

There was no room on the Everton bench for Darron Gibson. The injury-plagued Ireland midfielder has not started a league match so far this season, with the last of his four substitute appearances coming against Norwich in December.

 

He has however appeared twice in the FA Cup since then, starting against Dagenham & Redbridge and coming off the bench against Carlisle.



 

Monday sees the opening of the Football League’s emergency transfer window which could see Gibson move on a three-month loan deal and invigorate his Euro 2016 chances.

 

Glenn Whelan, barring injury is certain to be in Martin O’Neill’s squad, but his place in the Stoke City starting line-up may now be less than certain following the arrival of Giannelli Imbula for a club-record transfer of £18.3million from Porto on deadline day.

 

Nonetheless, Whelan, who has started every Premier League game this season for Stoke kept his place in the side for the visit of Everton.



 

Imbula joined Whelan in the centre of the pitch with Ibrahim Afellay pushing further forward and Bojan dropping to the bench.

 

Stoke were without three other Irish internationals in their matchday squad.

 

Jon Walter’s was missing through illness but there is more concern for Shay Given and Marc Wilson. It is not known when Given will return as he recovers from knee surgery while Marc Wilson is out of action for the next three months with a medial knee ligament injury suffered in the FA Cup defeat at Crystal Palace.

 

Harry Arter, who missed the first three months of the season, will feel he is in prime contention to replace Gibson in Ireland’s final squad for the European Championships. The Bournemouth midfielder is having an impressive season and made his 15th Premier League appearance for in 2-0 defeat at home to title-chasing Arsenal.

 

John O’Shea was another Irish international relieved to be starting on Saturday, after Sam Allardyce made several defensive signings in the January window.

 

 

 

Damien Delaney helped end Crystal Palace’s run of five straight defeats as his header from a corner helped setup Scott Dann for Palace to secure a precious point away to Swansea.

 

Robbie Brady returned from illness to resume his role at left-back for Norwich but couldn’t prevent Norwich losing a fifth game in a row.

 

Wes Hoolahan was replaced after 56 minutes by debutant Patrick Bamford as the Canaries went with a more direct route in search of a way back in the game at Villa Park. Hoolahan has seven Premier League assists this season, no other player outside the top eight sides has more. The defeat leaves Norwich in the relegation zone.

 

Ciaran Clark replaced Micah Richards in stoppage time with manager Rémi Garde, preferring the partnership of Joleon Lescott and Jores Okore at the heart of Villa’s defence. The threat of Lescott from set-pieces will not help Clark get back into the starting line-up. The former England defender scored his third league goal of the season against Norwich.

 

Rob Elliot kept his fourth clean sheet of the season as Newcastle climbed out of the relegation zone. It was a relatively quiet day for the Irish goalkeeper with West Brom failing to register a shot on target. James McClean who was making his 20th league start of the season, came closest for West Brom when his goal-bound shot was brilliantly blocked by Newcastle’s Steven Taylor.

 

Shane Long who has failed to cement his place in the Southampton team since his arrival from Hull City two years ago, played in his 10th successive game in all competitions for the Saints in Saturday’s evening kick-off.

 

Since the return of Graziano Pellè from injury, Long has been moved further wide to accommodate the Italian with new signing Charlie Austin having to settle for a place on the bench. Long is the highest-scoring Irish player in the Premier League this season with five goals.

 

Darren Randolph’s FA Cup heroics were not enough to keep Adrián out of the West Ham side. The Wicklow man was joined by Joey O’Brien on the West Ham bench.

 

The Championship

New loan signing Aiden McGeady made his first league start in over a year, as he played the first 61 minutes in Sheffield Wednesday’s win over Birmingham City.

 

Irish goalkeeper Kieran Westwood had to be stretchered off early in the first half after he collided with Wednesday defender Sam Hutchinson. The clash resulted in the Wednesday keeper suffering from suspected concussion and was treated on the pitch for several minutes before being replaced by Lewis Price.

 

 

 

Derby’s three Irish internationals played the full 90 minutes as the Rams drew 1-1 with Championship strugglers Fulham.

 

Although Richard Keogh hit the crossbar early on, Cyrus Christie and Jeff Hendrick couldn’t help end Derby’s winless run which now extends to six after the away draw.

 

Stephen Ward’s run in the Burnley side continued as he and the rest of the Clarets defence kept a clean sheet in Burnley’s 1-0 victory over promotion rivals Hull City at Turf Moor.

 

The 30-year-old had gone over a year without starting a league game before being picked to start the home league game against Bristol City at the end of December. Welcome news for Martin O’Neill as the left-back has gone on to start every league and cup match since then.

 

David Meyler, who has been in and out of the Hull side remained on the bench, the former Cork City midfielder has started just over half of Hull’s league matches, with 16 starts.

 

Despite much speculation in the recent transfer window, Alan Judge remained at Brentford to help them make a late push for play-off place. However, the in-demand attacking midfielder was powerless to prevent his side losing 3-0 away to Brighton on Friday night.

 

Judge very nearly added to his 12 Championship goals but for a fine save from Brighton’s David Stockdale when the scores were level. Richie Towell failed to get off the bench for the third successive match, despite making his debut in the FA Cup loss away to Hull in January.

 

Preston, who have a strong Irish contingent made up of left-back Greg Cunningham, midfielder Alan Browne and striker Eoin Doyle.

 

They all featured in North End’s 2-1 victory over Huddersfield to lift the Deepdale side up to 14th place. Indeed, it was 20-year-old Browne, who scored the stoppage-time winner, as he rose above the opposition defenders to power home a late winner. Preston manager Simon Grayson said to the BBC after the match that Browne was lucky to start the match after turning up late for the team meeting after suffering a puncture on the motorway.

 

 

 

Daryl Murphy who has now scored just twice in his 11 appearance for Ipswich Town couldn’t add to his eight league goals this season when he came off the bench against QPR.

 

There was plenty of Irish interest at the Madejski Stadium as Reading entertained Wolves. Captain Paul McShane made an excellent last-ditch block late on from Björn Sigurdarson to ensure the Royals kept a clean sheet.

 

 

 

Stephen Quinn who missed three months of the season because of a knee injury has failed to retain a place in the side since returning in December, starting just two league matches so far in 2016.

 

Winger Anthony Pilkington, who recently scored an unusual hat-trick over Rotherham, scoring two goals for Cardiff and an own-goal for the Millers, started for the Bluebirds at home to MK Dons. Pilkington, who did not get any game-time during the qualifiers, will be seeking to reproduce his form from his time with Norwich to get back into Martin O’Neill’s plans.

 

Paul Green came on as a second-half substitute for Rotherham but couldn’t prevent his side losing 2-1 away to Neil Lennon’s cash-strapped Bolton to move the Trotters just three points off safety.

 

Best of the Rest

Christopher Forrester’s Peterborough United slipped out of the League One play-off places after a 2-1 away loss at Gillingham. Forrester’s form for the Posh has impressed many observers and the former St. Pat’s midfielder will get the opportunity to show a wider audience his potential when his Peterborough side takes on West Brom in a FA Cup fourth-round replay live on the BBC.

 

Adam Rooney scored twice to take his tally to 18 for the season as his Aberdeen side beat St Johnstone. The win takes the Dons level with Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership, although the Dons have played one game more.

 

 

 

 

 

Highly-rated Jack Byrne made his 14th start of the season for Dutch side Cambuur Leeuwarden on Sunday but couldn’t prevent his side losing 2-0 away to Groningen. Byrne is on-loan from Manchester City but his current side lie second bottom with just two wins this season.

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