Murdock not offered new contract

Or “Murdock told to leave Rotherham” as the BBC are rather ominously reporting it!
Former Rotherham skipper Colin Murdock will not be offered a new deal at the club:
Manager Mark Robins: “Colin has been unfortunate with injuries this season as he has been an international player for a number of seasons so he is frustrated and disappointed. We feel he needs to move on and take up another opportunity.”

BBC lose home games to Sky

In a £10 million deal that will also see 5 live Irish Premier League games on Sky each year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6598357.stm
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/article2489416.ece
Hopefully a wake-up call to the BBC. As kenlfc summed it up on ILF:
“OWC are going mad about this because they don’t take the IL into account.
To them, that part of the deal is irrelevant. But to those who actually watch football in this country after our senior team have gone back to their clubs, then this is good news. It only mentions 5 live games…. maybe this could be like a Setanta thing where they “concentrate” on live matches and don’t send cameras to other grounds…… hope not… but regardless, this is a better deal as long as some of the money is included in the prize fund for the Premier League and even the Cups, if included…..
I don’t think the BBC have been totally “loyal” over the last 20 odd years…. up until two years ago, games wouldn’t have been shown and if so were put onto BBC2 so the armchair England fans could still watch Lampard and Gerrard on BBC1…. also, the BBC used the amount of coverage they gave to internationals to justify showing no IL football in that way.
Even if IL coverage doesn’t get that much better, this is still a better deal. They have managed to leverage the popular part of the package to bring in the flagging league….
To our BBC TV chums….. adios, you bandwagon jump as much as everyone else… you treat our national league with disdain, prefering to put stories about wee kids on trial at Old Trafford ahead of games happening that night…. your coverage didn’t even come close to what RTE did down south for their domestic “unpopular” “untrendy” clubs….. you show teams in other leagues ahead of the local IL clubs and even show live European games for them when IL clubs couldn’t even have got highlights for theirs. Sometimes you get what you should really deserve… the square root of nothing…..”

Cathcart still waiting / 33rd in world

18 year old Northern Irish centre back Craig Cathcart is still waiting for his Manchester United debut. Cathcart has been a regular on the United bench during recent matches, and with injuries to United defenders he looked set to be given his debut last night against Sheffield United. Alex Ferguson however opted to start Darren Fletcher at right back instead.

Cathcart is captian of United’s Youth side, but didn’t play in part in their 1st Leg Youth Cup Final victory over Liverpool on Monday night, adding to speculation he would start yesterday.
One Northern Ireland youngster who did play in the final was Corry Evans, younger brother of Jonny, who was ‘superb’ at left back according to United We Stand

Also we’re up to 33rd in the FIFA rankings, equal with Israel, a rise of 14 places – giving us our equal highest ever position, which we previously held in 1994. Somehow the Republic moved 20 places up to 31 though?!!!!
We were 124th when Sanchez came – which merely reinforces what a blow it would be to lose him. Incidentally, if Lorry’s still getting a grand for every place we move up that’s like £91,000 he’s on…

Sanchez in as Fulham caretaker boss

Fulham last night sacked manager Chris Coleman and appointed Lawrie Sanchez as caretaker boss for the remaining 5 games of the season.

The move won’t really affect his role as NI manager at the minute as we don’t have another match till August, however, Fulham hardly just intend Lawrie to manage them for 5 games and then leave…
In other news, David Healy has been handed the club captaincy at Leeds until the end of the season. He’s scored 3 times in his last 4 appearances as his fine vein of form continues. He said:
“I was very proud when the gaffer asked me if I would become captain,” said David, who has made over 100 appearances for United. It is genuinely a real honour to be asked to captain a club like this, have no doubts about that. We’ve four games left and I’m looking forward to them.”

Sanchez in as Fulham caretaker boss

Fulham last night sacked manager Chris Coleman and appointed Lawrie Sanchez as caretaker boss for the remaining 5 games of the season.

The move won’t really affect his role as NI manager at the minute as we don’t have another match till August, however, Fulham hardly just intend Lawrie to manage them for 5 games and then leave…
In other news, David Healy has been handed the club captaincy at Leeds until the end of the season. He’s scored 3 times in his last 4 appearances as his fine vein of form continues. He said:
“I was very proud when the gaffer asked me if I would become captain,” said David, who has made over 100 appearances for United. It is genuinely a real honour to be asked to captain a club like this, have no doubts about that. We’ve four games left and I’m looking forward to them.”

NI boys on form for Burnley

Burnley’s NI contingent have been in free-scoring form at the Championship club recently. Last Tuesday, they were 3-0 up against Plymouth at half-time thanks to a header from Duff and further strikes from Steve Jones and on-loan striker Paul McVeigh (remember him?!). Seems to be sporting a rather girly pony tail these days. It was the 29 year-old’s first goal for 13 months.



Yesterday, Jones and McVeigh were on target again, against Cardiff, and afterwards boss Steve Cotterill also praised the performance of Duff at full-back.
In between, Burnley recorded a tremendous 1-0 victory over Birmingham.

Keane wants Evans for another season

Keano: He’s done very well. It’s not easy for a centre half coming to the Championship. They come up against experienced forwards and it’s a tough league to learn your trade in.
“He’s got a great chance of being a top player. He’s learning quickly, has a great head on his shoulders, great family, great background.
“We’ve got him on loan until the end of the season. Maybe there’s a chance of another loan deal but I’ve not even spoken to United about that because the manager has enough on his plate.”

Evans:
“I don’t know what Manchester United’s plans for me are yet because I’ve been so focused on trying to help Sunderland get promoted but I’ve enjoyed it so much that I would definitely think about staying here next season if they wanted me and United let me.
“I’d rather be playing every week than sit on the bench. You have to have faith in your ability but you also have to be realistic and, when you look at the established defenders there are, you have to accept that, as a 19-year-old, you’re not going to be keeping them out every week. It would be nice to go back and have a go though.
“I’ve been impressed by Roy as a manager. In terms of his team talks, I think a lot of the lads have been. People get the impression of Roy Keane ranting and raving at people. But he’s been calm and collected, and I think that has come across in the way we play. He had an aura at United and the same effect as Sir Alex Ferguson. When he walked down the corridor, everyone would get a bit quieter and pay him respect. I think that comes across here as well. To be successful as a manager, I’ve always believed that you have to have that fear factor.”