I have to say that when word reached us that Jeff Kenna had resigned as manager of St Pat’s last Friday I wasn't surprised.
Their exit at the hands of Waterford United seemed to be the last straw for some Saints supporters and it was always going to be difficult for Jeff to continue in those circumstances.
Pete Mahon now has a big job to try to lift the players for the final eight league matches of the campaign to make sure they maintain their status in the Premier Division, and when you look at what's happened in the FAI Ford Cup this season you can see how fraught a play-off match against a First Division side might be if you manage to avoid the automatic drop.
I suppose Pete has the sort of experience of the League here and knowledge of the players that might be required to steady the ship. It was interesting to hear Pat's supporters voicing the opinion that Jeff basing himself in the UK and travelling back and forth to Dublin was far from an ideal situation.
I'm sure Damien Richardson must have been tempted to take the reins at Inchicore, given his father's involvement with St Pat’s in the past, but I think in Pete Mahon the Saints have a good man at the helm and the Premier Division is a better place with St Patrick’s Athletic in it. I wish him well.
I also wished Eddie Gormley and Stephen Henderson well before the FAI Cup semi-final draw as they sat in studio, fingers crossed that Mick Neville who was drawing the home sides would pick their numbers out first from the draw.
It wasn't to be and they both face away games. I have a lot of sympathy for Waterford who have to travel to Sligo on the Friday night for the first of the semis. It's the worst case scenario for Blues supporters who now have to make the journey on a work day, but it was preordained that the first tie drawn would be played on the Friday night, with the second on the Sunday afternoon.
As Stephen said on the programme, Waterford's away form has been very good and they've collected some very good scalps in cup football this term - both FAI Ford Cup and EA Sports Cup - so they'll travel with a degree of confidence. Hosts Sligo Rovers have now hit a bit of form and it's interesting to note that the bookmakers now make the Bit O’Red favourites to lift the trophy in November.
Eddie's Bray don't have quite so far to wander. They travel to Santry’s Morton Stadium to take on Sporting Fingal who will be thrilled to have disposed of Shamrock Rovers in the previous round. How many awful penalty awards were made in that replay by the way? And not just against the Hoops, I might add.
Bray have a good tradition in the Cup, but would probably be happy to take Sporting back to the Carlisle for a replay. Mind you, Shamrock Rovers were probably happy to take Sporting back to Tallaght for a replay and we all know what happened there.
Tony McDonnell was accentuating the positives on MNS this week, with the race for the Premier Division title between Bohs and Rovers nip and tuck. What a night it's going to be at Tallaght when those two clash on 2 October.
But the race for Europe is also close, and the relegation dogfight looks like it could go right to the last day. That would be great for RTÉ, with a run of live matches to look forward to in the forthcoming weeks.
We received an email this week complaining - possibly tongue in cheek- about the scruffy look of some of the pundits on MNS and to be quite frank Tony McDonnell can be a disgrace. He's the only man I know who arrives into RTÉ in a business suit and changes into scruffy jeans to go on the TV. Pat Morley, however, is always a man who wears sharp threads. A nice suit this week, and if I seemed particularly nice to Pat this week, it's because he presented me with a lovely pair of MNS cufflinks. He also gave me some Shamrock Rovers cufflinks.
Ironically, since we broadcast the email giving out about our sartorial elegance, or lack of it, we've had a number of responses to mns@rte.ie suggesting that the relaxed look is one that's favoured by many viewers on Monday after the weekend games. For live match broadcasts I always don my best bib and tucker.
I have to apologise to young Callum Lyons and his pal Adam who I met at the Rovers v Bray match last Saturday night. With the Hoops trailing 0-1 at half-time, the lads asked me if I'd mention them on MNS on Monday if Rovers came back and won the game. Having promised that I would (thus incurring the wrath of editor ‘Brummie Steve’ who won't allow that sort of thing) I then forgot to do so, with time somewhat squeezed because we had so much in this week’s show. So if Callum and Adam are reading this, apologies, but keep enjoying the live football this season.
I'm just back from the first day of the Ploughing Championships in Athy. Ostensibly I was there in my role as co-presenter of Crimecall along with Anne Cassin. We were at the Garda stand as the Commissioner was launching Community Awareness Week, and with the first Crimecall of the season returning next week, we were meeting people, and my goodness, there are lots of League of Ireland clubs who'd love to get just a small fraction of the crowd that turn up at the ploughing every year.
But what made me laugh was the fact that I was at the Garda Stand, and wearing my suit and tie and with Anne, and yet a good number of people came up to me and said ‘you're that fella from MNS’ and ‘I enjoy the soccer show on Mondays’ and that sort of thing.
This was rural Ireland and not necessarily what you'd think would be League of Ireland heartland, so it was pleasing to get so many positive mentions of the programme (I think they like Crimecall too!).
I think Anne particularly like when three lads clad in Manchester United jerseys came up to me as we were walking along and proclaimed that it was great to see ‘yer man Gerry Murphy off the telly’. I suppose they were close.
