| Back of the Net By Ian McCullough
It was appropriate that on the weekend of George Best’s death three of the
teams whose colours he wore during a magnificent but ultimately flawed career
produced superb performances to win.Manchester United, the club where
Best’s star shone at its brightest and most brilliant came from behind to
beat West Ham 2-1 with the winning goal fittingly being scored by an Irishman
in John O’Shea.
It was the Waterford man’s first of the season and in a double dose of
irony it was set up by Wayne Rooney — the player who will almost certainly
become the most naturally talented and gifted player to star for United
since the great man made his debut in 1963.
Fulham, where Best enjoyed an entertaining season-long spell in the 1970s,
also picked up three points with a 2-1 win over high-flying Bolton and in
Scotland Hibs — where the Ulsterman finished his career in the British Isles
— heaped more pressure on Rangers boss Alex McLeish with a 2-1 victory to
make it eight games without a win for the Scottish champions.
Kevin Doyle has enjoyed a whirlwind start to life in English football
since signing from Cork City and his goals are looking almost certain to
fire Reading into the Premiership for the first time in their history.
The Royals have lost just once this season and Doyle, listed as one of
the players to watch in these pages earlier this year, grabbed his second
in a week and seventh of the season as Steve Coppell’s side beat Plymouth
2-0 at Home Park.
The Wexford-born 20-year-old also found the net in his side’s 3-0 victory
over Ipswich last Tuesday to add to his burgeoning reputation.
Also on target on that night was Alan Lee who slid home his second of
the campaign in Cardiff’s 1-1 draw with struggling Brighton at Ninian Park.
There were mixed emotions for three Irish players in League One with
Paul Heffernan and Sean Foley enjoying great days and Jim Goodwin having
one to forget.
Waterford man Goodwin, who was a member of Brian Kerr’s under-16 team
that won the European Championships in 1998, has endured a torrid time with
injury since signing for Scunthorpe from Stockport in the summer.
He finally made his debut for the Iron at home to Brentford and endeared
himself to his new supporters with a goal after seven minutes but it proved
to be too good to be true as the Bees hit back to win 3-1. To compound Goodwin’s
misery he was sent off 10 minutes from time for a second bookable offence.
Heffernan had a point to prove to Bristol City after a desperate year
at Ashton Gate last season which culminated in him being offloaded to Doncaster
having scored just three times for the Robins.
It took the Dubliner just four minutes to open his account as Rovers
inflicted an eighth successive defeat on City who now lie second from bottom.
The goal also saw Heffernan reclaim the lead in the race to be top Irish
goalscorer from Doyle.
Sean Foley has enjoyed a successful loan spell at Bournemouth from Aston
Villa and the midfielder scored his second goal of the season in the Cherries’
2-0 win over MK Dons.
Dublin’s JP Melligan grabbed his fourth of the campaign to help Cheltenham
to an important 1-0 win over struggling Bury at Whaddon Road in League Two
to round off a productive weekend for Irish players in front of goal.
Ian McCullough’s Team of the Week
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Colgan
(Barnsley)
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O’Shea
(Man Utd)
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Cunningham
(Birmingham)
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Maybury
(Leicester)
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McShane
(Brighton)
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Rowlands
(QPR)
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Foley
(B’mouth)
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Miller
(Leeds)
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Melligan
(Chelt’m)
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Keane
(Spurs)
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Doyle
(Reading)
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