Texts pile up if Jim grabs goals

JIM O’Brien bagged a textbook winner against Crewe to send Coventry top of League One – then told how a barrage of text messages would give him something to do during a footballer’s trademark post-night match insomnia!

The 27-year-old winger found the net just six times last season after joining from Barnsley. But the ex-- Republic of Ireland U21 cap grabbed his second goal in four days as the Sky Blues followed up last Saturday’s win at Millwall with a 3-2 home success against the Alex – his 83rd-minute 25yarder proving decisive.

Interviewed on talk-SPORT an hour later, the man born in Scotland was asked by presenter Andy Goldstein whether he’d find it difficult to sleep that night.

“Yeah, a little bit,” replied O’Brien, but not because of the adrenaline still running.

He explained: “Your phone goes a little bit mental with people texting. I scored at the weekend and people were texting me, so I was asking them, ‘Where are you when I don’t play well and we get beat? You don’t text me then!’ The phone goes a little bit mad but you’ve just got to try and switch off. It’s a day off tomorrow though so I’ll get a long lie-in.”

O’Brien had already laughed about how he had “just shut my eyes... and hoped for the best” when executing his fine strike, so he’d had enough shut-eye for one night in any case!