The starting 11 for the Swiss match will depend greatly on the players' club form throughout the next four weeks. So between now and then, I think it would be a good idea to generate some discussion on how the lads are doing with their respective clubs (whether or not they play, and if so, how well they play). If it works well, we'll try a new thread every week, but this one can also be used to discuss the midweek European matches. The teams will be announced shortly, and in the early match in Scotland, Dundee v Celtic, Liam Miller started on the bench but came on after only 25 minutes. Also, I heard Lambert is injured, so that can only improve his chances of regular football. Today's Premiership matches: Arsenal v Portsmouth Blackburn Rovers v Liverpool Bolton Wanderers v Middlesbrough Charlton v Manchester United Chelsea v Spurs Everton v Newcastle United Southampton v Wolves
Graham Stack is on the bench for Arsenal. (Alan Kelly) is on the bench for Blackburn, while Steve Finnan starts for Liverpool. Reid is suspended. No Irish involved in the Bolton v Middlesbrough tie. (Kiley) and Holland start for Charlton, (Roy Keane) and John O'Shea start for Man U. Duff starts for Chelsea, Carr for Spurs. No sign of Doherty. Kilbane starts for Everton, no sign of Carsley. Given and O'Brien start for Newcastle. Butler, Irwin, and Kennedy start for Wolves. Rory Delap is still injured for Southampton.
David Connolly starts for West Ham. Thompson, McPhail and Andy Reid start for Nottingham Forest. (Staunton), Mick Doyle and Graham Barrett start for Coventry. Clive Clarke starts for Stoke. James O'Connor starts for West Brom, while Joe Murphy is on the bench. Alan Mahon starts for Ipswich.
In Division 2, Brian Barry-Murphy, Derek Geary and Alan Quinn start for Sheffield Wednesday. Nick Colgan and Jon Daly start for Stockport. Jim Goodwin is on the bench.
Colin Healy came on for McAteer after 34 minutes, Sunderland are 1-0 up on Crystal Palace through a Kevin Kyle goal.
Andy Reid scores again, what more must he do to get a call up? Good to see Sunderland doing well with a mainly Irish backbone, espically in mid field, and espically good to see Butler breaking into the side. He really is a fantastic player if he can stay injury free. Amazed to see Healy being kept out by McAteer, more of McCarthys infamous loyalty I suppose. Duff set up Mutus first today apparently, then came off. Seems to be subbed off every week for Cole despite usually being Chelseas best player which is something I don't understand, but the whole situation at Chelsea is just crazy anyway. Good to see Graham Stack edgeing closer and closer to first team action, the German guy Arsenal have now is in his 30s right? So it's between him and Taylor to see who becomes the long term number one after he retires I'd say, as Arsenal haven't the money to keep bringing in new keepers.
I watched the Charlton-United match. O'Shea looked very sharp in central-defence, and it's good to see him back from injury so quickly. Holland was taken off when Charlton went 2-0 down in favor of a more attacking player. He was okay, if not brilliant. Roy Keane was taken off with a knock, and Dean Kiely played the full match.
Not only that, but it's good to see him playing so well in central defence, as it's likely that's where he'll be played against Switzerland with Cunningham out. The injury news was great, when I saw it I feared for his fitness for the Swiss match, it looked alot worse then it was.
Lets not forget Cardiff's Irish players Kavanagh, Boland and Whalley. Now up to 6th in Div 1 after there 5-0 drubbing of Gillingham (who's team included irish wannabe Marlon King) 1st team regulars Kavanagh and Boland run the central midfield for the Bluebirds. 'Captain' Kavanagh has said recently that he still holds out hope of getting another Irish international chance now that cardiff are playing in a higher division. Jonah
Man City v Aston Villa and Birmingham City v Fulham are today. Dunne and Kinsella both start on the bench.
Kenna starts for Birmingham. Morrison on the bench again. Forssell and John have him beat, it seems. And Dugarry is still out injured.
Who will we have for the mid week European matches? Is their UEFA cup this week? Looking at the British sides in the champions league... Arsenal - Possibley Stack on the bench. Celtic - Miller could start but in such a huge match for one so young is likely to be on the bench. Chelsea - Duff isn't a fitness doubt so should start. Manchester United - O'Shea should start, continuing in central defence I'd imagine. (Keane) is carrying a knock so I'm not sure what the situation is with him. Rangers - Boooooo And the English ones in the UEFA Cup (Don't think there's an Irishman on one of the Scottish ones)... Newcastle - Given and O'Brien aren't fitness worries as far as I know, so both should start. Liverpool - Finnan also seems alright, so should start. Manchester City - Dunne will probably be on the bench Southampton - Delap is still injured as far as I know so isn't likely to feature at all. I think that's all of them. Are 1860 Munich (Joe Kendrick) involved in Europe at all? He's nearly recovered from his injury so is likely to debut soon I think.
With Carragher gone for 6 months or so Finnan should nearly be an automatic pick in all games. As matter of fact, Houllier may have to find ways to rest him.
1860 aren't in europe this season. As far as I know Kendrick hasn't played at all so far this season with this injury.
Eleven-a-side say his injury problems are behind him and he should be in the squad to face whoever 1860 are facing next week. Hopefully he'll make his debut one way or another from there.
Gary Kelly did play the full match for Leeds. Harte didn't feature, but they lost 4-0 so it's just as well.
Kelly had a poor game, was caught out on numerous occasions. But at least he can say he didn't play as bad as Roque Junior. My God that guy is woeful, it's hard to believe he has a World Cup medal in the wardrobe and he played in a World Cup final. The way he played today he wouldn't make the Finn Harps back four.... he was really really bad.