Weekly Wire
Mon, April 27 2009
It's been another active week for our players as warm sunshine delivered smiling faces and a few goals to boot.
Most notable was Chris Brunt's decisive goal against Sunderland at the Hawthorns on Saturday, making this his fourth goal in three games. Whether it's enough to save the Baggies from relegation is another matter but an appearance from the bench for David Healy will do little to boost his confidence as Sunderland battle to avoid the drop along with all their other north-eastern rivals. Rumours will be rife if Sunderland manage to stay up as it is doubtful whether Healy has done enough to warrant staying with the club but with Sunderland's performance on Saturday described as 'pathetic', there's a chance he will be just the sort of player they'll need next season in the Championship.
Most Northern Ireland fans will be delighted to see Dean Shiels score his first goal for Doncaster Rovers against Palace on Saturday. Shiels left Hibs in February and seems to be settling well and playing regular football. Doncaster have a new stadium and real ambition so it's good to see Dixie being part of all that. Grant McCann's penalty put Scunthorpe ahead on Friday night in a 2-2 draw that saw Leicester City promoted back to the Championship. Many will see Grant playing below his station at Scunny, given his performances recently with the Northern Ireland squad.
We've been keeping you up to date with Michael O'Connor's movements at Crewe and it seems that a summer move is inevitable. Occy was north of the border last week training at Hibs and is now said to be assessing his options. Last summer Derby failed in a £1million bid for the player but following his fairly public falling out with Crewe manager Gudjon Thordarsson, Occy has since been loaned out to Lincoln and now back at Crewe is likely to be frozen out until a deal is in the bag. No doubt his value will have dropped so a bargain midfielder looks to be part of Mixu Paatelainen's plans.
Both O'Connor and Shiels will be part of the B international squad for the friendly against Scotland on may 6th at Clydebank. Nigel Worthington has promised any star performers a place in the senior squad for the friendly in Italy a month later. Also included in the squad are Chris Casement of Ipswich, currently on loan at Wycombe, both Celtic's Pat McCourt and Niall McGinn and the much hyped Rory McArdle of Rochdale. However, if Rochdale gain a play-off place then it's likely McArdle will remain in Yorkshire. The bad timing of the fixture could well see Crusaders' Martin Donnelly pulled from the squad as Stephen Baxter's side face Cliftonville only 3 days later in the Irish Cup Final.
Also included in the squad are Sunderland's Robbie Weir and goalkeeper Trevor Carson, Cory Evans and Port Vale Striker James Lawrie. Worthington has shown his faith in our youngsters, including Rangers's Andrew Little and Jamie Ward in the squad for our last qualifying games so the future certainly looks bright.
Finally, it is estimated that Howard Well's industrial tribunal hearing may take up to a month. The complaints he wishes the tribunal to consider include: unfair dismissal, breach of contract, right to be accompanied to a disciplinary/grievance hearing, failure to pay wages and err... race discrimination. Yeh, right Howard.
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