The Irish in Britain

Villa must have been somewhat impressive though?

It’s the best I have seen Ashley Young pplay in about 18months he was unplayable today, downing was also excellent, the young lad walker on loan from Spurs is very good going forward. I can finally see what Houllier is trying to do with the team and in fairness to him when it works it looks very good but he doesn’t have the players at his disposal yet yo play the short game against the better teams.

Oh yea,Pires really reeled in the years today and put in a great performance for the first time since he joined(that probably says more about Blackburn than Pires though.

Ah tis still amusing me Fran, I’ll see how I feel the next time he scores. Yer man bit his tongue every time though to be fair to the seether :smiley:

Consider your feedback taken on board however :wink:

Surprised to see that andy Reid didn’t take Adam’s place in midfield today for Blackpool

Conor Henderson becomes the first Irishman since Graham Barrett to represent Arsenal tonight acc to Off The Ball. Did Stokes not get a game when there?

i thought conor henderson was english… his bio says he was born in england. has he represented ireland at underage?(im sorry for not knowing this)

I think he’s an U-21 alright. Anyone see how he played tonight? I believe he’s a big talent so I’d say he sees Arsenal as a steppin-stone towards moving to a bigger club who’d have a chance at winning a pot.

Leon Best on target again today

Two for Duff in their 3-2 win, own goal for Richie Towell at St Johnstone.

2 for Long and 2 for Harte today in Reading’s hammering of Middlesbrough.

I can’t believe Long is keeping his place.

James McCarthy is playing well here for Wigan in the second half. Manchester City have dropped their level and Wigan have had a good spell of possession. He’s passed it well and had an excellent long range half volley that was beaten away by Hart.

James McCarthy is playing very well here against City, in fact Wigan seem to be out playing them.

Man City are pretty shite to watch.

Conor Sammon on for his debut.

Very, very close to scoring there too. Has had a nice little cameo though. That was a lovely link up with his strike partner for the chance.

Shane Long , Ian Harte and Noel Hunt all scoring for Reading tonight.

Harte seems to be enjoying some kind of Indian summer with Reading. Dont know where it went wrong for him really, was pretty shite by 2002. Had weight issues and no speed on the turn. Good to see him enjoying his football again at a semi decent level. Wasnt too long ago that the likes of St Mirren were offering him month to month contracts.

Never thought I would see Shane Long score 20 goals in a season at any professional level. Fair play to him. Playing in Slovakia seems to have given him a big surge in belief. 12 goals in 15 games I think. Will surely start against Macedonia.

Noel Hunt has had a bad time with injuries but will always score his share at that level if fit. A better player than Jon Walters imo.

In all seriousness, thats a great fucking run Long is on right now. Anytime you hear his name come up in the UK media they all seem to believe he’ll be in the EPL next season regardless of whether Reading go up or not. Where exactly would he be fancied to go do people think? Will he be snapped up by a promoted side, or is there a midtable side already in the EPL who is already sniffing around?

Yeah I’d say he has enough goals at this stage to persuade someone in the EPL to take a chance. Presuambly a bottom half team. Depends on who stays up and who goes up but I think he’ll get his EPL move alright. Celtic were reportedly interested in January but unlikely that will happen now. Some improvement anyway.

He was linked to Liverpool as well at some stage.

Hopefully he gets his move but in fairness he has improved immensely over the last while, even in his matches for Ireland.