skip to main content

Irish Abroad: Perfect Walters joins exclusive club

Updated / Wednesday, 4 Mar 2015 16:35
Jon Walters picked up the matchball, while Glenn Whelan played the full ninety in Stoke's victory
Jon Walters picked up the matchball, while Glenn Whelan played the full ninety in Stoke's victory

By Ed Leahy

Jonathan Walters became only the third Irishman to score a Premier League hat-trick when he grabbed all three of Stoke City’s goals in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over QPR.

The Ireland striker put in the ultimate performance en route to grabbing a perfect hat-trick, with one goal each from his left foot, right foot and head as he joined Robbie Keane and Leon Best as the only other Irish strikers to bag a triple in the Premier League era.

Stoke boss Mark Hughes was full of praise for his striker claiming that Walters was “magnificent” and a “credit to his profession”.

"He gives everything, every game, and on his 200th game it was fitting he won it for us," added Hughes.

Ireland manger Martin O’Neill was equally complimentary about the Stoke man, who is also utilised in a wide position as well as leading the line.

O’Neill said: “His attitude has always been first class. He is committed to his club and when he comes to us, he is anxious to play, doesn’t like to miss any time and is an excellent example.”

Walters had Cork native Stephen Ireland to thank for two of his goals as the one-time Ireland midfielder was inspired playing a sublime back-heal into the striker’s path for the first goal, before exchanging passes in an excellent move for the Potters’ second.

O’Neill was not so enthusiastic regarding midfielder Ireland when asked whether communication was made by his assistant Roy Keane, who took some time out from allegedly road-raging with taxi drivers, to attend the Brittania Stadium encounter. "There’s been no contact,” said O’Neill.

Meanwhile, Glenn Whelan proved that he is back to full fitness by playing the entire game for Stoke as the midfield dominated, while Marc Wilson slotted in at left-back and as always looked comfortable and composed.

While O’Neill may not be pushing the boat out to entice Ireland back into the international set-up, Stoke boss Hughes will be delighted with his midfielder’s performance, who played in the hole, behind Walters, and looks set to continue there in injured Bojan’s absence.

The Ireland manager actually made his way to Selhurst Park at the weekend hoping to catch a glimpse of a supposedly fit-again James McCarthy, although the Ireland midfielder was not risked and did not feature for Everton, who enjoyed a much-needed 1-0 away win over Crystal Palace.

O’Neill was able to cast his eye over the always-assured Seamus Coleman who played the full 90 for the Toffees, while more encouragement came in the form of flying winger Aiden McGeady, who spent most of the match alongside Coleman on the right and looked dangerous in the attack, supplying some inch-perfect crosses and almost got on the score-sheet, stinging the Palace keeper’s hands with a rasping shot late in the game.

Darron Gibson is back to full fitness and was named in the matchday squad but was unused at the London venue.

And Damien Delaney would also have been watched by the Ireland boss. Despite his sluggish start, where he was done for pace by Steven Naismith in the second minute in the build-up to Everton’s goal, the centre-half kept a busy Everton attack scoreless for the remaining 94-odd minutes.

John O’Shea’s Sunderland also enjoyed a valuable victory, beating fellow strugglers Burnley 2-0 at the Stadium of Light and a measure of how assured O’Shea’s performance was can be gauged by the fact that in-demand striker Danny Ings was hauled off for a rather ineffective performance after 61 minutes.

Had Michael Owen being commentating on the Sunderland match, he might have stated, “John O’Shea had Danny Ings in his pocket all afternoon, as we say in the trade”.

Hull City’s Irish contingent mostly watched from the bench as Steve Bruce’s struggling side were spanked 3-0 at home by Newcastle United.

David Meyler did play the full game but spent most of the afternoon on the back foot as Newcastle attacked in waves, while Robbie Brady had the thankless task of coming on to change the game at 2-0 with 20 minutes to play. Newcastle sealed the win seven minutes later.

Paul McShane and Stephen Quinn looked on at the horror show from the sidelines and were probably quite content when that third sub went on as Bruce’s quota, and possibly his livelihood, was maxed out.

One positive note to take from Saturday afternoon from an Irish perspective was to see Joey O’Brien complete the full shift in West Ham colours, even if he was given a torrid time from Liverpool pair Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho. I’m sure they call it character-building (in the trade).

A few stops past character-building on the train-track to footballing ruination sits the near-terminus destination of soul-destroying, and speaking of which, Ciaran Clark spent most of Sunday afternoon with a one-way ticket as his Aston Villa defence were torn asunder by the rampaging Arsenal express who smashed five past Paul Lambert’s side.

Clark was far from the worst offender in the Aston Villa XI (I’m not naming names Jores Okore or Kieran Richardson), however, the Ireland defender got the ball rolling, so to speak, as he made a ridiculous attempt to step out as Olivier Giroud strode through to clip home the opening goal.

The only thing that Villa can be thankful for is that it was only five. And Lambert’s men will now forever, on the Holte End at least, be known as the first side in Villa’s esteemed history to go more than six league games without scoring a goal.

Another positive for Clark was that Martin O’Neill was in Dublin fulfilling Ireland manager duties at the time of the Emirates debacle, so there is a chance that he may not have witnessed the horror show.

And on O’Neill’s visit, he took time out to update the media about what goes on in this lengthy winter break between qualifiers.

The Ireland boss told an entertaining tale of how a chance-meeting with a young Irish midfielder left quite the impression in the car park at Craven Cottage.

As O’Neill was chatting with Harry Redknapp, Harry Arter came over to introduce himself as the Ireland boss chatted with Arter’s former Bournemouth associate. And O’Neill spoke highly of the Championship-toppers’ midfielder: “I had watched him on one or two occasions beforehand and it was nice to meet him,” said O’Neill.

“His enthusiasm was very strong and he is performing regularly in a side that is going very strongly for promotion.”

So perhaps watch this space for Arter’s inclusion in the Ireland set-up in the very near future.

And Arter was back doing what he does best on Friday night as Bournemouth maintained their Premier League push with a 2-0 victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Watford.

Arter played the full ninety and again was neat and tidy in the footballing Bournemouth midfield, while he set up several chances and tried a few efforts from distance but could not add to his impressive tally this season.

Tommie Hoban is another on Martin O’Neill’s radar having been recommended by Ireland Under-21 boss Noel King, but the Hornets defence were up against it as early as the opening 30 seconds when fellow defender Gabriele Angella was harshly sent off as he was deemed to be the last man. The ref won’t want to look at the replay of the incident as Watford clearly had another man between the attacker and the goal.

“I’ve got to see Watford three times in the last 16 days and Tommie has been contributing there so it is just nice to get a decent update,” said O’Neill of the young defender’s chances of getting a look-in with the senior team.

Derby County were led by captain Richard Keogh to an impressive 2-0 away win at Cardiff to move into the automatic promotion places, and the Ireland centre-half made up for his own misplaced pass to maintain his side’s clean sheet as he got back to make a decisive interception as the home side looked to get back into the game.

Jeff Hendrick enjoyed another solid 90 minutes as the visitors dominated possession with their slick passing throughout, and the Ireland midfielder was involved in the opening goal. Cyrus Christie started the game on the bench but was called into action after 40 minutes due to an injury to Jake Buxton and set up the second goal.

Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich lost ground on the leaders as they were held scoreless by struggling Wigan at Portman Road, and the former Ireland boss admitted that his side struggled and were barely worth the point gained.

And McCarthy looks like he is either playing mind games or is actually planning for the madness of the play-offs as he said after the game: "I have always said we are not that good that we are going to win every game. But it takes about 75 points to make the play-offs so we now need 24.”

Noel Hunt started in place of top scorer Daryl Murphy, who was ruled out after picking up a calf injury in training during the week, but had little impact and was subbed in the 65th minute, while Luke Chambers, Jay Tabb and David McGoldrick also started.

But judging by McCarthy’s scathing appraisal of his side’s performance, perhaps it was better to have not been involved, so expect Stephen Hunt to return to the starting XI next week.

Brentford also lost touch at the top as they lost to fellow promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough, despite dominating large segments of the entertaining encounter.

Alan Judge remains out of contention, although Jonathan Douglas put in a very good shift in the middle of the park and almost grabbed a deserved equaliser in the dying moments but was thwarted by a super save by the Boro keeper.

Douglas has certainly been one of the stand-out midfielders in the Championship this season but at 33 years old, it is surely too late to make a return to international duty. Or is it?

In Norwich, Wes Hoolahan is back in the and played 89 minutes of their scoreless draw with Birmingham City. The classy Ireland midfielder helped the home side dominate possession but chances were at a premium as Darren Randolph would testify, as the City stopper’s goal was rarely threatened as he notched another clean sheet, which is surely to catch the eye of Ireland boss O’Neill.

Speaking of clean sheets, it was a bit of a collector’s item in recent weeks as David Forde and Millwall managed, not only a clean sheet, but also a victory, an away one at that, as the Lions won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest.

In fact, an eagle-eyed reader of this column in recent weeks has bemoaned the lack of Stephen McLaughlin updates, so here goes:

The former Derry City midfielder is back from his loan at city rivals County and back playing regularly in the Nottingham Forest XI.

And with the game delicately poised at 0-0, entering the final stages, McLaughlin decided it wise to attempt a header back to his keeper. The rest, as Stuart Pearce will tell you, is history, as Ricardo Fuller stole in to smash home the winner.

Pearce was relieved of his duties at the City Ground on Sunday, so let’s hope for Mr McLaughlin’s sake that new boss Dougie Freedman wasn’t watching, or perhaps another loan deal could be on the horizon.

Elsewhere, Stephen Kelly, Alex Pearce and Simon Cox all started for Reading as they put two past Ireland keeper Keiren Westwood with the first of that trio supplying a fine cross for Pavel Pogrebnyak’s opening goal.

Westwood could not be faulted for the Reading goals and also chipped in with a saved penalty to keep the score down, even if the spot-kick was of a standard not seen since David Connolly’s effort at the 2002 World Cup in Korea as Spain beat Ireland.

In League One, Eoin Doyle signed off his Chesterfield career with a well-taken goal in their 2-2 draw with Doncaster.

The newly signed Cardiff City striker left the Derbyshire side having scored 21 league goals this season, while Chesterfield’s late equaliser was scored by another Irishman with an eye for goal as Jimmy Ryan steered the ball home with three minutes to play.

Jay O’Shea also started for Paul Cook’s side, and keeping with League of Ireland alumni, former Hoops defender, Enda Stevens, played the full 90 for his new Rovers. Former Gypsie and Nidge-alike Paul Keegan also played for Donny.

Bristol City played on Sunday and beat Fleetwood 2-0 to move top of the table as Derrick Williams again impressed. The German-born, Waterford raised, Ireland Under-21 international has made the left-back place his own, keeping Ireland international Greg Cunningham on the bench.

Darren Potter and the MK Dons gave Crewe a masterclass as the League One side briefly moved to the top of the division following Saturday’s 5-0 victory, while Samir Carruthers was on the bench but was not called upon.

Paddy Madden’s Scunthorpe scored four to beat Dave Mooney’s Leyton Orient and while the one-time Ireland striker failed to get on the score-sheet, he was heavily involved in the fine away win.

Elsewhere, Will Hayhurst hit Notts County’s best efforts but his side were on the wrong end of a 3-0 defeat to Oldham, as the Magpies’ play-off hopes appear to be fading fast.

In League Two, former Dundalk man Pat Hoban is becoming a regular in the Oxford side and helped the Us to a 2-0 away win at Stevenage and almost got on the score-sheet as his close-range shot was well-saved but turned home by Callum O'Dowda.

Padraig Amond grabbed another goal as the former Shamrock Rovers striker glanced home a header as Morecambe grabbed a point against Wimbledon.

In Scotland, Aberdeen’s Irish contingent were dumped out of the League Cup by Dundee United as the Terrors and Sean Dillon booked a final date with Celtic next month.

The Bhoys eased through to the final after beating Rangers at Hampden Park. Anthony Stokes played most of the match for Celtic, while Jon Daly was a second-half sub for a poor Rangers outfit and made little impact as Celtic eased to victory.

Wicklow’s Paul Heffernan will be playing Premiership football for the rest of the season after signing for Dundee from Hibernian on transfer deadline day.

Further afield, Damien Duff’s Melbourne City enjoyed a 2-1 A League win over Western Sydney Wanderers with the former Ireland winger playing for 66 minutes. Andy Keogh’s Perth Glory were idle but still top the ladder, four points clear of Adelaide United.

Cillian Sheridan returned to action following his post Christmas surgery to score for APOEL in their Cup win over Olympiakos and the former Celtic man played the final 12 minutes of the Cyprus league clash at the weekend as his side beat Nea Salamis 1-0.

Elsewhere, it is pre-season time Stateside and Sean St Ledger is looking to impress at DC United, where he is on loan. The Ireland centre-half came on at half-time in United’s 1-1 draw with Orlando.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia and things did not go to plan for Eamon Zayed as he played for Sabah Rhinos in a pre-season friendly 3-0 defeat to Singapore S-league side Tampines Rovers as the former League of Ireland man partnered El Hadji Diouf up front.

More stories on

Read Next