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The 42
17 hours ago
- Sport
- The 42
Dane Murray celebrates contract with goal as Celtic smash Falkirk
DANE MURRAY CELEBRATED his new contract with his first Celtic goal as the holders beat Falkirk 4-1 in the Premier Sports Cup. The 22-year-old defender headed home Celtic's third goal of the second-round clash at Parkhead. Murray, who has already overcome two separate cruciate ligament injuries in his career, earlier signed a new deal that keeps him at the club until 2028. Daizen Maeda and Alistair Johnston were also on target and Falkirk defender Liam Henderson put through his own net before Keelan Adams scored an impressive consolation goal for the Premiership newcomers. Advertisement Centre-back Murray was one of six players coming into the Celtic line-up alongside goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo, Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and ex-Shamrock Rovers striker Johnny Kenny, who made a rare start for the Bhoys. The Hoops beat then Championship side Falkirk 5-2 on their way to winning last season's tournament and this was another open encounter with both sides creating chances in the first half. Kenny volleyed wide early on after James Forrest's lay-off and former Celtic goalkeeper Scott Bain saved long-range strikes from Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney before scrambling to meet Henderson's wayward passback, which just went wide. Ross MacIver dragged a shot wide at the other end after a loose pass from Murray. The breakthrough came in the 26th minute after McGregor returned the ball into the box following a corner. Tierney ran on to meet the cross and nodded the ball down for Maeda to score with a diving header. There were further chances at each end before the break. Sinisalo saved brilliantly from Calvin Miller's 25-yard strike before denying Alfredo Agyeman and MacIver. Engels and Forrest missed close-range headers at the other end. Celtic were more dominant after the break and doubled their lead in the 54th minute after Falkirk lost possession from a throw-in. Johnston chased down Miller as the former Celtic player headed back towards his own goal and the right-back won the ball before curling into the far corner with his left foot. Murray got his big moment in the 61st minute when he headed home from an inswinging corner from Engels. Celtic went further ahead three minutes later as Yang Hyun-jun made an instant impact after coming on with home debutant Shin Yamada. The South Korean winger ran past two opponents after Celtic won the ball back deep in the Bairns half, and his low ball across the goalmouth was turned into his own net by Henderson. The noisy visiting fans got a chance to celebrate three minutes later when right-back Adams arrowed a shot into the top corner from 20 yards. That ended the flurry of goals as Celtic safely navigated their way into Saturday evening's quarter-final draw and avoided any injuries ahead of their Champions League play-off first leg against Kairat Almaty on Wednesday.
RTÉ News
16-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Richie Towell urges another front-footed Shelbourne approach at Linfield in second leg
Another front foot performance from Shelbourne tonight should be enough to finish off the job against Linfield in their Champions League qualifying tie, according to Richie Towell. Joey O'Brien's side exerted pressure on Linfield in last week's first leg at Tolka Park in front of the RTÉ cameras but only Mipo Odubeko's second-half goal is all that separates the sides ahead of tonight's second leg in Belfast. While Shels have a 1-0 lead to protect at Windsor Park with a place in the second qualifying round at stake, ex-Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk midfielder Towell told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that their best bet is not to sit back given that - in his and former Republic of Ireland winger Keith Treacy's point of views - the reigning League of Ireland champions have more quality in their squad than Linfield possess. "I think they should just go up there and fight fire with fire. Just go in as if it's 0-0 and really go for them," Towell said. "I wasn't too impressed with Linfield physically. If I was Joey O'Brien I would be saying, 'Start the game exactly as we did in Tolka Park. Go for them'. "Let's be realistic. You see Shamrock Rovers, they went up to Windsor Park (last season), everybody thought it's going to be a big derby feel to it, a competitive game, and they went and trounced Larne. "It was simply because they didn't show them too much respect. They went up and stamped their own authority on the game and that's exactly what Shelbourne need to do. "If they go up there and sit off Linfield, Linfield will move the ball and they'll get bodies in the box, balls into the box and they'll create chances, I've no doubt about that. "So if I was Joey, I'd say exact same game-plan as the home one, 'let's go for them', because as Keith said, on paper, Shelbourne are the better team, they have better players man for man, so go up there and prove it." Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the first leg, Linfield manager David Healy said his side would look to be more attack-minded than at Tolka Park, and with that in mind, Treacy said Shelbourne should start striker Sean Boyd who proved to be a game-changer as a sub in last week's first leg. "Personally, I would start him just because I assume that as David Healy says, they're going to have a little more of a go, a little bit more of a tempo and when you've got a big target man like Sean Boyd, if there's any sort of pressure or it gets a little bit too tight, it's an easy clip up to him, up to his chest or a fighting header," Treacy said. "So I would start with Sean Boyd. I'd try and weather that early storm that you'd imagine is coming and then go and take the game by the scruff of the neck."
Irish Independent
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Irish keeper Mark Travers makes €4.6m switch to Everton from Bournemouth to become Jordan Pickford's back-up
The 26-year-old has departed Bournemouth after nine years at the club that he joined as a 17-year-old and opted for a move to Merseyside in a deal worth €4.6m, where he will be back-up to first-choice goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. The Maynooth man had been finding minutes hard to come by at the Cherries of late and after five league starts across the first half of last season, he spent the second half of the campaign on loan in the Championship with Middlesbrough. Competition at the club for next term was set to be fierce after Bournemouth agreed a deal to sign Chelsea's 'keeper Djordje Petrovic for £25m last weekend, with Neto and Alex Paulsen also returning from their loan spells. Travers has now completed his summer move to Everton where he'll link up with fellow Irish internationals Jake O'Brien, and club captain Séamus Coleman. Travers, capped four times by Ireland, departs the Vitality Stadium having made 82 appearances, including a man-of-the-match display in a win against Spurs on his top-flight debut in 2019. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Everton were in the market for a new goalkeeper following the departures of Asmir Begovic and Joao Virginia. Now, with David Moyes' side preparing for a new campaign in their brand new 53,000-seater stadium on Bramley Moore Dock, ex-Shamrock Rovers man Travers is relishing his new chapter after becoming the club's third signing of the summer window. 'I'm extremely proud and excited to be an Everton player,' he said today, with the Toffees beginning the new Premier League season away to Leeds United on August 18. 'Coming in, you can feel how big this club is and the history that comes with it. You really feel that with the fanbase, the new stadium now as well and the direction the club is going in. It's a fresh start for me to come up here and try a new chapter in my career. "It's a really exciting time to be part of this massive football club and I just can't wait to get going." With Travers set to serve as back-up to England's Jordan Pickford, Travers added: "Jordan is an outstanding goalkeeper for club and country. I'm looking forward to competing with everyone here and being a Premier League player. "Being in this environment is huge. We're going to push each other every day in training and whatever happens on the weekend, we're going to be there for each other and make the most of every opportunity that comes.' Travers earned his Ireland debut in September 2019 under Mick McCarthy but has struggled for caps since then with Caoimhín Kelleher and Gavin Bazunu ahead of him in the pecking order. His last cap came in a November 2023 friendly against New Zealand. Meanwhile, Ireland U-21 midfielder Jamie Mullins has left Brighton to sign a permanent deal at League One Wycombe Wanderers. The 20-year-old joined the Seagulls from Brighton in January 2023 and established himself as a mainstay in the club's U-21 side but has now opted for a fresh start with the Chairboys, who finished fifth in League One last term before being beaten by Charlton in the play-off semi-finals last May. Mullins, who in 2021 became Bohs' youngest goalscorer in League of Ireland history at age 16, has been capped six times for the Ireland U-21s since his debut last year and becomes Wycombe's ninth signing of the summer as they target promotion to the Championship this term. 'Jamie's got a really bright future ahead of him in the game and we're excited to bring him to Wycombe to develop his career and add another option for us in midfield,' said boss Mike Dodds, with Mullins playing his final game for Brighton in a friendly against Wycombe last weekend. 'He was playing senior football as a teenager over in Ireland and has kicked on again in Brighton's academy, so he's well placed to come here and challenge for first-team football.'
RTÉ News
27-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
More Mason Melia magic but how will Spurs pathway impact him?
From the way Mason Melia took his goals on Friday night, it's easy to forget that he's still only 17. The St Patrick's Athletic striker took his brace against Waterford with aplomb, with similarly composed right-footed finishes although his efforts did not prove enough for Stephen Kenny's side who conceded a late equaliser at Richmond Park. Melia is now up to six goals for the season in what, incredibly, is already his third campaign within Pat's first-team. But Saints supporters will know they won't have too many more opportunities to watch the talented youngster in action given he will be at Tottenham Hotspur in January after his big-money move was announced earlier this year. While the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international has thrived playing men's football at such a tender age where results are paramount, how a switch to a Premier League giant affects him will be intriguing given that he will almost certainly play Under-23s football initially where it's not as competitive nor as intense as what he's been used to. It was a topic former Ireland Under-17, Drogheda United and Longford Town defender Graham Gartland pondered on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast as he and ex-Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell discussed Melia and more matters from the League of Ireland weekend. "It's an interesting one because he'll go probably 23s' and then (Spurs) will look at maybe a loan and trying to up the level he's playing at, seeing how he adapts," said Gartland, who first saw Melia in action when he was around 14 and later coached against him with Shamrock Rovers' youth teams. "I think where he's got better is with his back to goal. But I also think there's massive improvements when I'm watching him and I'm watching him from a centre-back (perspective)," Gartland added, pointing to how Melia can build on his natural ability to eat up yards of space by fashioning those opportunities for himself more regularly in the first place. "I think all them things he'll add to his game as he goes. He's not going to be the finished article. "He's been playing senior football since he was 16, so I think where his development might go is he might go into a 23s environment and it's not as hostile and it's not as win-at-all-costs as it obviously is at the moment where he's playing at Pat's. "But it might just allow him to work and develop his movement and really hone in on the cleverness of it and the consistency of it, of the, 'I need to be here at certain times, I need to make this run and I need to make a run all the time' and no matter how many times you don't get the ball, you still need to do it. "So I think maybe coming out of that environment where it's win-at-all-costs and he has to perform every week to a learning environment where he can develop these other things might help him a little bit. "But he will stand out for the fact that he has been in a competitive environment (before) he goes over there to the 23s." Ireland Under-21 head coach Jim Crawford discussed Melia's development after again naming him in his squad for a pair of June friendlies: The reason Melia will stand out in an Under-23s Premier League environment at Tottenham is due to how comparatively lacking in aggression and ultra-competitiveness aspects of the academy systems can seem to be in the UK, from Gartland's own experience. "I'm not saying one way is right over the other but I think Mason's going from this ultra-competitive environment to going into 23s where it will be about his development. But he has to keep that edge that he has and that's what got him over there in the first place."
The Irish Sun
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Stephen Bradley compares ‘special' Graham Burke to ‘kid on a playground' after breaking Shamrock Rovers record
STEPHEN BRADLEY has hailed Graham Burke as an all-time Shamrock Rovers great. Burke became the highest scorer for the club since their move to Tallaght Stadium in 2009 with two goals - which followed his assist to Michael Noonan - in 2 Graham Burke became Shamrock Rovers' highest scorer since moving to Tallaght Stadium in 2009 Credit: Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile 2 Stephen Bradley praised him as an all-time great Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile His brace lifted him to 88 goals, one more than Gary Twigg, a former teammate of Bradley's when they won the league together in 2010. He has six this season but Bradley said: 'He is very aware because when I was going to take him off he was saying, 'let me stay on because I am one away from the record'. 'So he is very aware of it. I didn't know he was but he is, as he said, 'please let me stay on as I am one away'. 'Twiggy was an out and out goalscorer. I played with him. He won us games, he won us the league. Read More on Shamrock Rovers 'We weren't the best team but we won the league because of him and Twiggy was a No 9 that stayed in the box. Graham is a completely different player and to say he has that amount of goals is incredible for the player he is. 'I joked a few weeks ago to my wife about my favourite player. When Graham is in that form, he is so special to watch; it is a kid in a playground stuff. 'He is a joy to watch and he is up there with the greats, there is no doubt about that. 'It will be in a few years when Graham has the slippers on that he can sit back and know that he will be pushed into that realm with the top ones. Most read in Football 'He is a top talent, a top player, and a brilliant professional and he definitely deserves to be at the top table with the Pat Byrnes of this world.' Burke's two-goal salvo lifted him to six for the season but Bradley said: He should probably have 16. He'll tell you that himself. You know Graham that anywhere around the box he's dangerous. 'Nothing surprises me' - Stephen Bradley reacts to ex-Shamrock Rovers star Liam Burt's social media outburst 'Early on, especially the early part of the game, he was unplayable for them. Joe Redmond tried to go really heavy on him. 'That's what their plan was but no centre-back wants to go in there with Graham because he's too good with his back to goal. 'Not many players can do that with their back to goal because it's a difficult position. Everybody needs to be on his side or front and he's very comfortable with that pressure. When he's like that we're a different team.' This was Rovers' fourth straight win which moved them five points clear but Bradley said: 'We're around too long to say this is a statement win . It'sabout hitting our levels and I've always said that we get better from this point on. 'The squad is in a really good place. We took three from Friday's starting XI out of the squad 'We got Danny Mandroiu, Dylan Watts and Aaron McEneff back on the pitch. You see us go up a level when that happens. 'I'm happy with the clean sheets. The wins are important but I was never in doubt about scoring goals. We're always up there as the highest scorers. 'We've got to keep clean sheets. We've got back to that which is pleasing. We need to stay focused, work hard and get ready for Derry.' OWN GOAL Opposite number Stephen Kenny was left bemoaning not getting a penalty on the stroke of half-time after Mason Melia was fouled by Roberto Lopes but, overall, could not quibble with the outcome. Kenny said: 'We didn't deserve anything from the game. We created our own problems really. "It's an absolute certain penalty which could have given us encouragement going in at half-time at 2-1. I can't believe it's not given. "But obviously if you give the goals away that we did you deserve to be beaten. Rovers were better than us on the night and we have to accept that.'
