Monday, 7 March 2016

Round Up - Weekend of 4th March 2016

Saturday, 5 March 2016
Premier League
Swansea 1-0 Norwich
Robbie Brady was booked for the third time this season, almost three months since his last booking in December.

Chelsea 1-1 Stoke City
Glenn Whelan was booked for the fifth time in 2015/16, almost exactly four months to the day since his last booking in November

Championship
Brentford 1-2 Charlton
Alan Judge was booked for the third time this season, having not been booked since two bookings in consecutive games in September

Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Rotherham
Stephen Kelly returned to the Rotherham team with a late second half substitute appearance. Previous to this the defender hadn't appeared for the Millers since mid December

League 1
Bury 0-0 Bradford City
In a similar manner to Alan Judge, Josh Cullen was shown his first yellow card since August, when he was likewise booked in two consecutive games

Coventry 0-1 Rochdale
Donal McDermott returned from injury for Rochdale to make his first start since 23rd January

Crewe Alexandra 1-1 Burton Albion
Callum Reilly's start for Burton this afternoon (his first since 23rd January) was the midfielder's fiftieth career start

Fleetwood Town 2-2 Sheffield United
U19 defender Graham Kelly made his first appearance in the Sheffield United matchday squad as an unused substitute

Southend United 0-1 Chesterfield
Cian Bolger start this afternoon for Southend was his fiftieth start for the club

Wigan 1-1 Peterborough
Chris McCann was booked for the tenth time this season

League 2
Mansfield Town 0-1 Yeovil
Kevin Dawson returned to the Yeovil starting XI for the first time since January 2015 and picked up his first booking of the season. The midfielder's last booking came back in November 2014!

Carlisle 1-4 Northampton
John-Joe O'Toole's double takes the midfielder's tally to ten goals for the season

Sunday, 6 March 2016
Australian A-League
Central Coast Mariners 0-2 Melbourne Victory
After serving an eight week suspension, Roy O'Donovan returned to the Central Coast Mariners first team, and received his fourth booking of the season

Cypriot Premier League
Omonia Nicosia 3-0 Anorthosis
Cillian Sheridan scored his fourteenth and fifteenth goals of the season

Eredivisie
Feyenoord 3-1 Cambuur
Jack Byrne's performance in this game led to his inclusion in the Betweters team of the week
Monday, 7 March 2016
MLS
Los Angeles Galaxy 4-1 D.C. United
Robbie Keane opened his account for the 2016 MLS season with a second half penalty for LA Galaxy in their opening game

Australian A-League
Perth Glory 2-0 Newcastle Jets
Andy Keogh scored his fifth goal of the season, in his last six games

Further Reading
Graham Barrett: ‘The time for action in Irish football is now’ - The Irish Times 
Is Tottenham vs. Arsenal the biggest North London derby ever? - espnfc.com
Ex-Newcastle starlet says young Irish footballers are better off staying in Ireland - the42.ie

Friday, 4 March 2016

Round Up - Midweek games of 2nd March 2016

Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Premier League
Aston Villa 1-3 Everton
Ciaran Clark returned to the Aston Villa starting XI for the first time since January, and was shown his sixth yellow card of the season

Championship
Blackburn 2-1 Middlesbrough
Darragh Lenihan was booked for the fifth time in 2015/16

League 1
Bradford City 1-2 Colchester
Owen Garvan was booked for the first time since 9th January, this was the midfielder's sixth booking of the season

Chesterfield 1-1 Blackpool
Jay O'Shea scored his seventh goal of the season, his first goal since 9th January

Oldham 1-1 Port Vale
Sam Foley scored his fifth goal of the season, having not scored since November

Walsall 0-0 Scunthorpe
Anthony Forde made his fiftieth start for Walsall

League 2
Crawley 2-0 Newport Co.
Lanre Oyebanjo made his first appearance of the season for Crawley Town
After signing for Crawley on loan, Frankie Sutherland and Charles Dunne made their first starts for the club, it was the Dunne's first minutes of football since 14th November, while Sutherland had not played since October
Shamir Goodwin scored his second of the season (and second in three games) in his first start since December

Exeter 1-1 Portsmouth
Clinton Morrison made his fiftieth appearance for Exeter as a second half substitute

Northampton 1-1 AFC Wimbledon
John-Joe O'Toole scored his tenth goal for Northampton

Wednesday, 2 March 2016
CONCACAF Champions League
Santos Laguna 4-0 LA Galaxy
Robbie Keane's evening was made even worse with his first booking of the LA Galaxy's season

Thursday, 3 March 2016
Cypriot Premier League
Omonia Nicosia 4-2 AEL
Cillian Sheridan's 25th appearance for Omonia was also his 250th career appearance

Further Reading
Just what the Doc ordered - wolves.co.uk
Team mates - Stephen McLaughlin - www.southendunited.co.uk
The social welfare stars of the League of Ireland - These Football Times

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

February 2016 Appearance Stats

Irish Abroad players appearance statistics for February 2016

Wins
Stephen Ward, Greg Cunningham and Alan Browne all won four games in February

Draws
Three of Keiren Westwood's games ended all squad

Losses
Stephen Henderson and Alan Judge both started four losses in the second month of 2016

Starts/Completed Games
Keiren Westwood, Ian Lawlor, Richard Keogh, Stephen Ward, Greg Cunningham, Cyrus Christie, Matt Doherty, Darragh Lenihan, Jeff Hendrick all started six games. Of these Lawlor, Keogh, Ward, Cunningham, Christie, Doherty and Lenihan went onto complete 90 minutes in each games

Substitutions/Introductions
Aiden McGeady, Stephen Quinn, Anthony Pilkington, Anthony Stokes were all substituted three times in February, the same amount of times Stephen Ireland was introduced

Stayed on bench
Goalkeepers Jack Bonham and Joe Murphy were both unused substitutes for five games in February, while of the outfield players Sean Kavanagh and Derrick Williams both remained on the bench for four games

Goals
Anthony Pilkington, Andy Keogh and Adam Rooney all scored three goals, with Pilkington recording a 100% win ratio when he scored

Discipline
Midfielder Darragh Lenihan and defender Daniel Devine were both shown a yellow card three times to top the bookings table