FA Premiership: Aston Villa v Charlton: No sign of Kinsella, Holland and Kiely both start for Charlton. In fact, Kinsella wasn't even in the match-day squad for Villa, according to the BBC. Fulham v Man City: Richard Dunne on the bench. Leeds v Birmingham: Harte and Kelly start for Leeds, Cunningham for Birmingham. Morrison still only on the bench as Dugarry and Forssell start up front. Liverpool v Leicester: Finnan starts for Liverpool, and looks very sharp in the 1st half. Newcastle v Bolton: Given starts for Newcastle. No sign of O'Brien, as Bramble and Woodgate are at the back, with Aaron Hughes on the bench. Portsmouth v Blackburn: Alan Kelly on the bench, Stephen Reid is suspended. Spurs v Southampton: Carr starts, Doherty and Keane on the bench. Delap is still injured for Southampton.
Division 1: Crewe v Nottingham Forest: Thompson, McPhail and Reid all start for Forest. I heard a BBC reported call McPhail and Reid's understanding "uncanny". Derby v Sunderland: Only Butler and Healy start. Thornton on the bench, possibly because of his red card in midweek. Gillingham v West Ham: David Connolly starts. Reading v Coventry: Staunton, Doyle start, Barrett only on the bench. Sheffield United v Cardiff: Boland and Kavenagh start. I think Alan Lee is suspended. And in Scotland: Liam Miller is on the bench for Celtic v Motherwell.
Very few Irish goals, apart from Duff's. Burgess scored for Hull and Foran for Carlisle. Also, Miller played 20 minutes for Celtic. Robbie Keane played the entire 2nd half for Spurs, but Morrison was only given injury time to show what he can do.
Duff was great today, set up two aswell as the one he scored. The big news though is Keane playing the entire second half for Spurs and assisting Kanoutes goal, fantastic news for us that he's fit enough to play an entire 45 minutes, and make an impact, still a relatively good distance from the Switzerland game.
Kilbane started for Everton, but was taken off with 10 minutes to go. Carsley came on at half time for Watson. O'Shea and Roy Keane start for Manchester United. Graham Stack is on the bench for Arsenal.
How did O'Shea play v Arsenal? Martin Rowlands scored a couple tonight in the league cup. And Kevin Foley who I think is Irish scored for Luton in their match with Charlton. Matt Holland started for Charlton. Sunderland were eliminated by Huddersfield. Thornton and Butler both started. Babb was on the bench. No sign of Healy? Dwayne Mattis was on the bench for Huddersfield. Cardiff lost 3-2 to West Ham, Defoe getting a hat-trick. Connolly, Boland and Kavenagh all started. Mark Kennedy played for Wolves, Morrison finally got a full match for Birmingham, though they fell 1-0 to second division Blackpool, and Andy Reid and John Thompson played for Nottingham Forest. No sign of McPhail.
O'Shea was good as usual for Utd. He was replaced with about 20 minutes left by Forlan in a tactical switch. Roy Keane played well too btw, looked fast so he seems to have fully recovered. I saw the Wolves "match" too, Kennedy didn't do much but seemed to be played out of position for most of the game. Duff was excellent, gave Irwin a tough time! Denis still showed some skilful touches and reads the game as well as ever, but his age is starting to tell.
Sunderland played mainly second string, which is why no Healy, Whitley was in his place. Unfortunately, Healy being a Sunderland regular is now to the expence of Sean Thornton seemingly. Coventry play Spurs today, on Keanes return I expected he'd get a fantastic reception, instead he was being booed every time he touched the ball. Well, his responce so far has been a goal and an assist as Spurs lead 2-0.
In the UEFA Cup: Reid came on for Blackburn in Turkey with 20 minutes left. Finnan didn't start for Liverpool in Slovenia, but came on for Diao. Dunne was on the bench for Man City v Lokeren. Delap was on the bench for Southampton v Bucharest. And Maybury started for Hearts.
In the Carling Cup: Harte and Kelly started for Leeds, but Kelly came of after 38 minutes. Injury? They must have had problems because it's 2-1 to Swindon Town at Elland Road. Robbie has been taken off by Spurs for Postiga, Carr started as captain. Staunton and Doyle started for Coventry, Doyle came off and Barrett came on at the half. Carsley started for Everton. In Scotland: Dempsey started for Dunflermine, and came off for Richie Byrne.
Leeds' goal was scored by Harte. I think we'll have to throw him in against the Swiss... Also, Given and O'Brien started for Newcastle in the UEFA Cup.
I hope not, we all know he can score goals it's his defencive part of the game that's in doubt. Moving O'Shea to the middle I'd risk playing Finnan out of position on the left, my confidence in Harte is so low.
Dunne came on for Tiatto in the 2nd half, didn't have to do much as the ball was in the Lokeren half for 90% of the 2nd half. He did however make a couple of nice tackles/interceptions on the 2 breakaways that Lokeren had.
I actually think Harte is a pretty effective sub. In those games when Ireland are lacking creativity from the back 4 and/or set pieces (see: Australia), he is a useful player to come on and hopefulyl spark things up. If we're sitting on a lead, however... he should be warming the bench