Dockrell and Tector picked to lead experienced Irish Wolves selection
GEORGE DOCKRELL and Harry Tector will lead a 16-strong squad of Ireland Wolves on a multi-format tour of Bangladesh starting later this month, with Dockrell in charge for the four-day match and Tector captaining the white-ball sides.
While the touring party contains 10 full internationals, the selectors have also called up three new faces in Graham Hume, Jeremy Lawlor and Ben White for the month-long series of games against Bangladesh A in Chittagong and Dhaka.
Hume is the most intriguing of the picks – a 30-year-old South African who has more than 300 first-class wickets at an impressive average of 17.9, he is settled in the north west and married to an Irish woman.
Lawlor and White both played for Phoenix before moving to Northern Union sides.
“We envisioned that this trip would allow a number of players to force their way into contention for Zimbabwe in April,” chairman of selectors Andrew White said. “However, with that tour now postponed, it’s even more crucial that these players get a volume and quality of cricket under their belts.”
George Dockrell, Harry Tector, Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Peter Chase, Gareth Delany, Stephen Doheny, JJ Garth, Shane Getkate, Graham Hume, Jeremy Lawlor, Josh Little, James McCollum, Neil Rock, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.
IT says something that this was only the second most embarrassing way Burnley could have exited the FA Cup. Instead of being thrown out for picking an ineligible player, they were unceremoniously ejected for losing at home to lower-division opponents. Even that, perhaps, was better than the alternative.
Sam Surridge and Junior Stanislas booked Bournemouth a first quarterfinal spot in 64 years but only after Burnley had put their participation in the competition in doubt before kick-off. They submitted a teamsheet containing Erik Pieters, who was banned after being booked in the two previous rounds.
Broadcasters BT Sport claimed they alerted Burnley to his suspension after their statistician, Joel Miller, noticed. Burnley claimed they realised themselves and that Pieters’ name only appeared due to an administrative error. Either way, he was replaced by the rookie Anthony Glennon and Burnley contrived to find another way to extend their troubles in knockout competitions under Sean Dyche.
Losing to an inspired Bournemouth was not an embarrassment on the scale of their previous fifth-round tie, a home defeat to non-league Lincoln but Dyche’s Burnley have suffered seven Cup defeats to lower-division clubs.
His decision to make seven changes – which became eight when Pieters was withdrawn – backfired.
Not that Bournemouth, quick, confident and classy, looked as though they were a league below Burnley.
Surridge capitalised on the absences of the injured Dominic Solanke and the cup-tied Shane Long to score. Stanislas, Philip Billing and David Brooks offered invention and movement.
Both Stanislas and Billing threatened with well-struck shots before Jack Stacey surged into the left-back area that Pieters was due to occupy, and centred. Surridge was given a tap-in. Burnley could have compounded their own problems.
Bailey Peacock-Farrell made a spectacular save to spare Dale Stephens an own goal. Burnley posed no threat in the first half. They were better after the break, with Matej Vydra stinging Asmir Begovic’s palms and the goalkeeper almost pushing Dwight McNeil’s fierce effort into his own net.
But, once again, they were architects of their own downfall. Jay Rodriguez, who has not scored at Turf Moor this season, ballooned a shot over the bar from six yards after Vydra found him with a miscued shot.
Bournemouth could have doubled their lead when Billing headed over and Cameron Carter-Vickers wide. Instead, Kevin Long lunged in on Surridge and the former Burnley man Stanislas converted the penalty. (© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2021)
IT’S been quite the fallow period for the Gaelic footballers of Meath. So it’s a badge of honour for some of the county’s exports to be pursuing excellence, and achieving it, on foreign fields in another code.
When an in-form St Mirren trot out to play Celtic at home tonight, in front of the Sky Sports cameras, there will be a very strong green hue to their side, with an Irish manager (Waterford’s Jim Goodwin) and five players from this country, two of them from the Royal County, midfielders Jamie McGrath and Dylan Connolly.
“Dylan is from Johnstown, in Navan, only 20 minutes down the road from me, but he’s a blow-in as he’s a Dub, really,” McGrath jokes. “I’m always getting messages from home and it’s great to have that backing. Hopefully me and Dylan doing well gives the county something to be interested in at a difficult time back home. It’s different to the GAA, Dublin look so dominant now, and will be for a few years so it will be hard for Meath in Gaelic, but it makes me proud to be doing well, it’s something for people back home to enjoy.”
McGrath’s own experience of GAA was brief, one summer (albeit a championship-winning one, with Clann na nGael), as soccer had a hold on him from early on, early lessons picked up at Athboy Celtic where as a five-year-old he was pitched into train with his brother’s U-10 side: the GAA’s loss a gain for soccer.
St Mirren’s form is, by extension, a badly needed good news story for Irish football, with Goodwin enhancing his reputation in a tough league which carries no passengers, and his Irish five-a-side (McGrath, right, Connolly, Conor McCarthy, Joe Shaughnessy and Jake Doyle-Hayes) storming their way into the top six in the Scottish top flight. “This club has never finished in the top six so to stay there would be some achievement,” says McGrath.
As they prepare to host Celtic, it’s St Mirren who are the form side, already with one up on Neil Lennon’s outfit as McGrath’s side won away to Celtic very recently, their first win at Parkhead in three decades.
It means that any fear factor has been eradicated. “At the start of the season, Celtic and Rangers are the games you look forward to, they are the big matches, the ones you want to play in. We did it two weeks ago, went to Parkhead and got the three points and that’s still fresh in our heads,” says McGrath.
“I learned this in Europe with Dundalk, you play against these so-called bigger teams who you think are so much better than you, but once you go out and play them you see there’s not much between the two teams, that experience and having those European games under my belt really prepared me for this, playing Celtic and Rangers and having no fear. You can’t take fear into your game, if you do that you won’t perform.”
McGrath (25) has indeed performed since his move, from Dundalk, 13 months ago. While many of the League of Ireland’s top performers are unable to bring their success abroad, and often return home with dreams unfulfilled or else have to drop down a number of divisions, McGrath and his fellow LOI recruit, former Cork City man McCarthy, have thrived.
Progression
“I did consider all of this when my time at Dundalk was up, I wanted a new challenge and I wanted to try my luck abroad, in making the move here, to keep up my progression, I didn’t want to go somewhere and sit on the bench every week, waste a year or two of my career,” says McGrath. “The gaffer here said from day one, that I would be in the team from the start and it was up to me to stay in it and that’s happened. The manager put that on the table and that was very appealing, I’m delighted with how it’s gone.” With the focus for now on securing a place in the top six when the league splits next month, bigger things could happen. At a time when freescoring Irishmen in England are rare, his nine goals from midfield for St Mirren cannot be ignored at international level. Manager Goodwin, capped just once at senior level, has already raised the topic.
“Jim touched on it the odd time, it would be a fantastic honour to get called up but my focus now is getting the club into the top six, staying injury-free, adding a few more goals and see where that takes me, if it’s good enough then great, if not I will work even harder. “Of course it’s everyone’s dream to play for their country. I am lucky enough to have done it at underage level.
“Who knows, it would be an unbelievable achievement to get the nod.”
St Mirren v Celtic,
Live, Sky Sports, 8.0
WORLD No 1 Ash
Barty produced a near flawless display as she handed out the dreaded ‘double bagel’ to Danka Kovinic, while Rafa
Nadal defied his gloomy injury prognosis to crush Laslo Djere in the Australian Open first round yesterday.
Barty, looking to become the first home-grown champion at the Grand Slam since 1978, won the first 16 points of the contest and lost only 10 of 60 to set up a second-round match against compatriot Daria Gavrilova.
Nadal (above), who had pulled out of his nation’s ATP Cup campaign with a back problem, launched his bid for a record 21st Grand Slam title with a 6-3 6-4 6-1 win against world No 56 Djere.
The Spaniard, looking for his first title at Melbourne Park since 2009, next faces American qualifier Michael Mmoh, who outlasted Viktor Troicki in a marathon five-setter.
Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka struggled to find her best tennis and appeared to have breathing problems as she suffered a shock 7-5 6-4 defeat by main draw debutant Jessica Pegula.
An emotional Sofia Kenin found the going tough against local wildcard Maddison Inglis but battled to a 7-5 6-4 win to kick-start her title defence.