Round Up - Weekend of 29th October 2016

Saturday, 29 October 2016

Premier League

West Bromwich Albion 0-4 Manchester City
After being booked for the third game in a row, James McClean has picked up five yellow cards this season and is suspended for the next game

Arsenal 4-1 Sunderland
John O'Shea made his 350th start in the Premier League, but unfortunately had to be substituted due to injury in the first half

Today is John O'Shea's 350th Premier League start.

What a marvellous achievement. 👏https://t.co/HOMHF6eujG#SUNARS pic.twitter.com/Rn91R5ajT4

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) October 29, 2016

Championship

Brighton and Hove Albion 5-0 Norwich
Robbie Brady introduction from the bench was his 50th appearance for Norwich City

Derby County 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday
This was the first game where two Irish international defenders scored since November 2009 when Ian Harte and Richard Keogh scored for Carlisle in a 3-2 defeat to Bristol Rovers
Cyrus Christie marked his 100th start for Derby County with his first goal of the season
Alex Pearce's first goal for Derby (also his fifth in the Championship) was the defender's first goal since 14 April 2014

Ipswich 2-2 Rotherham
David McGoldrick marked his return to the Ipswich Town starting XI since August 6th with his first goal since the same game

Leeds United 2-0 Burton Albion
Eunan O'Kane's 250th career appearance was marred with his first booking of the season

Reading 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Paul McShane made his 50th start for Reading

League 1

Oxford United 1-2 Millwall
Aiden O'Brien scored his 15th goal in League One

Bolton 3-1 Port Vale
After returning to the Port Vale side with an appearance from the bench a week and a half ago, Sam Kelly made his first start since August 9th

Fleetwood 2-1 Gillingham
Cian Bolger was booked for the first time this season

Sheffield United 2-1 MK Dons
Darren Potter scored his first goal of the season, before this the midfielder hadn't scored since January 31st

Scunthorpe 4-1 Swindon
The second goal of Paddy Madden's brace against Swindon (his fourth goal in four games) was the former Shamrock Rovers' striker's fiftieth goal for Scunthorpe, in 140 appearances for the Iron

Southend United 1-1 Shrewsbury
Stephen McLaughlin scored his fifth goal of the season, having gone more than a month since his last strike

League 2

Cambridge United 0-1 Portsmouth
Noel Hunt marked his first appearance for Portsmouth since September 10th with his first booking in over a year, having not been shown a yellow card since Monday, 31 August 2015
Michael Doyle was booked for the fifth time this season and is suspended for the next game

Carlisle United 3-1 Crawley
Mark Connolly's consolation goal was his fifth time scoring for Crawley

Doncaster Rovers 2-2 Wycombe Wanderers
Michael Harriman was booked for the fifth time this season and is suspended for the next game

Leyton Orient 0-2 Crewe Alexandra
After appearing on the Sky Sports documentary "Out of Contract", Michael Collins signed a short term contract with Leyton Orient and came off the bench against Crewe to make his debut for the O's

Mansfield Town 1-2 Stevenage
Patrick Hoban scored his fifth goal in League Two

Scottish Premier League

Inverness CT 3-3 Hearts
Having returned to the Inverness first team last week, Aaron Doran scored his first goal of the season in almost 18 months against Hearts, his last goal came on Saturday, 2 May 2015

St Johnstone 1-2 Partick Thistle
Adam Barton was booked for the first time in two months

Cypriot Premier League

Omonia Nicosia 3-1 Aris
Cillian Sheridan scored his 25th goal for Omonia Nicosia on his 50th appearance for the club

Australian A-League

Western Sydney Wanderers 1-1 Central Coast Mariners
Roy O'Donovan was booked for the first time this season

Dispelling The Mistrust Myths

A recent post by Póg Mo Goal examined the recent claims in Irish media that Wes Hoolahan is not trusted by the international management team. While the creative midfielder has been omitted by Martin O'Neill for some high profile fixtures, most notably Scotland and Poland in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, there has always been an explanation - for Scotland he was injured, and the midfielder himself asked to be excluded from the starting XI in the Poland game after not feeling fit having completed 90 minutes against Germany three days previously. Having witnessed that famous victory first hand, I clearly remember Hoolahan signaling to the bench that he had to come off late in the game. However with all three substitutes already used, the playmaker was forced to remain on the pitch until the final whistle.

After examining the appearance data for players during O'Neill's reign, the stats do back up their discovery. Only Shane Long(31) and James McLean(30) have had more appearances than Hoolahan's 28 caps in the manager's 34 games to date

Player	Caps	Goals
Shane Long	31	8
James McClean	30	7
Wes Hoolahan	28	2
Aiden McGeady	24	3
Glenn Whelan	24	0
Jeff Hendrick	24	1
Robbie Brady	24	6
John O'Shea	23	1
Robbie Brady	23	8

While researching the appearance details for Martin O'Neill, we also compiled the appearances under previous managers. Having given Glenn Whelan his international debut, Giovanni Trapattoni went on to select the midfielder more than any other player. earning 51 caps in the manager's 64 games in charge

Player	Caps	Goals
Glenn Whelan	51	2
Robbie Keane	50	28
John O'Shea	48	0
Aiden McGeady	42	2
Shay Given	39	0
Richard Dunne	39	3

Despite the Italian's reputation for defensive football, his predecessor Brian Kerr favoured defensive players, with Kenny Cunningham(28), Shay Given(27), John O'Shea(26) making up three of the top four most selected players during the former St Patrick's Athletic manager's 33 games. You could arguably add Kevin Kilbane to the list as a defensive player, given that he played at left full under Kerr.

Player	Caps	Goals
Kenny Cunningham	28	0
Kevin Kilbane	28	2
Shay Given	27	0
John O'Shea	26	1
Damien Duff	24	4
Robbie Keane	24	11
Clinton Morrison	24	6
Stephen Carr	23	0

The defensive trend continued with Mick McCarthy. In his 68 games, only Robbie Keane and again Kilbane(both 40 caps) appear in the top five most appearances, with centre half Gary Breen earning the most caps under McCarthy - 50.

Player	Caps	Goals
Gary Breen	50	6
Shay Given	47	0
Ian Harte	47	9
Kenny Cunningham	44	0
Steve Staunton	41	2
Kevin Kilbane	40	3
Robbie Keane	40	14

Further Reading
MythBusters: O'Neill doesn't trust Hoolahan - pogmogoal.com