Irish Abroad appearance statistics for 2013/14 to date

Player statistics for the 2013/14 season to the end of December 2013: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats?month=13
Anthony Stokes has started the most wins, the Celtic striker has won 17 of his starts, three games ahead of Richard Keogh's 14 wins
Midfielders Chris McCann and Andy Reid both started the same number of draws, eight of their games finished all square
Ross County's Graham Carey has started the most losses so far this season, losing an unlucky thirteen of his starts in 2013/14, one ahead of Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney
Paddy Kenny has started the most games so far this season, the Leeds goalkeeper has started 26 games between the sticks, ahead of fellow netminder Darren Randolph on 23 with both players completing 90 minutes in each game. Of the outfield players, defender Richard Keogh has also started 23 games for Derby County, completing 21 of these along with fellow defenders Richard Dunne and Alex Pearce
Strikers Daryl Murphy and Simon Cox have both been substituted ten times, the most of any outfield player. Keiren Westwood is the only goalkeeper to be substituted so far this season
A striker also tops the introductions table, Derby County's Conor Sammon has been summoned from the bench 17 times
Unsurprisingly goalkeepers top the unused substitutes list, with Conrad Logan(27), Brian Murphy(23), Colin Doyle(23) and Robert Elliot (20) all ahead of the most unused outfield player - Yeovil's Sam Foley(18)
Robbie Keane has found the back of the net 13 times since July 2013*, and LA Galaxy never lost when he scored, winning five and drawing two of the seven games he scored in. Honourable mentions for Rhys Murphy with 11 strikes for Dagenham and Redbridge, David Mooney with 13 strikes for Leyton Orient, and Aiden O'Brien with six goals in seven starts for Aldershot Town
Defender Jim Goodwin has been booked eight times so far this season, in only 20 starts.

*note that while the MLS season runs March-November, only games since 1st July 2013 were used when compiling the player comparison tables

Irish Abroad appearance statistics for December 2013

Player appearance statistics for December 2013: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats?month=12
Anthony Stokes started six wins for Celtic, ahead of Richard Keogh's five wins and Seamus Coleman's four wins.
Darren Randolph started four games for Birmingham City that ended all square, ahead of Andy Reid, David Meyler, Sean Murray, Daryl Murphy and Simon Cox who all started three games that finished level
Ross County's Graham Carey has the unwanted stat of most losses started, he was on the losing side five times in December
Midfielder Chris McCann started the most games in December - lining out for Wigan seven times, but only completing four of these. Of the players who started six games Shay Given, Paddy Kenny, David Forde, Darren Randolph, Richard Dunne, Damien Delaney, Ciaran Clark, Seamus Coleman and Andy Reid all completed 90 minutes in each one
Aidan White, Glenn Whelan and Sean Murray were all substituted three times in December, more than any other player. No goalkeepers were withdrawn during the month
Huddersfield striker Sean Scannell was introduced from the bench five times during the final month of 2013, while unsurprisingly goalkeeper Conrad Logan was again the most unused substitute in December, remaining on the bench for seven games. Of the outfield players, Daniel Devine, Sam Foley and Jay Tabb were all unused substitutes in five games
Seamus Coleman scored the most goals in December, finding the back of the net three times, and Everton went on to win all three of these games. That's the first time a defender topped the monthly scoring chart since Damien Delaney in October 2012
Ciaran Clark was booked three times in December, to top the yellow cards table

Irish players under Martin and Roy

During their club management careers in England and Scotland, both Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane have managed several Irish players. After examining the Irish Abroad player database, we've compiled the following table with the appearance data for these players.

Manager	Team	Player Name	S	I	G	B	R
Martin O'Neill	Celtic	Colin Healy	15	17	2	3	0
		Liam Miller	19	24	5	3	0
		Aiden McGeady	3	1	1	0	0
	Aston Villa	Richard Dunne	48	0	3	8	0
		Ciaran Clark	1	0	0	0	0
	Sunderland	Keiren Westwood	8	0	0	0	0
		John O'Shea	53	0	1	5	0
		David Meyler	2	9	0	0	0
		James McClean	48	14	11	6	0
Roy Keane	Sunderland	Liam Miller	43	17	3	10	2
		Anthony Stokes	16	22	5	1	0
		Daryl Murphy	50	26	11	4	0
		David Connolly	32	10	13	2	0
		Stephen Elliott	11	9	4	0	0
		Clive Clarke	1	1	0	0	0
		Graham Kavanagh	11	4	1	3	0
		Liam Lawrence	7	2	0	1	0
		Kenny Cunningham	6	0	0	0	0
		Paul McShane	22	1	0	3	1
		Ian Harte	3	5	0	0	0
		Roy O'Donovan	5	13	0	2	0
		Andy Reid	19	9	1	3	0
		Nicky Colgan	2	0	0	0	0
	Ipswich	Owen Garvan	19	11	1	3	0
		Alan Quinn	10	13	1	0	0
		Colin Healy	7	5	0	0	0
		Damien Delaney	51	0	2	5	2
		Jonathan Walters	45	2	7	8	0
		Shane Supple	1	0	0	0	0
		Daryl Murphy	17	0	6	0	0
		Brian Murphy	24	0	0	1	0
		Shane O'Connor	15	6	0	1	0
		Ronan Murray	0	10	1	0	0
		Darren O'Dea	12	0	0	2	0
		Mark Kennedy	11	1	0	1	0

Legend
• S - Starts
• I - Introductions
• G - Goals
• B - Bookings
• R - Red Cards

Notes
• John Egan was an unused substitute for Sunderland under Martin O'Neill, while Ian McLoughlin and Conor Hourihane were unused substitutes for Ipswich under Roy Keane
• Both Alex Bruce and Shane Lowry appeared for the new Irish management team at club level before changing their international allegiance to Northern Ireland and Australia, respectively.

Managerial record

To end the week of Trapattoni statistic blogs, let's look at the record of the Italian, as compared to his predecessors.

Jack Charlton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	57	25	44.64%	21	11
Friendly	37	22	59.46%	9	6
Total	74	47	50.00%	30	17

Mick McCarthy
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	40	19	47.50%	13	8
Friendly	28	10	35.71%	7	11
Total	68	29	42.65%	20	19

Brian Kerr
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	16	7	43.75%	7	2
Friendly	17	11	64.71%	4	2
Total	33	18	54.55%	11	4

Steve Staunton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	11	4	36.36%	4	3
Friendly	6	2	16.67%	2	2
Total	17	5	35.29%	6	5

Giovanni Trapattoni
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	35	14	40.00%	13	8
Friendly	29	12	41.38%	9	8
Total	58	26	44.83%	22	16

Trapattoni's debutant goalscorers

While compiling the information on Trapattoni's reign, I noticed that there was a high number of players who had scored on their debut for the Italian. No less than five footballers all registered their first strike on their first appearance for the Boys in Green. This is as many players as managed the feat under the previous four managers combined! Under Jack Charlton, David Kelly (10th November 1987 VS Israel), Bernie Slaven (28th March 1990 VS Wales), and Tommy Coyne (25th March 1992 VS Switzerland) all scored on their first appearances, with David Kelly notching a hat trick. During Mick McCarthy's reign both Clinton Morrison(15th August 2001 VS Croatia) and Graham Barrett(21st August 2002 VS Finland) scored on their debuts. No players managed the feat under the next two managers Brian Kerr and Steve Staunton.
After Keith Andrews impressed in a B international against Nottingham Forest in November 2008, he was promoted to the senior squad for the friendly against Poland on the 19th and scored Ireland's second goal in a 3-2 defeat to their future European Championships hosts at Croke Park.
In the penultimate game of the Carling Nations Cup, the Republic of Ireland faced Northern Ireland in front of a sparse crowd at Aviva stadium on the 24th May 2011. Stephen Ward and Simon Cox were both handed their first appearances by the Italian, and they scored the first and final goals, respectively, in a 5-0 victory against our neighbours from the North.
After an underwhelming last minute victory over Kazakhstan, the team returned to Craven Cottage for their third friendly at the ground, following games against Colombia in May 2008 and Nigeria May 2009. Winger Robbie Brady marked his first cap, and his first start, with his first goal with a fine strike from outside the area. Second half substitute Alex Pearce converted a header from an Aiden McGeady corner to complete the goalscoring for the Irish side in a 4-1 win.
A double strike from debutants is extremely rare, in fact previous to Trapttoni's reign, an Ireland game had not been marked with this since 1976 when Joe Waters and Frank Stapleton both scored against Turkey in Ankara on their first appearances for the country in a 3-3 draw.

First caps under Trapattoni

Here are the 37 Irish players handed a debut by Trapattoni during his five year reign, and the games in which they received their first cap.
Note: the numbers in brackets refer to the ranking of the side at the time of the game

Date	Level	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Debut(s)
24 May 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	1-1	Serbia(31)	Damien Delaney Glenn Whelan
29 May 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	1-0	Colombia(19)	Wes Hoolahan
15 October 2008	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland(38)	1-0	Cyprus(80)	Caleb Folan
19 October 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(36)	2-3	Poland(32)	Keith Andrews Noel Hunt
29 May 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(34)	1-1	Nigeria(30)	Liam Lawrence Kevin Foley Leon Best Eddie Nolan Sean St Ledger
12 August 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(37)	0-3	Australia(16)	Keiren Westwood
8 September 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(38)	1-0	South Africa(73)	Darren O'Dea
2 March 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(37)	0-2	Brazil(2)	James McCarthy
25 May 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(43)	2-1	Paraguay(30)	Paul Green Keith Fahey Cilian Sheridan
28 May 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	3-0	Algeria(30)	Greg Cunningham
11 August 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(36)	0-1	Argentina(5)	Keith Treacy
17 November 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(32)	1-2	Norway(12)	Jonathan Walters
11 February 2011	Carling Nations Cup	Republic of Ireland(35)	3-0	Wales(116)	Ciaran Clarke Marc Wilson Seamus Coleman
24 May 2011	Carling Nations Cup	Republic of Ireland(34)	5-0	Northern Ireland(65)	David Forde Simon Cox Stephen Ward
29 February 2012	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(20)	1-1	Czech Republic(29)	James McClean
11 September 2012	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(26)	4-1	Oman(93)	Darren Randolph Robbie Brady David Meyler Alex Pearce
6 February 2013	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	2-0	Poland(56)	Conor Sammon Jeff Hendrick Richard Keogh
2 June 2013	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(39)	4-0	Georgia(96)	Stephen Quinn
14 August 2013	Friendly	Wales(46)	0-0	Republic of Ireland(44)	Paddy Madden
6 September 2013	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland(44)	1-2	Sweden(30)	Anthony Pilkington

Of these, James McCarthy was the youngest player to make his first appearance, who was 19 years and three months when he came on against Brazil at Emirates Stadium. At the other end of the age scale, Galwegian David Forde was 31 when making his debut against Northern Ireland in the Carling Nations Cup.
Only two players made their debuts in competitive games - Caleb Folan and Anthony Pilkington, while Paddy Madden has the honour of being the only player given his first cap in an away game*
To compare with previous managers, Steve Staunton awarded 23 new caps during his reign, with no less than 11 of these coming in the same game - VS Ecuador in New York in 2007. During his tenure, Brian Kerr gave 15 players their first caps.
*Note that the games against Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil and Oman are treated as home games, as designated by their listing on fifa.com

Goalscorers under Trapattoni

Unsurprisingly, Robbie Keane scored the most goals during Trapattoni's reign. The Tallaght striker notched an incredible 28 goals in five years under the Italian. No other player managed to get into double figures, with Kevin Doyle and Shane Long coming closest with seven and six goals, respectively. In midfield, Keiths Andrews and Fahey both scored three goals for the venerable manager, however Aiden McGeady managed two strikes in competitive games, one more than his fellow midfielders' total in competitive matches.
In defence, mainstays Sean St Ledger and Richard Dunne both scored three times, with all six goals from the duo coming in competitive games, to top the goalscoring charts for defenders. St Ledger possibly has a slight edge, due to his close range header against Croatia in the European Championship finals.

P.S. If you mouseover a player other than Robbie Keane in the goals section in the infographic - http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/Blog - several other players are highlighted - why is that?

#TrapStats

Over the last few weeks, I've been asking questions on twitter and facebook based around appearance data for the Irish side under Trapattoni with the hashtag #TrapStats - here's the final list of questions and their answers

Who made the most assists for Trapattoni's side?  
McGeady, with 10

Five players marked their debuts under Trapattoni with a goal, name them and the opposition?
Simon Cox, Stephen Ward (both Northern Ireland), Robbie Brady, Alex Pearce (both Oman), Keith Andrews(Poland)

Robbie Keane is the top goalscorer under Trapattoni, but what players were the top scoring midfielder and defender? Note - there's two midfielders and two defenders with the same number of strikes, one of each is acceptable as an answer  
Dunne and St Ledger (3) Andrews and Fahey (3)

Trapattoni gave 37 players their first cap. Who were the youngest and oldest players to make their debut?
James McCarthy (19) David Forde (31)

Of the 37 debuts awarded, only 2 were in competitive games (ie qualifiers) Name the players & games?
Caleb Folan VS Cyprus, Anthony Pilkington VS Sweden

Throughout Trapattoni's reign, only one team beat his side in an away friendly, name the opposition? To clarify, the 2-0 loss to Brazil in London was designated as a "home" game for Ireland by FIFA
Spain, in New York

Only one player made his debut in an away game under Trapattoni. Name the player and the opposition? Again, the friendlies in London are designated as "home" games for Ireland on fifa.com
Paddy Madden VS Wales

Two debutants scored in the same game twice in Trapattoni's reign. When was the last time two debutants scored in the same game before Trapattoni's reign?
Joe Waters and Frank Stapleton VS Turkey in October 1976

What is this? http://t.co/jHuNXN2hOb
Graph of the FIFA ranking of the team at each game during Trapttoni's reign, but I'd accept just FIFA rankings

No assistance on this one http://t.co/lYdey8xmMx
Graph of the number of assists by each player, the big circle in the middle is McGeady

 GW6, RD5, KA5, RK3, JO3, PM3, SS3, SL2, DG2, SH2, JM2, SW2, KK1, DD1, MR1, KD1, SK1, DO1, KW1, WH1, LB1, CF1, CC1, SC1, PG1, KF1 Figure it out  
 Each player and the number of bookings they received

All these questions came from research I've been doing for an infographic on Trapattoni's reign. The final graph is here: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/Blog
You can mouseover pretty much everything to kick off an animation containing more information, and the numbers in the "Overall Record" section can be clicked on. Enjoy, and share.
(it works best in Firefox and Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 or greater)

Zero substitutions

Ireland's 3-0 loss to Germany last night was unremarkable for the most part, apart from some strange positions on the pitch for various players. However, one statistic stood out - over the course of the game Noel King, the interim manager, made no substitutions at all! Of the named substitutes (St Ledger, McGeady, Long, Keane, McClean, Green, Elliot, Pilkington, Reid, Hoolahan, O'Brien and Henderson) not one saw a minute of play, although Keane and Pilkington were both carrying knocks and it was subsequently announced that Pilkington will return to his club for treatment.
A lack of substitutions is uncommon in international football, but it has been the case for the Republic of Ireland in two games in the recent past. Early in Giovanni Trapattoni's reign, his charges drew 0-0 away to Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier in September 2008 without a single player being withdrawn from the action. Previous to that, under Brian Kerr, Ireland won 2-1 in Georgia in a European Championship qualifier when again no substitutes were used. The match was also remembered for a penknife striking Kevin Kilbane, while various other objects were thrown from the crowd with Lee Carsley, Gary Breen and Damien Duff also being hit.

Shortest and longest lossless streak

Following the separation of the management team of Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli with the FAI in the aftermath of the losses to Sweden and Austria, a question was posed on the You Boys In Green forum about whether that was the shortest time between consecutive losses in qualifers.

After examining the list of games available on soccerscene.ie, I can reveal that the shortest time between losses in a qualification series is three days in 1975, when the Soviet Union and Switzerland defeated the Irish 2-1 on the 18th May, and 1-0 on the 21st, respectively.

The Longest we went without losing a qualifier was from 10-10-1937 when we lost to Norway until 2-6-1949 when Sweden beat us, a total of 4253 days, although World War Two meant very few games were played between those two dates!

In the modern era, the longest time I can find between losses is between 16-11-1988 and 10-10-1993,  a total of 1789 days. Both losses on those dates came to Spain and both in World Cup qualifiers, 2-0 and 3-1, respectively.

Irish Abroad player statistics for May 2013

Following the summer break, I've compiled the monthly appearance statistics for the opening month of the season in England and Scotland: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats
With the extra week of games, Scottish and Championship players lead most of the tables.
Paddy Kenny, Jake Carroll, Richard Dunne, Richard Keogh, Aaron Doran and Richie Foran all started four wins for their respective clubs.
Seamus Coleman was the only player to start three draws in the first month of the new season
Jim Goodwin, Stephen Dawson, Jay Tabb and Graham Carey started four losses in August
Paddy Kenny, Richard Keogh and Stephen Dawson all started each of their respective clubs' seven games in August, and all three players completed 90 minutes in every game
Aaron Doran and Noel Hunt were both substituted four times, more than any other player
Four is also the most number of introductions for Irish players in August, Conor Sammon and Sean Scannell both coming off the bench four times
Goalkeepers again dominate the most stayed on bench table, with three players remaining unused five times or more, with Leicester's Conrad Logan's six times the most. Of the outfield players, Stephen Kelly, Sam Foley, Callum Reilly and Conor Smith all remained unused four times.
Robbie Keane topped the scoring charts in August, with five goals coming in two games. Andy Reid's three goal in five starts secures second place, along with Anthony Stokes
Keane and Stokes' goals led to two wins for their clubs, along with Robbie Brady's two game winning strikes for Hull
Three players managed to collect two bookings in August, David van Zanten, Harry Arter and Anthony Stokes all being shown a yellow card twice

Jon Walter's 2012/13 season journey

Yesterday, I asked how many kilometres did Jon Walters travel to away games in 2012/13, taking Britannia Stadium as the origin point, and the away stadium in each game as the destination (taking his home address as the origin point would be a little weird!)
Using Google Maps, you can get the distance in the route between two points on a map, so using the away team's stadium as the destination in each case, you can read off the value and then total it up for the season.

Date	Competition	Home Team	Result	Away Team	Location	Distance(km)
18-Aug-12	Premier League	Reading	1-1	Stoke City	Madejski Stadium	252
01-Sep-12	Premier League	Wigan	2-2	Stoke City	DW Stadium	83.2
22-Sep-12	Premier League	Chelsea	1-0	Stoke City	Stamford Bridge	268
07-Oct-12	Premier League	Liverpool	0-0	Stoke City	Anfield	95.8
20-Oct-12	Premier League	Manchester United	4-2	Stoke City	Old Trafford	81
03-Nov-12	Premier League	Norwich	1-0	Stoke City	Carrow Road	320
19-Nov-12	Premier League	West Ham United	1-1	Stoke City	Upton Park	269
01-Dec-12	Premier League	West Bromwich Albion	0-1	Stoke City	The Hawthorns	63.5
08-Dec-12	Premier League	Aston Villa	0-0	Stoke City	Villa Park	70.3
22-Dec-12	Premier League	Tottenham	0-0	Stoke City	White Hart Lane	253
01-Jan-13	Premier League	Manchester City	3-0	Stoke City	Etihad Stadium	80.7
05-Jan-13	FA Cup	Crystal Palace	0-0	Stoke City	Selhurst Park	281
19-Jan-13	Premier League	Swansea	3-1	Stoke City	Liberty Stadium	307
02-Feb-13	Premier League	Arsenal	1-0	Stoke City	Emirates Stadium	249
23-Feb-13	Premier League	Fulham	1-0	Stoke City	Craven Cottage	267
10-Mar-13	Premier League	Newcastle Utd	2-1	Stoke City	St James' Park	316
30-Mar-13	Premier League	Everton	1-0	Stoke City	Goodison Park	97.1
20-Apr-13	Premier League	QPR	0-2	Stoke City	Loftus Road	260
06-May-13	Premier League	Sunderland	1-1	Stoke City	Stadium of Light	312
19-May-13	Premier League	Southampton	1-1	Stoke City	St Mary's Stadium	297
Total						4222.6

To put 4,200 km into context, the distance between Dublin and Praia, capital of Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa is 4500km!

Click the links for each stadium to see the journey taken from the Britannia for that game

Summer Trivia Question 1

With the close season upon us and nothing of note happening in the transfer market, I've been examining the data collected over the past season to see what, if any, interesting stats I could come up with. I'll be blogging the results over the next few weeks, but I'll pose each one as a question to my readers before revealing all.

First question is this: Taking the Britannia stadium as your starting point, how many km did Jon Walters travel in total to away games in 2012/13?
To makes things easier, here's the list of all Jon Walters' games: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/PlayerDetails?playerID=32939
Google can be used to get the distance between two addresses, e.g. from https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Britannia+Stadium,Stoke&daddr=Anfield+Stadium,+liverpool you can see that Britannia Stadium to Anfield is 95.3km

Send me the answer on twitter @irish_abroad on facebook at facebook.com/irishfootballstatistics or email me chatsoccer@gmail.com Tag your posts with #SummerTrivia and I'll post the answer tomorrow

Have fun!

The history of Ireland competitive victories over higher ranked opposition

In order to qualify for the World Cup in 2014, the Boys in Green will more than likely need to accomplish something not yet achieved under the current regime - defeat a higher ranked opposition in a competitive international*. At the time of writing, Trapattoni's men have fallen two places to 41st in FIFA's rankings, while opponents Sweden are ranked 27th in the world, a drop of three places from their previous ranking, and Austria are 76th after falling five places.

Looking at the history of internationals since the rankings system was first introduced in 1993, there are only six occasions when a superior ranked opposition fell to the Green Army

Date	Level			Rank			Rank
18 June 1994	World Cup Finals	Italy	0	4	Republic of Ireland	1	14
10 September 1997	World Cup Qualifier	Lithuania	1	42	Republic of Ireland	2	55
5 September 1998	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	2	48	Croatia	0	4
1 September 1999	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	2	38	Yugoslavia	1	22
1 September 2001	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	1	25	Holland	0	10
28 March 2007	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	1	51	Slovakia	0	37

Previous managers Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy and Steve Staunton all claimed the scalp of higher ranked opposition. Charlton's solitary win was arguably the most high profile, the 1-0 win over Italy in Giants Stadium during the group stages of World Cup '94. Although it has to be remembered that rankings were introduced towards the end of his tenure. McCarthy has four of the six wins, including the only away win in Lithuania (Charlton's win over Italy was at a neutral ground), with the memorable 1-0 victory over Holland with ten men the outstanding result. Steve Staunton's win in Croke Park over Slovakia, who were ranked 15 places ahead of the Dundalk man's side, completes the short history. Brian Kerr failed to defeat an opponent ranked higher than his own side during his three year tenure.


An interesting statistic of the wins is that four of the six wins all came in September, and three of those in odd-numbered years which hopefully be a positive omen for the coming game against Sweden.

* Giovanni Trapattoni's side did manage to beat France in 90 minutes in the infamous World Cup Play Off in 2009. At the time, Ireland were ranked 34 to France's 9th ranked side. The result is recorded as a draw after extra time on fifa.com, so is not included in the list.

FIFA World Cup 2014 UEFA Qualifying Group C Permutations and Combinations

Following the conclusion of the 2012/13 season, qualifying group C remains open, with Germany looking likely to win the group, with only goal difference separating the following three sides. Having compiled permutation and combination tables for previous qualifying groups, I've compiled the same for this group.

First, some assumptions

1. Germany win all four remaining qualifiers:
• 6 September 2013 - Germany v Austria
• 10 September 2013 - Faroe Islands v Germany
• 11 October 2013 - Germany v Republic of Ireland
• 15 October 2013 - Sweden v Germany
2. All teams win remaining games against group minnows:
• 10 September 2013 - Kazakhstan v Sweden
• 15 October 2013 - Faroe Islands v Austria
• 15 October 2013 - Republic of Ireland v Kazakhstan

This results in the following table:

	P	Pts
Germany	10	28
Ireland	8	14
Sweden	8	14
Austria	8	14

The following fixtures remain

• 6 September 2013 - Republic of Ireland v Sweden
• 10 September 2013 - Austria v Republic of Ireland
• 11 October 2013 - Sweden v Austria

The combinations of the possible results from those fixtures are

		Sweden beat Austria	Sweden draw with Austria	Sweden lose to Austria
Ireland beat Sweden	Austria beat Ireland	Ireland 17 points Sweden 17 points Austria 17 points	Austria 18 points Ireland 17 points Sweden 15 points	Austria 20 points Ireland 17 points Sweden 14 points
	Austria draw with Ireland	Ireland 18 points Sweden 17 points Austria 15 points	Ireland 18 points Austria 16 points Sweden 15 points	Ireland 18 points Austria 18 points Sweden 14 points
	Austria lose to Ireland	Ireland 20 points Sweden 17 points Austria 14 points	Ireland 20 points Sweden 15 points Austria 15 points	Ireland 20 points Austria 17 points Sweden 14 points
Ireland draw with Sweden	Austria beat Ireland	Sweden 18 points Austria 17 points Ireland 15 points	Austria 18 points Sweden 16 points Ireland 15 points	Austria 20 points Ireland 15 points Sweden 15 points
	Austria draw with Ireland	Sweden 18 points Ireland 16 points Austria 15 points	Ireland 16 points Sweden 16 points Austria 16 points	Austria 18 points Ireland 16 points Sweden 15 points
	Austria lose to Ireland	Ireland 18 points Sweden 18 points Austria 14 points	Ireland 18 points Sweden 16 points Austria 15 points	Ireland 18 points Austria 17 points Sweden 15 points
Ireland lose to Sweden	Austria beat Ireland	Sweden 20 points Austria 17 points Ireland 14 points	Sweden 18 points Austria 18 points Ireland 14 points	Austria 20 points Sweden 17 points Ireland 14 points
	Austria draw with Ireland	Sweden 20 points Ireland 15 points Austria 15 points	Sweden 18 points Austria 16 points Ireland 15 points	Austria 18 points Sweden 17 points Ireland 15 points
	Austria lose to Ireland	Sweden 20 points Ireland 17 points Austria 14 points	Sweden 18 points Ireland 17 points Austria 15 points	Ireland 17 points Sweden 17 points Austria 17 points

I've marked the possibilities where Ireland finish second in the group in green for clarity.
Note that in cases where Ireland finish level with one or more teams, I've marked the group with yellow. The final group placings will be dependant on goal difference.

The first conclusion is that beating Sweden will give us the best chance of finishing second, and losing to the Swedes will almost certainly result in failure to reach the play offs. Four points from the two games would seem to all but guarantee a play off spot, assuming all other results finish as expected in the list above.

Finally, it is important to remember that the worst placed second team, after results against the weakest team in the group are discarded, will not participate in the play offs. In qualifying for Euro 2012, the worst second played team was Turkey, who had 11 points after their results against Kazakhstan were discarded. Assuming Ireland win their final game against Kazakhstan, the Boys in Green will have six points removed to determine their final position in the second placed teams

Irish Abroad Player of the Season

After reviewing the appearance data for Irish players in the 2012/13 season, one name kept cropping up near, or at the top of all the compiled tables. Despite being a defender, the player of the season (I'm going to refer to him as POTS to save space and typing from here on) managed to outscore many leading lights, including Robbie Brady and James McCarthy. As well as that, his team never lost a game in which he scored, winning four and drawing one of the five games when he found the back of the net. The fact that none of these were from the penalty spot adds to the feat, in my opinion.
The POTS came third in the most wins table, behind Leeds' Paddy Kenny and Crystal Palace's Damien Delaney, who had the advantage of three extra end of season games in the play offs to increase his total.
Playing in the Championship means you play more games, so the POTS finished joint third in the draws table, starting 14 games that finished all square. Similar to this, he finished fifth in the starting losses table, starting 18 games that ended in a defeat, along with a midfield compatriot of his, but only four of these were at home. His team did finish midtable, so an improvement in the away results could see him playing his trade in the Premier League before long. I know this is a negative statistic, but I'm choosing to overlook it in favour of this final statistic.
The POTS started a massive 49 games across 2012/13, including all his club's cup games, and even more remarkably completed 90 minutes in each one. The nature of the defensive game means it is not unexpected to pick up an injury, or a suspension over the course of a season, but the POTS was only booked three times, and was never injured.
To top off this season, he made his senior international debut for his country, and will make his first start later today against Georgia.
The Irish Abroad Player of the Season for 2012/13 is Derby County's club captain Richard Keogh, and you can follow him on twitter @keogh_6

Irish Abroad appearance statistics for 2012/13

Appearance statistics for May 2013: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats?month=14
20 wins for promoted defender Damien Delaney meant the Crystal Palace defender started the most wins in the 2012/13 season
North of Hadrian's Wall, Aaron Doran started the most draws, with 18 games finishing all square for the Inverness winger
Relegated pair James McCarthy and Kevin Doyle started the most losses, both players finishing on the losing side 20 times this season
Derby County club captain Richard Keogh started a massive 49 games this season, and even more remarkably completed 90 minutes in each one!
Nottingham Forest's Andy Reid was substituted more than any other Irish player in 2012/13, the midfielder was withdrawn from the action in 23 of his 43 starts
Conversely, striker Alan Lee was introduced from the bench more than his compatriots, coming on 21 times in total, as early as the 54th minute and as late as the 90th minute more than once!
Unsurprisingly, goalkeepers dominate the list of players who were unused substitutes, with Conrad Logan topping the table after remaining on the bench 53 times for Leicester this season. Shane Duffy holds the dubious honour of being the outfield player who remained unused the most, the Everton defender was kept from the action 28 times by his manager
Robbie Keane's 20 goals across 2012/13 for LA Galaxy ensure he tops the scoring charts, while defender Richard Keogh outscored quite a few players after finding the back of the net five times for Derby. The MLS champions went on to win 11 of the 15 games in which the Ireland captain won, only losing twice. Strangely, every one of Keith Andrews' four goals came from the penalty spot, including two in one game! Honourable mention for Yeovil Town's Paddy Madden, who scored 22 goals, and broke the club record for scoring in consecutive games after scoring 11 goals in eights games between the first of January and the 23rd of February
Defender Jim Goodwin managed to amass a booking in almost half the games he started, collecting 14 yellow cars in his 35 starts.

Irish Abroad player statistics for May 2013

Appearance statistics for May 2013: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats?month=5
With the season winding down, it only took three wins for Alan Maybury, Damien Delaney and Owen Garvan to top the most wins table. Garvan was also substituted more than any other Irish player in May. The Crystal Palace player hasn't completed 90 minutes since recovering from injury, the last time being December 2012
Along with three wins being enough to top that table, three draws were enough for Aberdeen's Joe Shaugnessey to start the most games that ended all square
Darren O'Dea started four losses for Toronto, two more losses than any other player
With the league run in, and the FA Cup final, James McCarthy started the most games in May, five, and completed 90 minutes in each of them
In Greece, Liam Lawrence was introduced from the bench three times, twice more than any other player
As usual, goalkeepers make up the majority of unused substitutes, with Brian Murphy, Keiren Westwood, Stephen Henderson, Shay Given and Conrad Logan all remaining on the bench for three games. They are joined in the May table by Reading's Alex Pearce who also didn't see action in May
A hat trick for Robbie Keane meant he tops the goalscoring charts in May with four strikes, and the most penalties - with two coming the same game. Anthony Stokes scored the most goals, finding the back of the net three times for Celtic. Neither LA Galaxy nor Celtic lost when either player scored, with the MLS side winning in both games in which Robbie Keane scored
Patrick Cregg's two bookings were enough to earn him the dubious honour of most bookings, one more than any other player shown the yellow card in May

Premier League Minutes

Recently, one of my followers on twitter asked did I know the total number of appearances for Irish players in the Premier League for the last few years, and had this season seen more or less appearances from Irish players? Following the end of the 2012/13 season, I was able to produce the following table with the number of appearances in the Premier League*. Following the relegation of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 2011/12 season, there was a reduced number of players in the Premier League, however the total appearances for the 2012/13 is still higher than 2006/07, 2008/09, and 2010/11.

2006-2007
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Lee Carsley	38	0	38
Richard Dunne	38	0	38
Paddy Kenny	34	0	34
Steve Finnan	32	1	33
Stephen Hunt	28	7	35
Kevin Kilbane	28	5	33
Kevin Doyle	28	4	32
Matt Holland	27	6	33
Derek Geary	26	0	26
Stephen Carr	23	0	23
Shay Given	22	0	22
Damien Duff	20	2	22
Robbie Keane	18	9	27
John O'Shea	16	16	32
Andy Reid	15	1	16
Stephen Quinn	15	0	15
Stephen Ireland	14	9	23
Alan Quinn	11	8	19
Shane Long	9	12	21
Caleb Folan	8	5	13
Steven Reid	3	0	3
Andy O'Brien	1	2	3
Alan O'Brien	1	1	2
Darren Randolph	1	0	1
Graham Kavanagh	0	2	2
David Connolly	0	2	2
Total	456	92	548
2007-2008
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Stephen Kelly	38	0	38
Stephen Hunt	37	0	37
Richard Dunne	35	0	35
Kevin Doyle	34	2	36
Kevin Kilbane	33	2	35
Lee Carsley	33	0	33
Robbie Keane	32	4	36
Stephen Ireland	31	1	32
Andy O'Brien	31	1	32
Steve Finnan	21	3	24
Steven Reid	20	4	24
Paul McShane	20	1	21
Daryl Murphy	19	8	27
Shay Given	19	0	19
Liam Miller	16	8	24
Joey O'Brien	15	4	19
Damien Duff	12	4	16
John O'Shea	10	17	27
Andy Reid	10	2	12
Anthony Stokes	8	12	20
Shane Long	7	22	29
Stephen Carr	7	2	9
Roy O'Donovan	4	12	16
Ian Harte	3	5	8
Colin Doyle	3	0	3
David Connolly	1	2	3
Caleb Folan	1	1	2
Jonathan Macken	0	3	3
Total	500	120	620
2008-2009
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Shay Given	37	0	37
Stephen Ireland	34	1	35
Rory Delap	34	0	34
Richard Dunne	31	0	31
Andy O'Brien	30	4	34
Robbie Keane	30	3	33
Damien Duff	28	2	30
Keith Andrews	27	6	33
Glenn Whelan	21	5	26
Andy Reid	20	12	32
John O'Shea	20	10	30
Kevin Kilbane	18	8	26
Liam Lawrence	18	2	20
Paul McShane	17	3	20
Daryl Murphy	6	17	23
Joey O'Brien	5	2	7
Steven Reid	4	0	4
Dean Kiely	3	0	3
Caleb Folan	2	13	15
Keith Treacy	2	10	12
Stephen Kelly	2	4	6
Marc Wilson	2	1	3
Darron Gibson	1	2	3
Liam Miller	1	2	3
Aaron Doran	0	3	3
Anthony Stokes	0	2	2
Total	393	112	505
2009-2010
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Richard Dunne	37	0	37
Shay Given	35	0	35
Stephen Carr	35	0	35
Rory Delap	34	2	36
Kevin Doyle	33	1	34
Damien Duff	30	2	32
Stephen Hunt	27	0	27
Marc Wilson	27	0	27
Paul McShane	26	1	27
Glenn Whelan	25	8	33
Kevin Foley	23	2	25
Keith Andrews	22	10	32
James McCarthy	19	1	20
Steve Finnan	19	1	20
Keith Fahey	18	16	34
Stephen Ward	18	4	22
Andy Reid	17	3	20
Stephen Ireland	16	6	22
Kevin Kilbane	15	6	21
Robbie Keane	15	5	20
Liam Lawrence	14	11	25
John O'Shea	12	3	15
David Meyler	9	0	9
Andy Keogh	8	5	13
Caleb Folan	7	1	8
Stephen Kelly	7	1	8
Chris McCann	7	0	7
Darron Gibson	6	9	15
Andy O'Brien	6	0	6
Lee Carsley	3	4	7
Daryl Murphy	2	1	3
Steven Reid	1	3	4
Seamus Coleman	0	3	3
Greg Cunningham	0	2	2
Jay O'Shea	0	1	1
Total	573	112	685
2010-2011
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Stephen Carr	38	0	38
Rory Delap	31	4	35
Richard Dunne	31	0	31
Kevin Foley	30	3	33
Stephen Ward	27	7	34
Jonathan Walters	25	9	34
Kevin Doyle	25	1	26
Seamus Coleman	24	9	33
James McCarthy	23	0	23
Damien Duff	22	2	24
Marc Wilson	20	7	27
Keith Fahey	19	5	24
John O'Shea	18	2	20
Ciaran Clark	15	3	18
Stephen Hunt	14	6	20
Steven Reid	13	10	23
Glenn Whelan	12	15	27
Leon Best	9	2	11
Stephen Kelly	8	2	10
Robbie Keane	6	9	15
Stephen Ireland	6	6	12
Darron Gibson	6	6	12
David Meyler	3	1	4
Andy Reid	2	5	7
Keith Andrews	2	3	5
Conor Sammon	1	5	6
Andy O'Brien	1	1	2
Andy Keogh	0	1	1
Colin Doyle	0	1	1
Total	431	125	556
2011-2012
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Stephen Ward	38	0	38
Jonathan Walters	38	0	38
Marc Wilson	35	0	35
Paddy Kenny	33	0	33
James McCarthy	33	0	33
Shay Given	32	0	32
John O'Shea	29	0	29
Richard Dunne	28	0	28
Glenn Whelan	27	3	30
Kevin Doyle	26	7	33
Wes Hoolahan	25	8	33
Shane Long	24	8	32
Anthony Pilkington	23	7	30
Damien Duff	23	5	28
Stephen Kelly	21	3	24
Steven Reid	21	1	22
James McClean	20	3	23
Stephen Ireland	19	5	24
Rory Delap	18	8	26
Marc Tierney	17	0	17
Stephen Hunt	16	8	24
Leon Best	16	2	18
Seamus Coleman	14	4	18
Ciaran Clark	13	2	15
Darron Gibson	12	0	12
Kevin Foley	11	5	16
Conor Sammon	8	17	25
Keith Andrews	8	6	14
Keiren Westwood	8	1	9
Simon Cox	7	11	18
Robbie Keane	5	1	6
Anthony Forde	3	3	6
Shane Duffy	2	1	3
David Meyler	1	6	7
Samir Carruthers	0	3	3
Michael Harriman	0	1	1
Matt Doherty	0	1	1
Total	654	130	784
2012-2013
Player Name	Starts	Introductions	Total
Jonathan Walters	37	0	37
James McCarthy	37	0	37
John O'Shea	33	0	33
Glenn Whelan	31	1	32
Joey O'Brien	31	1	32
Ciaran Clark	28	1	29
Wes Hoolahan	27	5	32
Damien Duff	26	4	30
Anthony Pilkington	25	5	30
James McClean	24	11	35
Shane Long	24	9	33
Seamus Coleman	23	2	25
Darron Gibson	21	1	22
Alex Pearce	18	1	19
Marc Wilson	18	0	18
Stephen Kelly	15	2	17
Ian Harte	15	1	16
Jay Tabb	12	0	12
Steven Reid	11	0	11
Noel Hunt	10	13	23
Stephen Ireland	9	4	13
Robert Elliot	9	1	10
Enda Stevens	6	1	7
Shay Given	2	0	2
Marc Tierney	1	0	1
Michael Harriman	1	0	1
David Meyler	0	3	3
Rory Delap	0	1	1
Derrick Williams	0	1	1
Shane Duffy	0	1	1
Adam Mitchell	0	1	1
Total	494	70	564

*Note this does not include appearances for Premier League clubs in other competitions, e.g. Stephen Henderson for West Ham in the League Cup