Celtic duo boost Irish hopes
Patience pays off, and young Irish star Darren O’Dea proved that with a match-winning performance at the weekend.
O’Dea, who has endured months of frustration in and out of the Celtic team over the past few months, grabbed the first goal in their Scottish League Cup victory over Old Firm rivals Rangers yesterday.
Republic of Ireland wing wizard Aiden McGeady grabbed the second in their 2-0 victory, which had manager Gordon Strachan in high praise for both Irishmen.
“Try telling Darren O’Dea that the Scottish League Cup is worthless. The Dubliner set aside months of frustration at Celtic to inspire the Bhoys to a deserved extra-time triumph at Hampden yesterday and dash Rangers’ hopes of a clean sweep of domestic trophies,” said the Irish Examiner’s Champions supplement.
In the Irish Independent, Roddy Forsyth hailed the timely significance of the Irish duo’s match-winning contributions: “Lakes of Guinness are not due to be drained in commemoration of St Patrick until tomorrow, but Celtic produced an Irish double measure of celebration yesterday to claim the Co-operative Insurance Cup and deny Rangers the chance of a clean sweep of the Scottish domestic honours.”
O’Dea told The Star: “Life is a weird thing. A lot of people were trying to convince me that football can change in a day and to be honest I was struggling to believe it at times a few months ago. But all my hard work is now paying off.”
Strachan added of Aiden McGeady: “He played as a striker in the first half. Then he went wide because we knew he still had plenty of energy in him. That’s what he’s got — he’s got fantastic energy.”
In the Premiership Robbie Keane was on target - or not, depending on the reports - as Darren Bent looked to get the final touch on Keane’s goal-bound effort in their 2-1 win at Aston Villa.
According to the Mirror: “Keane had a shot which beat Friedel and was rolling in but Bent was there to help it over the line for his 15th goal of the season.”
In the Championship, Reading’s freefall continues as a 1-0 defeat at Ipswich means they look in danger of missing out on automatic promotion - which could spark an exodus of their many talented Irish stars.
Nevertheless, striker Shane Long remains confident the club will be playing Premier League football next season.
“It’s still in our hands,” Long said. “We just need that first win to get our heads lifted and kick on from there.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Examiner said that Norwich boss Bryan Gunn is in talks to extend Dave Mooney’s month-long loan deal from Reading until the end of the season “after the striker catapulted the Canaries out of the relegation zone”.
“We are at an advanced stage of negotiations with Reading which will hopefully enable us to extend his loan stay until the end of the season,” Gunn said.
"Reading have high hopes for him, but his path is blocked with the likes of Kevin Doyle and Shane Long, so it's given David an opportunity to come to us.”
Former Irish Under-21 star John O’Flynn continued his hot scoring streak with a goal for Barnet in League Two, but the club slipped to defeat to Morecambe.
While there has been plenty of action on the pitch, off the pitch there was some vital news as Irish boss Giovanni Trapattoni named a 26-man squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Italy.
It was hardly a surprise that Stephen Ireland’s international exile continued.
In The Star, Eamon Dunphy called on Il Trap to again court the young Corkman.
Dunphy said: “The responsibility lies with the management to do everything possible to get Ireland on board… he’s one of the outstanding young footballers in Europe and we need him badly.”
