[caption id="attachment_71232" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Wayne Rooney will have to be on form against Manchester City next Monday."]
For the past few months there has been much speculation that the destiny of this season's English Premier League title could be decided by the result of the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium on April 30.
And after last weekend's results it looks like next Monday night's game will be the most important Manchunian derby in the history
of the Premier League.
On Sunday last United dropped two vital points when they played out a 4-4 draw with Everton at Old Trafford, while City beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 and in doing so sent Wolves down to the championship. United, with two goals from Wayne Rooney, led 3-1 into the second half at Old Trafford, but late goals from Jelavic and Pienaar gave Everton a draw in what was an eight-goal thriller.
Then later in the afternoon it was up to City to beat Wolves if they wanted to reduce the margin at the top to three points and they did it with ease at Molineux where their scorers were Aguero and Nasri.
If City win the derby on Monday next they will be level on points with United but ahead on goal differnce; if United win then surely they cannot be overtaken. The fixtures for the final two weekends of the season are: May 6: Newcastle United v Man City, Man Utd v Swansea and May
13: Man City v QPR, Sunderland v Man Utd.
Elsewhere another home defeat for Liverpool, going down 1-0 to West Brom. It was the Baggies first win at Anfield in 45 years. Although they have qualified for the FA Cup, Liverpool are in freefall in the League and Spurs are also doing really poor since their manager Harry Redknapp was linked with the vacant England job after Capello quit in February. On Saturday Spurs were beaten 1-0 by QPR, while Newcastle United jumped ahead of them into the fourth place Champions League spot after their 3-0 win over Swansea.
Former Irish international Chris Hughton, who was sacked by Newcastle after getting them back into the Premier League, has done well with Birmingham this season and the Blues drew 1-1 with Brighton on Saturday to secure a place in the play-offs. Reading and Southampton are already promoted. The final round of championship games will be played next Saturday.
COFFEY BACK
Tom Coffey is back as Offaly senior football manager on an interim basis for the Leinster championship. Coffey, who also stepped in when Richie Connor resigned in 2009, will now have to get Offaly ready for their Leinster championship opener against Kildare on June 16. Coffey was appointed on Sunday after Ger Cooney stepped down last Friday. Cooney had only been in charge since November, but under his watch Offaly were relegated to division four of the National Football League.
FULL HOUSE
We should have another full house at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday next, but this time neither of the crowd pullers Leinster or Munster
will be action. Instead it will be the Heineken Cup semifinal between Ulster and Edinburgh that should ensure a full house in Dublin 4. Ulster was the first Irish province to win the Heineken Cup at the old Lansdowne Road in January 1999. The profile of the European Rugby competition has soared in the past 13 years and now Ulster has a good chance of making this year's final which will be played at Twickenham on May 19.
Ulster will be without their New Zealand-born prop John Afoa, who received a four-week ban after being red carded for a tackle on Munster full back Felix Jones in the quarterfinal. Edinburgh are the first Scottish club to qualify for a Heineken Cup semifinal and they are coached by Cork-born Michael Bradley, who served his apprenticeship with Connacht.
Then on Sunday afternoon reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster will be favorites to qualify for another final when they travel to Bordeaux to play French club Clermont Auvergne. Leinster coach Michael Schmidt, who was Clermont's backs coach for three years, will know all
about the opposition and he won't be paying much attention to the mind games. Current Clermont coach Vern Cotter recently suggested that
Leinster were "almost unbeatable" after their big win over Cardiff in the quarterfinals. The Leinster players won't be buying into that hype, but with Brian O'Driscoll and Leo Cullen both back in action the men in blue should make it to the final. Whether it will be a first-ever all-Irish Heineken Cup final we will have to wait until Sunday night to find out.
Meanwhile, Munster and Irish second row Mick O'Driscoll says he is retiring at the end of this season. The 33 year-old Corkman had a
spell with French club Perpignan but returned to make over 200 appearances in the red of Munster. He also won 23 full Irish caps and was probably unlucky to come on the scene at a time when Ireland was well served by excellent second row forwards.
CORK CHASING THREE
Cork will be bidding for a hat-trick of National Football League finals when they play Mayo in the final at Croke Park on Sunday next.
The Rebels beat Mayo in 2010 and Dublin last year. Prior to the league semifinals earlier this month all the talk was of a Cork-Kerry final in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney. I'm sure the Killarney publicans, who would have had a bumper Sunday, won't be buying Kieran Donaghy free pints after his wayward pass at Croke Park two weeks ago gave Mayo a lifeline.
Kerry seemed to cruising to victory when Donaghy launched a pass from under the Hogan Stand towards a colleague on the Cusack Stand side of the pitch; but the pass went astray and led to a Mayo penalty and extra time where Kerry lost. Mayo has a good record in League finals and after Kerry, who have won the League a record 19 times, Mayo are next in the role of honor with 11 wins. Mayo has had a poor record at Croke Park and are forever being written off, but this latest win over Kerry will have given them a much needed boost in confidence.
And I'm sure manager James Horan will remind his team that when they last met Cork in Croke Park, in last year's All-Ireland quarterfinals, they came out on top. However, I think Cork are better this year and while Mayo will put up a good show, Cork will probably be too clever for them.
Unbeaten Tyrone take on Kildare in the division two final in the curtain raiser at Croke Park on Sunday When the counties met at Croke Park prior t0 the Dublin-Kerry division one clash on Feb. 4. Mickey Harte's team had a comfortable win and went on to win all seven of their games in division two. Meanwhile, after a poor start Kildare improved gradually and with their big names coming back they gathered momentum and secured promotion thanks to a late John Doyle penalty against Galway on Easter Sunday. Dermot Earley is also back after a cartilage operation and this time I think the Lillies should triumph. The division three final between Longford and Wexford and the division four final between Fermanagh and Wicklow will both be played at Croke Park on Saturday evening.
MCENEANEY SURVIVES
Seamus McEneaney has survived as Meath senior football manager for now. Last Wednesday night in Navan, the Meath County Board failed to get the required two thirds majority for their motion to sack McEneaney. Out of 74 votes there were 43 for the County Board's motion and 31 for McEneaney, which meant the Monaghan man survived. Now McEneaney will be under pressure to secure a good run in the Leinster championship for The Royals. Meath begin their campaign against Wicklow at Dr. Cullen Park, Carlow on May 27.
Meanwhile, Terry Hyland has replaced Val Andrews as manager of the Cavan senior football footballers. Hyland, who was joint manager with Andrews in 2011, concentrated on the Cavan under 21 team this year. But after the Cavan senior players announced that they no longer had confidence in Andrews, Hyland was asked to take on the senior role also.
AVERAGE SEASON ENDS
We Irish love our National Hunt racing and this week's Punchestown National Hunt Festival brings to an end what in truth has been an average season. Time flies and it only seems like yesterday that that we were all looking forward to the big Cheltenham festival in March, but sadly the Irish didn't have any big winners at the big English festival this year. Then came Easter and the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse followed five days later for the big one at Aintree, which claimed the life of two horses. There were calls once again to modify the big Aintree fences even more, but I suppose we will always have accidents in National Hunt. So Punchestown could provide an opportunity for trainers and horses to make up for some of the disappointment of Cheltenham.
One the horses hoping for a better run will be Hurricane Fly in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle on Friday. He was a disappointing third in the St James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Davy Russell is set to be crowned champion jockey for the first time, Willie Mullins will be champion trainer for the fifth year in succession and the battle for the top owner rests between millionaire J.P. McManus and Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary.
NO SAIPAN THIS TIME
It looks like the FAI is going to ensure that there won't be any problems with the pitch or training facilities prior to the Euro 2012 finals as happened in Saipan in 2002. Recently a party from the FAI including CEO John Delaney visited Montecatini in Northern Italy where the Irish squad will have a training camp at the end of May. Manager Giovanni Trapattoni is very happy with the training base. He said: "I have been there many times when I was coach of Fiorentina, the climate is fantastic, not too hot and not too cold. Marco Tardelli and I are famous around there; I was coach of Fiorentina and Marco was born around there, so people know us. It's a beautiful place for our players to see and I am sure they will have a good time. But we will be going to Montecatini to work and will have two training sessions every day." Trapattoni will not be imposing a Twitter ban on the Irish players during the Euro finals. But it has been agreed that squad will only be allowed to Tweet under certain restrictions, including revealing nothing of a tactical or team nature and respecting the privacy of team mates and FAI staff.
NILAND RETIRES
Ireland's top ranked tennis player Conor Niland has been forced to retire due a persistent hip injury. Niland enjoyed a career-best season in 2011 when he became the first Irish player since 1984 to play Wimbledon, losing to France's Adrian Mannarion. Conor also qualified for the U.S. Open where he played Nova Djokovic in the first round at Flushing Meadow, but had to retire due to food poisoning. The 30 year-old Limerick born player turned professional in 2005 after completing a tennis scholarship at the University of California.
Conor said: "I'm sad announcing my retirement from professional tennis. I have been suffering from labral tears in both tears in both hip cartilages and this has resulted in pain and restricted movement for the past nine months. Despite several cortisone injections and intensive physiotherapy, the condition has progressively worsened and has prevented me from training."
READING FIRST UP
Reading was the first club to secure promotion to the English Premier League when they beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 last week. The Royals currently have two former Irish internationals in their ranks, Noel Hunt, brother of current international Stephen and Ian Harte. Drogheda-born Harte was a member of the 2002 World Cup squad and won the last of his 64 caps against San Marino in February 2007. The 34 year-old was always very accurate from free kicks and he scored a few important goals for Reading this season. 28 year-old Hunt won three caps under Trapattoni, but has not played for Ireland since 2009.
LONDON'S GAIN
It can be difficult for Irish emigrants to continue playing Gaelic Football and Hurling when they leave Ireland. The Tir Chonail Gaels club in London has gained 28 new players from Ireland since the start of this year, but the players know that they are playing on one of the best surfaces in the world at Tir Chonaill Park in Greenford. Thanks to sponsor Michael Crossan, who has connections with both Arsenal and Chelsea, over 300 tonnes of top soil from Stamford Bridge and the Emirates Stadium has been used to lay at new pitch for the Tir Chonaill GAA club. Chelsea and Arsenal re-seed their pitches every three years and thanks to Crossan, who owns a recycling company in London, the old soil from the Premier League grounds was used to lay a new pitch for by the GAA club. Now I wonder if Gaelic Park could set up a similar deal with the Mets or the Jets?
