Four Linfield players in NIFWA Team of the Year
Four players from Irish Premiership champions Linfield have been named in the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Team of the Year.Matthew Orr, Euan East, Joel Cooper and Matthew Fitzpatrick make up the Blues' quartet after they helped Linfield win the Gibson Cup for a record-extending 57th time before the split.Eighteen-year-old Orr has impressed in his first year with the senior team and has also been nominated for Young Player of the Year.He has been a virtual ever-present for David Healy's side in their defence alongside East, who has excelled in a number of different positions.Cooper, who is up for Irish Premiership Player of the Year, scored 19 league goals in his final season for Linfield before his departure to Coleraine in the summer, whilst Fitzpatrick found the net 12 times.Glentoran have three players in the team whilst Cliftonville and Dungannon Swifts each have two representatives.Glens goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai, defender Kodi Lyons-Foster and midfielder Fuad Sule have all been included from Declan Devine's side who finished third and reached the BetMcLean League Cup final.Swifts left-back Adam Glenny and midfielder Gael Bigirimana, who is also nominated for Player of the Year, feature after helping Rodney McAree's side to a fourth-place league finish and an Irish Cup final.Reds captain Rory Hale was named in the team alongside Player of the Year nominee Joe Gormley, who finished as the league's joint top goal scorer with 20 goals.The duo were key to Cliftonville winning the BetMcLean Cup in March and they will look to win a cup double when the Reds face the Swifts in the Irish Cup final on 3 May.NIFWA Team of the Year: Daniel Gyollai (Glentoran), Matthew Orr (Linfield), Kodi-Lyons Foster (Glentoran), Euan East (Linfield), Adam Glenny (Dungannon Swifts), Gael Bigirimana (Dungannon Swifts), Fuad Sule (Glentoran), Rory Hale (Cliftonville), Joel Cooper (Linfield), Joe Gormley (Cliftonville), Matthew Fitzpatrick (Linfield)
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The Sunderland defender was proud to wear the armband in Copenhagen and is set to skipper the side again in Belfast on Tuesday when Michael O'Neill's young guns will aim to hit back from a 2-1 friendly loss at Parken. Hume looked to be leading the side to a half-time lead at the weekend after Pierre-Emile Højbjerg's early own goal, only for Gustav Isaksen to equalise in injury time with a classy finish and, with Northern Ireland loose in possession after the break, the Danes worked up a head of steam in the second period, grabbing a winner through Christian Eriksen. Former Linfield ace Hume said: 'In the first half, I thought we were very strong. We started the game very bright, obviously getting the goal and, you know, I thought we were very strong out of possession and we did come in at half-time disappointed that they scored just on the brink of half-time. 'In the second half, they probably had a lot more chances than we would have wanted, but I think that's probably based off their quality and probably us giving the ball away quite easily in the breaks, so that's whenever we were open and stretched and that's whenever they did get their chances. 'That's something we can look back on and learn from.' With Denmark dominant in possession for most of the contest, on the rare occasions Northern Ireland had the ball they needed to hold on to it much better than they did, especially in the second half. Hume admitted: 'In the first half, like I said, we were very organised whenever we did get the ball, we held on to it and kept it well. 'The second half we were probably a wee bit loose on it and gave it away. 'It's probably us trying to break and trying to get forward and being a wee bit loose on the ball and not looking after it, not taking care of the ball really. 'That's whenever they got their chances and had their chances to break whenever we weren't ready and set and they had more space. 'That might come down to the substitutions as well, it might come down to tiredness – many of the boys had three, four weeks off (after their seasons finished), so maybe it's a wee bit of that too. 'But we'll look back on it throughout the next couple of days and learn from it, and obviously that's the kind of risk and reward of the way we play. We want to counter, we want to try and score. If we do give the ball away, that's when you're open. We don't want to make excuses so it's something we can analyse and learn from.' That's the thing… all the friendly matches in the build up to the World Cup qualifiers are about Northern Ireland getting it right for the trips to Luxembourg and Germany in September. Take, for example, four points from that crucial double header and the loss in Denmark and the 5-1 hammering in Sweden in March will have been deemed as excellent exercises for O'Neill's young side. Hume, who gave a typically committed display in Copenhagen, added: 'Yes, I think it's about learning from it. We're going to have to go away to tough teams and probably suffer a bit without the ball the way we did against Denmark, so we have to try our best to be organised and disciplined. 'We had a very young team out there at the weekend especially when the subs came on. I don't know what the average age was but whenever I looked around they were very young.' The final friendly before Northern Ireland's September showdowns is on Tuesday evening versus Iceland, who have not played at Windsor Park since 2006. While away form has been patchy in the last year for O'Neill's new era side, in Belfast they have been brilliant, winning all three Nations League fixtures in 2024 at the national stadium without conceding a goal and drawing 1-1 three months ago when a strong Switzerland side came to town. There is a confidence about Northern Ireland on home turf with the players feeling they can take anyone on. Hume is intent that continues on Tuesday in front of the home supporters, who will want to send the players off on a high before the World Cup group begins. By then Hume will be playing in the Premier League with Sunderland having been an inspirational figure in their promotion from the Championship. 'Our home record's been very good of late, and we don't want to lose that, we don't want to change that on Tuesday,' said the defender. 'Iceland's going to be a tough test, it'll be another tough game but we've got to be ready for it.'
