It was unfortunate that this week's MNS came up against the unstoppable juggernaut that was the appearance of one of the best club sides in the world and Real Madrid at Tallaght Stadium.
It's hard to remember any match involving a League of Ireland team getting as much newspaper, radio, and television coverage. Actually, as I think about it, this game between the Hoops and Real Madrid, was without doubt, the most talked about match involving an Irish club ever, across all media here in Ireland.
It must be frustrating for clubs like Bohemians, Derry City and St Patrick's Athletic, who are all involved in important European ties this week, to be drowning in the wave of coverage about the friendly game at Tallaght, that was a meaningless match, albeit, the first for Ronaldo in the white of Real.
Bohemians travelled to Austria and secured a wonderful away draw in Salzburg, something that clubs from much more exalted leagues have failed to do.
Brian Murphy once again proved the folly of including goalkeepers well down the pecking order in England in Ireland squads, when the champions of the league here have a keeper of such quality, and his namesake Barry at Shamrock Rovers should also come in for honourable mention - watch his double save against Sligo Rovers at Tolka Park on Saturday night on this weeks MNS, to see what I mean.
All three panellists this week, Tony McDonnell, Dave Barry and Eoin hand were of the opinion that Brian Murphy deserves, at the very least, consideration for a place in the Irish squad from Trap' and the boys, and it would be nice to think that Signor Trappattoni or one of his management team might make it to Dalymount for Wednesday's second leg.
Bohs' achievement in Austria went under the media radar here, as we were served page upon page of Ronaldo, Real Madrid and Rovers. Likewise, Derry City's creditable away draw in Riga last Thursday was another result that you might have missed if you blinked. Let's hope they can finish the job next Thursday at the Brandywell, although the reward of a tie against CSKA Sofia in the next round is not one that will exactly set pulses racing in Derry.
I went to Inchicore to watch St Pats and Valetta in their Europa League match. It struck me watching the game, having seen Pats exploits last season against much better opposition, that the current Saints side, is some way below what they had last year.
Their inability to create chances against a limited Maltese side was hugely disappointing, and in fairness, Valetta deserved their equaliser when it came. Ryan Guy worked really hard, and Alan Cawley looked like he might be the man to create something, but overall Pats looked like they were several players short of a quality team and their league position probably reflects that.
Can they bounce back in Malta on Thursday? I think they can. Heat could be a problem, but Valetta's season has yet to really start, whereas the Saints are right in the middle of their campaign.
Jeff Kenna's side have also shown in recent weeks that they are capable of playing some good football, notably at home to Bohemians and away to Cork City. So they can lift themselves, and hopefully the match in Malta will see the 'good' St Pats, rather than the 'mediocre' St Pats we saw last week in Dublin.
It was interesting listening to Eoin talking about the problem Limerick had in 1980 trying to get bums on seats for the European Cup tie with Real Madrid at Lansdowne Road. How times change.
Rovers sold out 11,000 tickets for a pre season friendly against the same opposition, and you'd have to assume that if it had been a competitive tie, you'd be looking at a fifty thousand sell out in the new Lansdowne Road.
The era of the event junkie is well and truly upon us, but it would be nice to think that some of those who attended Tallaght on Monday night never having been there before, might come back having sampled the atmosphere on offer, and the fact that Rovers competed well with one of the top sides in the world.
It was also heartening to hear John Kenny report that the Rovers fans were giving Ronaldo a little bit of a hard time. For years I was tired of going to friendly games here where the crowd were all cheering on Manchester United/Liverpool/Leeds United etc, against local opposition.
That didn't seem to be the case at Tallaght, and that has got to be a good thing. Of course I'm not stupid enough not to recognise the difference between Real Madrid and Liverpool or Man United and their respective fan bases here, but it was still nice to see so many green and white hooped shirts in the crowd at Tallaght.
In studio we couldn't watch the game in Tallaght while we were on the air, as the director and editor both (rightly) felt that it would be a distraction to the panellists to have it on a screen while we were talking about other things, but we did have the odd sneaky look during the ad breaks, and I must say the Tallaght Stadium looked great, and it just reminded me once again how good it would be if we could have crowds like that, or even half of that, every week at matches here. It would soon put a stop to the 'X club in financial crisis' headlines in our newspapers.
Incidentally, our new voiceover guy, (for legal reasons I'm not allowed name him, but he shares a first name with Real Madrid's Schneider), who does the panel introduction at the start of the programme had the best ever description of Dave Barry at the start of this week's show. If you missed it, you can watch the show here on the MNS site. I'd recommend it!
