Irish Player Appearances In English Football

One of our twitter followers contacted us to know if representation of Irish players across the four divisions in England had dropped in recent years - not just in the Premier League. It's taken a little while to collate the data from the last ten years, but we can confirm that this is correct.

Note that one appearances in league football for each season were counted - appearances in FA Cup, League Cup, European, etc were disregarded

The number of Premier League players have steadily declined from 39 in 2009-10 to only 13 this season. There hasn't been an increase in player numbers season-to-season since 2011-12.

Championship numbers were almost double those in the Premier League in 2009-10 with 70 of the Boys in Green appearing in England's second tier. This has declined to 33 this season, with only slight increase in 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2016-17 arresting the slide.

Following the European Championships in 2012, there was a brief improvement in the player numbers in League One and League Two from the 2012-13 season until 2015-16 and declined since then, with the only increase coming in League One in 2017-18.

While there has been improvement in the fortunes at underage level for Ireland, this has not yet had an effect on the numbers playing at senior level in England, and it may be at least another 12 months before we start to see the talent from the underage sides make an impact for their respective club sides.

(mouse over the dots on the graph to see the players from that division that season)

Round Up for weekend of Saturday, 27th October 2018

Saturday, 27th October 2018

Premier League

Leicester City 1-1 West Ham United

Conor Coventry was named in a Premier League squad for the first time

Championship

Preston North End 1-1 Rotherham

Sean Maguire was booked for the first time this season

Swansea 2-0 Reading

John O'Shea's start was the defender's first start in a month

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Blackburn

Derrick Williams made his 100th start for Blackburn

League 1

Fleetwood 3-2 Blackpool

Paddy Madden scored his fifth goal of the season

Scunthorpe 1-4 Plymouth

Niall Canavan scored his first goal for Plymouth, his first goal since February 2017

Sunderland 3-0 Southend United

Aiden McGeady scored his first goal of the season

Walsall 3-2 Wycombe Wanderers

Michael Harriman made his 150th appearance for Wycombe Wanderers

League 2

Crewe Alexandra 2-0 Grimsby

Corey Whelan scored his first goal of the season

Exeter 1-2 Forest Green

Pierce Sweeney made his 100th start for Exeter

Mansfield Town 1-1 MK Dons

Ryan Sweeney was booked for the fifth time this season and is suspended for the next game

Northampton 2-1 Oldham

John-Joe O'Toole was booked for the fifth time this season and is suspended for the next game
Sam Foley was sent off for the first time in his career

Scottish Premier League

Kilmarnock 1-1 Hamilton Academical

After being introduced as a substitute, Jack Byrne was booked for the first time this season

Sunday, 28 October 2018

Premier League

Burnley 0-4 Chelsea

Jeff Hendrick's start was his 200th career appearance
Robbie Brady was booked on his return from injury, making his first appearance in 11 months

Round Up for week of Tuesday, 24rd October 2018

Tuesday, 23rd October 2018

Championship

Middlesbrough 0-0 Rotherham

Ryan Manning made his 50th appearance in the Championship

Norwich 2-1 Aston Villa

Glenn Whelan started his first game since Saturday, 1st September
Conor Hourihane made his 100th appearance in the Championship
Scott Hogan came off the bench for his first appearance of the season

Sheffield United 1-1 Stoke City

John Egan made his 200th career appearance

League 1

Plymouth 3-1 Gillingham

Callum Reilly made his 25th start for Gillingham
Bradley Garmston made his 100th career appearance

Wycombe Wanderers 3-0 Rochdale

Joe Rafferty made his 150th appearance in League One

League 2

Bury 1-1 Newport Co.

Joe Murphy made his 50th appearance for Bury

Wednesday, 24th October 2018

Championship

Preston North End 4-3 Brentford

Alan Browne scored his 20th goal for Preston