Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dreams can come true..i proved that!
BROWN GOES FROM PETROL PUMPS TO BEATING ROCKET
NEW Welsh Open winner Jordan Brown is delighted to continue Northern Ireland’s heritage of snooker champions.
The Antrim Ferrari became the lowest ranked player since 1993 to lift a ranking trophy when he stunned world champion Ronnie O’sullivan 9-8 on Sunday night.
And the world No.81 joined Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and practice partner Mark Allen as ranking winners from the country.
“I’m delighted to follow in the footsteps of the great Northern Irish players,” beamed Brown, who takes on John Higgins at this week’s Players Championship.
“It’s a very proud moment for me because I’m a very proud Northern Irishman.
“To follow in the footsteps of the greats like Alex, Dennis and my good pal Mark is just so special to me.
“It’s just a dream come true to be a part of that history.
“We’re such a small country and it’s great that we’ve produced so many great players.
“I’ve always been a keen follower of the history of the sport.we opened a new club back in
August and we’ve got pictures of Alex and Dennis on the walls. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Brown was a rank 750-1 shot to go all the way at the Celtic Manor but he shocked the snooker world to pocket the £70,000 top prize and a magical maiden title.
And victory has secured Brown a Champion of Champions debut next season as well as putting him in line to qualify for the elite eight-man Tour Championship next month.
But Brown is desperate to avoid being a one-hit wonder and stressed: “It’s a huge boost for the future.
“It’s only going to lead to bigger and better things.
“I think I’ve made my mark on the snooker world now.
“I’ve accomplished what I felt I was capable of and this is only the start hopefully.
“The hard work never stops and I’ll be back on the practice table working harder than ever.”
Brown only reached his first professional quarter-final at last month’s German Masters.
He almost fell off the tour before reaching last season’s
World Championship and his childhood dream came true when he grabbed his first taste of success on the green baize.
Just five years ago
Brown was working full-time at a petrol station to make ends meet.
And Brown admitted he wasted vital time in the pub instead of chasing his dream.
“I was just doing things I shouldn’t have been doing,” admitted Brown.
“There was a two or three year spell where I just didn’t feel like practicing and I was too busy going down the pub with my mates.
“There were times when I was just lying in bed some nights instead of going to the club. I was just too lazy.
“I just told myself I had to give myself a decent go at it. Dreams can come true and I’ve proved that now.”
DAVID HEALY has stoked the Big Two fires ahead of tonight’s derby by suggesting Glentoran have yet to fully cash in on spending big in the transfer market.
The Linfield boss reckons the Oval club has splashed out “between £150,000 and £200,000” on high profile signings over the course of the past 18 months.
And while he believes the Glens are making forward strides, he expected them to be higher in the table approaching the midway point after a “huge” outlay over the past three or four transfer windows.
Mick Mcdermott’s men climbed into the top six of the Premiership last week, but currently lie 15 points off Linfield at the summit, albeit with two games in hand.
“It’s a big game against a formidable opponent and rightly so with the amount of money they’ve spent and the investment they’ve made in their football team,” said Healy.
“I don’t have a figure to hand, but from January last year and probably before, in transfer fees alone it’s in the region of maybe £150,000 to £200,000. They’ve brought a huge amount of money into the Irish League, so Glentoran are getting stronger and they’ve had a lot of money spent on them.
“They probably should be a little bit higher in the league table at the minute, but make no mistake we know the challenge in front of us on Tuesday.”
Healy’s comments are likely to raise the stakes and heighten the sense of occasion around the second Big Two showdown of the season at Windsor Park.
The last time the fierce rivals met, at the same venue in November, Glentoran secured a gutsy 3-3 draw despite finishing the game with nine men.
It actually took a late equaliser from Jimmy Callacher to salvage a share of the spoils for Linfield, who head into tonight’s game on the back of a scoreless draw with Coleraine at the weekend.
The Glens last played seven days ago – a 3-1 win at Portadown – after
Saturday’s trip to
Warrenpoint
Town was called off due to heavy rain.
“Glentoran had a free weekend and we had to battle it out against a very good team in Coleraine on Saturday, so they should be fresh and (have) no excuses,” said Healy.
“But make no mistake, we’ll be ready for the challenge and prepared for another massive game against our biggest and fiercest rivals.
“I felt we should have beaten them the last time, but in the end we had to dig out a point even though we were the better side for the majority of the game.
“It doesn’t matter what the respective league positions are, any Big Two derby is a massive game and as a player you shouldn’t need any added motivation.”
THAT’S not Celtic. That’s not us.
Scott Brown has been through enough in 14 years at Parkhead to know what’s acceptable and what’s not.
And right now, the skipper’s six honest words tell you he just doesn’t recognise Celtic as being Celtic.
After a decade of dominance, the Parkhead club’s crown has slipped in shocking fashion.
Defeat to bottom of the table Ross County in Dingwall having already been knocked out of the Betfred Cup by the Staggies was another brutal blow to under-siege manager Neil Lennon.
With sitters going begging to win the game, Celtic ended up losing it when they gave away yet another goal from a set-piece to home hero Jordan White. If that wasn’t bad enough, the response was meek.
Brown has played in teams through the years who just wouldn’t give it up.
He knows what’s acceptable and what’s not. He knows the levels needed and he knows when it’s not good enough.
Assessing the situation, the captain didn’t shirk it as he said: “That’s not Celtic, that’s not us.
“It sums the season up. It has pretty much been our season, to be honest.
“You go two, three, four wins in a row then have a defeat. It has been hard for us to take.
“We know we’ve not played as well as we possibly could have.
“We could have scored two or three goals against
Ross County but we’ve got to defend set-pieces a lot better as a team as well.
“You go late, into the 91st, 92nd minute and we’re peppering the goal and we’re forcing mistakes and errors and, to be fair, we still did that.
“It just wasn’t clear-cut chances that were falling for us.
“It was half chances and we maybe didn’t do enough in the final third for us to say that we deserved to win the game.
“I thought we defended quite well throughout the game but it’s one set play and it’s those small margins in football that you lose concentration for a few seconds, and he [White] gets a run on the lads and scores a header at the back post.
“It’s something that’s pretty much been there throughout our whole season.”
Derby
v
BY DAVE ARMITAGE and
BIRD
RICHARD KEOGH will get the silent treatment tonight when he returns to Derby for the first time since they sacked him 15 months ago.
But it will be all in the name of football.
The 34-year-old former Rams skipper is back at Pride Park for Huddersfield, with his former teammates under strict instructions not to give him a warm welcome.
But Derby manager Wayne Rooney says there will be time afterwards for his players to have a warm reunion with Keogh and fellow ex-ram Duane Holmes.
Rooney has only slapped a gag on his men prior to the game with the Terriers and says after that they can do what they want.
Keogh was sacked in October 2019 on grounds of gross misconduct after sustaining a serious knee injury in a car crash that led to team-mates Tom Lawrence and Mason Bennett being convicted of drink-driving.
The crocked Republic of Ireland
Huddersfield 7pm
international, who had faced 12 months out of the game, was fired a month after the accident which followed a team- bonding night.
Rooney (inset) said: “It’s always nice when a player goes back to their former club and I’m sure the two of them will be looking forward to it.
“I don’t want to see anyone speak to them before the game – they can do that afterwards. We have to focus on ourselves and the game in hand. Afterwards they can talk about whatever they want. Do they have a point to prove? I’m sure they will and I wouldn’t expect anything less from them.
“When you go back to a club you want to do well and I’m expecting them to be fired up and doing everything they can for Huddersfield.”
When he left Derby, Keogh sent fans a message reading: “We have been on such a journey these last seven years.
“We’ve cried together, bled together, and celebrated together. I’ve felt every emotion with you all and my love for Derby will remain unconditional. Despite the ending to my story at Derby there will always be people who are family to me. Once a Ram...”
Keogh played a starring role in Huddersfield’s surprise 4-1 victory over Swansea on Saturday and clocked up his 650th career game in the process. Afterwards Keogh said: “It shows the beauty of a dream and the beauty of hard work that anything is possible if you get the right opportunity.
“We train well and the manager gives us lots of detail. These are big moments of the season and we all need to stand up. Derby is another big game.”
It was a victory that didn’t escape Rooney’s notice: “That was a fantastic win but we want to try and take three big points because a win would put us in a good place.”