Report Card - Weekend of 28th November 2015

Premier League
Manchester City 3-1 Southampton
Shane Long scored his fifth goal of the season, his first since 23rd September, on what was his 25th start for Southampton!

Championship
Charlton Athletic 0-3 Ipswich Town
Daryl Murphy scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season, and his third in his last two games. The second of his brace was his eightieth in club football in England and Scotland!

Rotherham United 3-0 Bristol City
Lee Frecklington scored his first goal of the season. Before this, he hadn't scored since 28th April

League One
Barnsley 1-1 Sheffield United
Conor Hourihane scored his twentieth goal for Barnsley, having earlier missed a penalty

Millwall 1-0 Bury
Shaun Williams's winner was his first goal since 26th September

Rochdale 2-1 Port Vale
On loan Blackburn winger John O'Sullivan made his first appearance for Rochdale, which was his first start anywhere since the 11th August. He also picked up a booking, his first yellow card in almost a year, the last one coming on 20th December 2014 while playing for Accrington against Wycombe

League Two
Cambridge United 3-1 Notts County
Barry Corr scored his tenth goal of the season

Exeter City 1-1 Bristol Rovers
Rory Gaffney made his first appearance on loan at Bristol Rovers

Wycombe Wanderers 2-2 Portsmouth
Michael Harriman's scored his first goal since September 29th

York City 1-5 Accrington Stanley
Kenneth McEvoy made his first start of the season, on loan at York City. This is the Spurs winger's first appearance since playing on loan at Stevenage in September, and his first start in over a year

Scottish Premier League
Aberdeen 3-1 Ross County
Adam Rooney scored his tenth goal of the season

Dundee United 1-2 Hamilton Academical
Gavin Gunning's booking against the Accies was his first since 17th May 2014!

Kilmarnock 2-5 Partick Thistle
Mark Connolly scored his first goal of the season. It was his first goal in over a year, his last coming on 3rd October 2014

Report Card - 24th November 2015

Peterborough United 3-2 Barnsley
After not scoring for nearly two months, Conor Hourihane now has two in two games with his fifth goal of the season. His last two goals also came in consecutive games
Following his return to action last weekend, Kevin Long was sent off for the third time in his career. His last red card came in August 2012, while playing with Portsmouth, against Carlisle

Sheffield United 2-4 Shrewsbury Town
Conor Sammon scored his fifth goal on loan at Sheffield United

Crawley Town 1-2 Northampton Town
John-Joe O'Toole scored his fifth goal for Northampton, his first since September 29th

Notts County 4-2 Barnet
Graham Burke made his twenty-fifth appearance for Notts County, after joining them in January 2015
Alan Sheehan scored the twentieth goal of his career, not bad for a defender!

Oxford United 1-1 Newport County AFC
Patrick Hoban scored his fifth goal this season for Oxford

Crawley Town 1-2 Northampton Town
Brendan Moloney was sent off for the first time in his career

Report Card - Weekend of 21 November 2015

We're trying something new here at Irish Abroad, every week we'll post some interesting, and not so interesting numbers from recent player appearances. We're hoping to include landmark appearances and goals, note returns from injury, and anything else that we notice!

Southampton 0-1 Stoke City
Follwing injury, Shane Long made his first appearance for Southampton since September 23

Leeds United 0-1 Rotherham United
Leon Best and Stephen Kelly made their first appearances since last season. Best last appeared as a sub on April 18, while Kelly hadn't lined out anywhere since April 28th. Best marked his appearance with the second red of his career, his last came for Blackburn in April 2013 against Watford
Former Ireland B international Lee Frecklington returned to Rotherham's starting XI after more than a month out, his last start for the Millers was on September 12

Milton Keynes Dons 1-1 Fulham
Following seven appearances as an unused substitute, defender Sean Kavanagh made his first start of the season for Fulham.

Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 Huddersfield Town
Sean Scannell opened his account for the season, scoring his first goal since April 11

Bury 1-0 Burton Albion
Callum Reilly made his first league start of the season, the midfielder had previously only started once for Burton, in the League Cup in August

Oldham Athletic 1-2 Barnsley
Loanees Kevin Long and Aiden White made their first appearances on loan at Barnsley. This was Long's first appearance following injury on 1st January 2015, and he marked the occasion with his first goal since January 2014!
Also finding the net in the same game were Mark Yeates, with his first of the season, and Conor Hourihane with his first goal since September

Port Vale 3-2 Chesterfield
Sam Kelly returned to the Port Vale starting XI, his first appearance in nine weeks, and scored the first goal of his professional career!

Crawley Town 2-1 Bristol Rovers
Rhys Murphy scored twice against Bristol Rovers, his fifth and sixth goals on loan at Crawley Town

Notts County 1-2 Northampton Town
Ronan Murray came off the bench to make his first appearance of the season for Notts County
Brendan Moloney scored his first goal of the season, his first goal since February 21

Dundee United 1-2 St Johnstone
Gavin Gunning made his one hundredth appearance for Dundee United

Meyler's Influence

At a press conference this week, Roy Keane was asked about David Meyler. His former manager was impressed with his recent performances for Hull City, saying "It's no coincidence that every time I see Hull and they're winning games, Meyler's playing for them. He wasn't involved as much during their relegation but he was on their promotion team and he's back now and they're winning games and Meyler tends to be in the team."

Let's take a look at the influence Meyler has on the Tigers' results since signing for them on 8th November 2012, initially on loan before being made permanent the following January. In that time, Hull have played 146 games across all competitions - league, league cup, FA Cup, and UEFA Cup.

Of those, Meyler has started 97 of these games, leaving 49 games where he didn't start.
Hull won 40 of the 97, drew 18 and lost 39. Of the games where he didn't start, Hull won 15, drew 16 and lost 18.

Laying this out in a table, we can see that Hull are more likely to win if Meyler starts, far less likely to draw, and strangely slightly more likely to lose if he starts

	P	W	D	L
Started	97	41.2%	18.5%	40.2%
Not Started	49	30.6%	32.6%	36.7%

Finally, Keane is correct, Meyler did play less in their relegation season, 2014-15, only starting 19 of their 38 league games!

Bosnian Squad

Ahead of the play off against Bosnia this weekend, we've examined the squad announced by manager Mehmed Baždarević to see how each player fared this weekend

Player	Club	Position	Result
Asmir Begovic	Chelsea F.C.	Goalkeeper	Started, Lost 1-0 to Stoke
Ibrahim Šehic	FC Qarabag	Goalkeeper	Started, Beat Khazar Lankaran 1-0
Jasmin Buric	Lech Poznan	Goalkeeper	Started, Beat Górnik Łęczna 3-1
Mensur Mujdža	SC Freiburg	Defender	Off the bench, booked, Drew 1-1 with MSV Duisburg
Emir Spahic	Hamburger SV	Defender	Started, Drew 1-1 with Darmstadt 98
Toni Šunjic	VfB Stuttgart	Defender	Substituted in the second half, lost 4-0 to Bayern Munich
Ermin Bicakcic	TsG Hoffenheim	Defender	Started, Drew 0-0 with Eintracht Frankfurt
Ognjen Vranješ	FC Gaziantepspor	Defender	Started, Lost 3-0 to Sivasspor (Turkey)
Sead Kolašinac	FC Schalke	Defender	Started, substituted in second half, lost 3-2 to Borussia Dortmund
Edin Cocalic	KV Mechelen	Defender	Started, Lost 1-0 to Kortrijk (Belgium)
Ervin Zukanovic	UC Sampdoria	Defender	Started, Lost 2-0 to Sampdoria, Booked
Marin Anicic	FC Astana	Defender	Started, Beat Astana 1-0 (Kazakhstan)
Muhamed Bešic	Everton FC	Midfielder	Out of favour, not played since 12/09, suspended for first leg after red card against Andorra
Miralem Pjanic	AS Roma	Midfielder	Suspended after being red carded against Inter. Scored in his last game against Bayer
Srdan Grahovac	SK Rapid Wien	Midfielder	Started, substituted at half time, Lost 2-1 to Grodig
Haris Medunjanin	Deportivo La Coruna	Midfielder	Not played since 30/10, out of favour – scored twice against Cyprus
Anel Hadžic	SK Sturm Graz	Midfielder	Started, Beat Ried 3-2, Booked
Tino Sven Sušic	HNK Hajduk Split	Midfielder	Started, Lost 1-0 to Osijek
Senad Lulic	SS Lazio	Midfielder	Started, Lost 2-0 to Roma
Sejad Salihovic	Ghuizhou Rehne	Midfielder	Started, Drew 2-2 with Changchun Yatai, Booked
Rade Krunic	FC Empoli	Midfielder	Second half sub, lost 3-1 to Juventus, Booked
Edin Višca	Istanbul BB SK	Midfielder	Started, Beat Trabzonspor 1-0
Edin Džeko	AS Roma	Striker	Started, Beat Lazio 2-0, Scored a penalty
Milan Ðuric	AC Cesena	Striker	Started, Lost 1-0 to Latina (Serie B)
Vedad Ibiševic	Hertha BSC	Striker	Out of favour, not played since 27/10
Ermin Zec	Gabala	Striker	Playing Inter Baku on Monday
Armin Hodžic	GNK Dinamo Zagreb	Striker	Started, Beat NK Istra 1-0
Izet Hajrovic	SD Eibar	Midfielder	Unused sub against Getafe

October 2015 Stats

Irish Abroad players appearance statistics for October 2015: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats?month=10

Wins

The recent resurgence of Championship sides Derby County and Brenford, and St Johnstone from the Scottish Premier League means that a trio of duos from each side have all started four wins in September. Derby defensive pair Richard Keogh and Cyrus Christie, Brentford midfield compatriots Alan McCormack and Alan Judge and St Johnstone's Joe Shaughnessy and Graham Cummins all lining out for four win for their respective sides.

Draws

Cardiff City striker Joe Mason started four draws, just one ahead of fellow Championship player Greg Cunningham. 

Losses

Norwich City's Robbie Brady has the unwanted honour of losing all the games he started in October, losing all four games

Starts/Completed Games

No less than 14 players started all five games available to them in October - Keiren Westwood, Aaron McCarey, Paul McShane, Richard Keogh, Shane Duffy, Cyrus Christie, Daniel Devine, Greg Cunningham, Joe Shaughnessy, Glenn Whelan, Stephen Gleeson, Alan Judge, Joe Mason, Graham Cummins, with ten of these (Westwood, McCarey, McShane, Keogh, Duffy, Shaughnessy, Cunningham, Devine, Whelan and Gleeson) going on to complete 90 minutes in all five games.

Substitutions/Introductions 

Cummins was substituted in all five games he started, while Championship players Matt Doherty, Glen Rea (on loan at Southend) and Samir Carruthers were the most introduced substitute, all three players came off the bench three times.

Stayed on bench

Goalkeeper Jack Bonham and defender Stephen Ward were both left on the bench for all five games in October.

Goals

Robbie Keane scored four goals in October - two at home and two away, but strangely none of these led to a single win for LA Galaxy. However Alan Judge's three goals, and David Meyler's two goals, both led to two wins for the midfielders' respective club sides.

Discipline

Sean Dillon, James McClean and Alan McCormack all received two booking during October.

Victims XI?

A recent article on joe.ie asserted that Birmingham City midfielder Stephen Gleeson is the real victim of Martin O'Neill's approach to squad selection. The former Wolves trainee is currently sitting in sixth in the Championship, ahead of senior international squad members Anthony Pilkington(ninth with Cardiff City) and Paul Green(24th with Rotherham) among others, but has yet to be called up by the manager. With this in mind, we analysed the appearance data for this season of players in England, Scotland and the USA to see if a starting XI of players who have not been capped by the manager since his appointment can be produced.

Goalkeeper 

While we're informally sticking to players who have at least ten appearances so far in 2015/16, we're bending the rules to include Charlton's Stephen Henderson between the sticks. Falkirk's on loan keeper Danny Rogers has made 16 appearances to Henderson's two starts since returning from shoulder surgery, but with Rogers currently in the U21 squad, Stephen lines out to continue the family legacy of his grandfather Paddy and uncle Wayne with international caps for Ireland.

Defence

Bristol City's Derrick Williams starts at left full for our side, the Championship defender is a graduate of Aston Villa's academy and has started all but three of the Robins' games so far.
Matt Doherty fills the right back slot in the team. The Wolverhampton Wanderers defender has appeared in 11 of their 17 games this season.
The Scottish Premier League provides both centre halves. Daniel Devine*, of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and St Johnstone's Joe Shaughnessy are partners in central defence. Both players have European experience this season, playing against AFC Astra of Romania, and Alashkert FC of Armenia in the early rounds of the UEFA Cup.

Midfield

At left wing, Huddersfield's Sean Scannell provides both a goal threat and a creative spark. The winger only has one assist this season and has yet to find the back of the net, but finished 2014/15 with seven assists and four goals.
On the opposite wing, Aberdeen's Willo Flood fulfills the promise shown after breaking through at Manchester City and joins Glenn Whelan and Stephen Elliott as former Blues trainees with senior Republic of Ireland caps.
We agree with with joe.ie that Stephen Gleeson should start in midfield, and have paired him with Alan McCormack. The Brentford midfielder plays a little deeper than Gleeson, but still has a pair of assists this season.

Strikers

Up front, Cardiff City's Joe Mason and St Johnstone's Graham Cummins are the only uncapped strikers available to Martin O'Neill. Mason has scored five times for the Bluebirds this season, while Cummins has six goals in Scotland, and also provided four assists.

Below is the data used to pick the side, what players would you have picked in favour of the XI assembled here?

Player	Age	Position	Starts	Intro	Apps	Goals
Jonathan Hayes	28	Midfielder	18	0	18	1
Joe Shaughnessy	23	Defender	17	0	17	1
Daniel Devine	23	Defender	17	0	17	1
Stephen Gleeson	27	Midfielder	16	0	16	2
Graham Cummins	27	Striker	12	4	16	6
Danny Rogers	21	Goalkeeper	16	0	16	0
Derrick Williams	22	Defender	12	3	15	1
Jonathan Douglas	33	Midfielder	12	2	14	0
Alan McCormack	31	Midfielder	12	2	14	0
Joe Mason	24	Striker	14	0	14	5
Alan Browne	20	Midfielder	9	5	14	1
Willo Flood	30	Midfielder	8	5	13	0
Samir Carruthers	22	Midfielder	9	4	13	0
Sean Scannell	25	Midfielder	11	0	11	0
Matt Doherty	23	Defender	6	5	11	0
Aidan White	24	Defender	4	6	10	0
Conor Wilkinson	20	Midfielder	3	7	10	1

*Daniel Devine has underage caps for Northern Ireland, and declared for the Republic of Ireland in May 2011