It was one of those moments when I started to feel my age. As the footage of St Patrick’s Athletic's win over Finn Harps was playing out in studio, both Pat Morley and Roddy Collins were making the point that fellow analyst Colm Foley was an absolute ringer for Saints defender Stephen Paisley.
Roddy then told us that he had been in a bar a while ago when somebody told him that he reminded them of someone. He was fairly sure they meant his brother, Stephen, the former World Champion boxer, but before he had time to say anything the guy in the bar said: 'I know who it is...Max Bygraves!'
And when you look at Rod in a certain light the man in the bar is spot on. We'll expect a blast of 'Give me the Moonlight' from Roddy at the MNS Christmas Party.
Colm, meanwhile, had never heard of Max Bygraves, and it was at that moment that I realised I'm now officially middle-aged. The general consensus was that I resemble the handsome and debonair Tony Cousins.
We were trying to work out who Pat Morley looks like, but we couldn't come up with any good contenders. All submissions gratefully received to mns@rte.ie. I suppose if you just took him from his hairline upwards, you might say Dickie Davis, with that little Cruella Deville flash of grey, but other than that I'm struggling.
In fact, if you can think of any other look-alikes for MNS regulars drop us a line.
Does Rex in Big Brother look a little like Tony McDonnell? Is Tony O'Donoghue Liam Neeson's long lost brother? (He'd like to think so, but dream on TO'D). What is it about Dave Barry that reminds me of Dick Dastardly's dog, Muttley? It's not the hair, that's for sure!
Anyway, enough of this nonsense. Let us know about your League of Ireland look-alikes to mns@rte.ie, and you can also drop us a line via regular mail, to MNS, RTÉ TV, Dublin 4.
We had a few technical problems during this week's show which kept us on our toes. The system that's used to put up the captions crashed a couple of times and had to be re-booted. It went down in the middle of the cup draw, which meant we couldn't caption the matches when they were drawn, although we were able to put the complete draw up when it was finished, so not too many people would have noticed. I hope.
The caption with the phone numbers to call for the Goal of the Month competition went down, which gave viewers very little time to write the numbers down. Remember the Goal of the Month competition for June is available on the MNS website and the prize put up by RTÉ in conjunction with the Irish Daily Star is a trip for two to Dublin for the Ireland Cyprus World Cup qualifier in October, with accommodation at a top hotel included.
The standard of goals for June was really high. I have my favourite, but I'm not allowed to influence the judges, who've made their decision, so I can't let you know until next week after the winner has been announced. If you missed the show live, I recommend a look at the competition because it’s worth winning and the goals are fantastic.
Incidentally, I mentioned on the show that Cork City accounted for five of the eight contenders, which emphasises the sort of form the Leesiders have been in of late.
The FAI Ford Cup fourth round draw resulted in some mouth-watering ties to look forward to. Earlier in the evening they had made a dummy draw in rehearsals to check camera angles, lighting, timings and so on, and Cork City were drawn at home to Shamrock Rovers.
I was delighted because I figured the odds on the Hoops drawing Cork in the real draw would be massive having already been drawn out against them in rehearsals. Our floor manager in studio Tadgh de Brun, a veteran of hundreds of soccer and GAA draws, said he's seen it happen loads of times. Teams drawn in rehearsal can be drawn out when it came to the real McCoy, and so it proved, although at least Hoops legend Mick Leech ensured home advantage for Rovers in the draw proper.
The meeting of Bohemians and Drogheda United will see another high-profile casualty, and I'd love to think that those two games won't clash, as I'm sure there's hundreds of neutrals who'd like to be at both. Me for one. Although I'll be in Beijing at the Olympics at the time, so I'll have to settle for coverage on the Internet, I suppose.
The two non-league sides remaining, Carrick United and Wayside Celtic, can continue to dream, having been given home advantage against Sporting Fingal and Monaghan United respectively.
A draw like Monday night's fourth round draw emphasises to me how exciting Gaelic football draws could be if they had a completely open draw. You could get the likes of Kerry v Dublin, or Armagh v Cork in the first round, and as some of the bigger guns fell, maybe a lesser light county could progress with the right kind of luck with the draws.
Yes, the best county wouldn't win every year, but is that not the beauty of a cup competition? Ask Bray Wanderers, Longford Town, UCD, etc., who've all struck gold in the FAI Cup, and whose supporters will never forget that moment, however brief, of pure joy.
Finally, good luck to Bohemians on Saturday night in the return leg of their Intertoto Cup second round tie against FK Riga. By all accounts Bohs were messed around big time by the Latvians and I'd love a big and intimidating (in size, and noise) crowd to face the Latvians at Dalymount Park, to let them know that they might try gamesmanship, but ultimately the cream of the eircom League will put them away.
It would be good for the league for Bohs to advance, though it would increase their fixture congestion. A third round tie, probably against Swedish side Elfsborg, would be a major test for Bohemians, but I say bring them on and let's see what happens. First, finish the job against Riga.
