Episode 3 - Average Age and Debuts

In the third in our series of programming tutorials, framed around appearance data for the Republic of Ireland national men's team, I show how to prove that the average age of the starting XI named by Stephen Kenny to face Scotland in September 2022 had the youngest average age of any side in a competitive international since a World Cup qualifier against Cyprus in November 1980, and that, following Mark Sykes' debut against Malta, Kenny has given as many players their debuts in his 30 games in charge as Brian Kerr did in his 33 games managing the national side

Github Repository

How to calculate average age?

When the FAI announced the starting XI against Latvia, the average age of the starting XI was stated as being 23.6, but in the announcement from the @irish_abroad account stated the average age was 24, see below

STARTING XI | Ireland v Latvia Evan Ferguson makes his first senior international start as Caoimhin Kelleher starts in goal in young, exciting starting line-up🧤 Average age of the side: 23.6 💚 pic.twitter.com/axVsxKuYlx — Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) March 22, 2023

📋 Starting XI Stats 🎂 Average Age: 24 🧢 Total Caps: 151 🧢 Average Caps: 14.73 ⚽ Total Goals: 9 ⚽ Average Goals: 0.82#COYBIG #IRLLAThttps://t.co/4YfyHGMIIc pic.twitter.com/j2EMe16jWr — Irish Abroad (@irish_abroad) March 22, 2023

Why is there a discrepancy? The team running the FAI social media channels calculated the age using each player's years of age, e.g. Alan Browne is 27, but this is inaccurate. Browne is 27 years and 11 months old.

When calculating average age, it's better to use the days between each person's date of birth and the current date - Browne was 10,203 days old on Wednesday, 22nd March 2023. Calculating the age in days for the rest of the team that started against Latvia gives the following table

Player	Date of birth	Age(y)	Age(days)
Caoimhin Kelleher	Monday, 23 November 1998	24	8,885
Andrew Omobamidele	Sunday, 23 June 2002	20	7,577
Matt Doherty	Thursday, 16 January 1992	31	11,388
Alan Browne	Saturday, 15 April 1995	27	10,203
Dara O'Shea	Thursday, 4 March 1999	24	8,784
Jay Molumby	Friday, 6 August 1999	23	8,629
Michael Obafemi	Thursday, 6 July 2000	22	8,294
Will Smallbone	Monday, 21 February 2000	23	8,430
Callum O'Dowda	Sunday, 23 April 1995	27	10,195
Nathan Collins	Monday, 30 April 2001	21	7,996
Evan Ferguson	Tuesday, 19 October 2004	18	6,728
	Total	260	97,109
	Average	23.64	8,828.09

To convert the average age in days to years, divide by the number of days in a year, including a quarter for leap years, i.e. 365.25.

This gives a more accurate average age of 24.17 days.

Round Up for weekend of Friday, 3rd March 2023

Friday, 3rd March 2023

Championship

Hull City 2-0 West Bromwich Albion

Dara O'Shea scored the first own goal of his career

Scottish Championship

Hamilton Academical 0-0 Arbroath

Daniel O'Reilly was named in the Hamilton Academical starting XI for the 50th time

Saturday, 4th March 2023

Premier League

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

Nathan Collins' introduction was the defender's first appearance in six weeks

Championship

Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Sheffield United

Sammie Szmodics was booked for the fifth time this season

Huddersfield Town 0-4 Coventry

Sean Maguire came off the bench for his first appearance in a month

Middlesbrough 5-0 Reading

Jeff Hendrick started a game for the 350th time in his career

Rotherham 3-1 QPR

Chiedozie Ogbene assisted a goal for the first time in ten weeks

League 1

Derby County 2-2 Shrewsbury Town

Eiran Cashin was booked for the first time since Saturday, 10th December
Jason Knight assisted a goal for the first time since Monday, 2nd January

Ipswich Town 4-0 Burton Albion

Conor Shaughnessy was booked for the first time this season

Lincoln City 1-0 Oxford United

Daniel Mandroiu scored his fifth goal in League One

League 2

AFC Wimbledon 1-3 Mansfield Town

Alex Pearce assisted a goal for the first time this season
Stephen Quinn made his 100th appearance for Mansfield Town

Leyton Orient 1-1 Swindon Town

Kieran Sadlier made his fifth assist of the season

Salford City 3-1 Newport County

Harry Charsley scored his first goal for Newport County, 11 months after his last goal in April 2022

Walsall 0-1 Barrow

Sam Foley was booked for the tenth time this season

Scottish Premiership

Dundee United 1-3 Aberdeen

Jamie McGrath scored his 15th goal in the Scottish Premiership

La Liga

Atletico Madrid 6-1 Sevilla

Matt Doherty made his first appearance for Atletico Madrid

Australian A-League Men

Western United 2-1 Perth Glory

Aaron McEneff was named in the starting XI for the first time in ten weeks

Indian Super League

ATK Mohun Bagan 2-0 Delhi Dynamos

Carl McHugh assisted a goal for the first time since January 2021

Serie A

Atalanta 0-0 Udinese

Festy Ebosele was named in the Udinese starting XI for the first time since Wednesday, 19th October

Sunday, 5th March 2023

Scottish Premiership

St Mirren 1-5 Celtic

Charles Dunne was sent off for the second time for St Mirren

MLS

Columbus Crew 2-0 D.C. United

Derrick Williams made his first appearance for D.C. United

Monday, 6th March 2023

Eerste Divisie

PSV II 1-2 NAC Breda

Anselmo Garcia MacNulty made his 25th appearance for NAC Breda

Round up for week of Tuesday, 28th February 2023

Tuesday, 28th February 2023

Championship

Preston North End 0-0 Coventry

Alan Browne's start was his 300th appearance in the competition

League 1

Derby County 2-0 Cheltenham

Glen Rea was named in the Cheltenham starting XI for the first time, this was the player's first start in twelve months
This was the first time ten Irish players appeared in an English league game since 2006

Gary Kelly, Paul Butler, and Jonathan Douglas started for Leeds
Kenny Cunningham, Liam Miller, @graham_kavanagh, Daryl Murphy, and @MrDavidConnolly started for Sunderland, with @LiamLawrence07 and @SleevesElliott coming off the bench for the Black Cats in a 3-0 win

— Irish Abroad (@irish_abroad) February 28, 2023

Lincoln City 1-1 MK Dons

In his first start in a month, Daniel Mandroiu scored his fifth goal for Lincoln City

Portsmouth 3-1 Bolton Wanderers

Joe Rafferty made his first assist of the season

League 2

Gillingham 0-2 Bradford

Congratulations to Aiden O'Brien on reaching 350 career appearances with his start in this game

Hit the half way mark👊🏻... Honoured and proud to hit this milestone in my career. Just a kid from Islington, North London living his dream. Here’s to another 350🥳🙏🏼🙌🏻🥳 pic.twitter.com/i316i3Nwtc

— AidenObrien🤷🏼‍♂️ (@AidenObrien22) March 1, 2023

Harrogate Town 1-1 Northampton Town

William Hondermarck started a game for Northampton Town for the first time, this was his first start since Tuesday, 20 September

AFC Wimbledon 2-3 Stevenage

Daryl Horgan made his first start for Stevenage, his first start in two months

Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Crawley Town

Lee O'Connor started a game for Tranmere for the 100th time

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tranmere Rovers (@tranmererovers)

FA Cup

Stoke City 0-1 Brighton and Hove Albion

Evan Ferguson scored his first goal in the FA Cup, the youngest Irish goalscorer in the competition for 14 years

1️⃣4️⃣ At 18 years and 132 days old, @Evan_Ferguson9 is the youngest @FAIreland player to score in the @EmiratesFACup in fourteen years, since Sean Scannell scored for Crystal Palace against Leicester in January 2009 aged 18 years and 119 days#COYBIGhttps://t.co/Jeqi2Y6YFf

— Irish Abroad (@irish_abroad) February 28, 2023

Leicester City 1-2 Blackburn Rovers

Sammie Szmodics scored his fifth goal of the season

Wednesday, 1st March 2023

Burnley 1-0 Fleetwood Town

Michael Obafemi started a game for Burnley for the first time, almost four months after his last start on Saturday, 5 November
Josh Cullen's start was his 250th start in senior football
Cian Hayes was sent off for the first time in his career