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What footballer holds the record for international caps?

No googling

Is it a midfielder from Iran?

BY DAMIAN CAMPBELL

With the NFL now completed, the club league programme will move centre stage and over the coming weeks there will be an extended run of games before another break looms for the preparation for the Ulster championship game with Down on May 17th.

l BELCOO V NEWTOWNBUTLER

Both teams have made satisfactory starts, Belcoo with a decent away point claimed in Roslea, Newtown winning at home to newly promoted St Josephs. Of the two however it was the Belcoo performance which was the more noteworthy, an away point is always a bonus.

Newtown on the other hand took a long time to cope with the enthusiasm of Ederney and the First Fermanagh's cannot afford to be so slow to get going against a Belcoo side who have a big season ahead of them. If Belcoo in fact are to deliver on the undoubted potential that they possess, they need to show that in these kind of ties.

Getting the better of hugely experienced opposition on your own home turf is an essential to building a strong challenge. A very interesting clash here with Belcoo taken to shade it and serve notice that they will indeed by a force.

VERDICT: BELCOO WIN

l ST JOSEPHS V DERRYGONNELLY

Two teams who suffered opening day defeats so a little dollop of pressure already has appeared for both. St Josephs will have been somewhat encouraged by their effort against Newtown though they did fall away considerably in the second half. If they are to survive, the Ederney team have to produce the goods on home soil so this first home test is of particular importance to them.

A second defeat and immediately the alarm bells would be ringing that they could be heading into an all too familiar pattern experienced by newly promoted teams.

Derrygonnelly, despite the fact that they were championship finalists last season, are not quite the presence they were a few seasons back. In their opening assignment they shipped a heavy enough defeat to Enniskillen.

The Harps, like most other clubs will be looking to the game against this opposition as one where points simply have to be scooped up. They might find it a particularly difficult test and it would not be a major surprise if in fact they were to fail here. St Josephs will be coming into this game with steely determination and for them this is an especially important home tie.

VERDICT: ST JOSEPHS WIN

l TEMPO V ROSLEA

Tempo would have been more than pleased with their away victory over league holders Devenish so their confidence will be high for the season's opening home contest. The Maguires will be hopeful too that they may have a fuller hand to select from, so all in all, they should be optimistic that they can chalk up another success.

But of course they would need to keep themselves grounded and not permit all the positive points derail the commitment they will have to produce on a continuous basis.

Roslea will not be arriving to simply fulfil the fixture. The Shamrocks have a more than competent panel of players and though they are just back in the top flight they are by no means a fresh faced outfit.

They have lots of experience on board and disappointed at dropping a home point first time out, they will be keen to compensate that with a result here.

Tidy, competitive contest looming, but Tempo, if they are to shape up as strong contenders, have to deliver a second success. The Maguires look to have the quality needed to edge a close tie.

Verdict: Tempo win.

l TEEMORE V DEVENISH

This is a hard one to call. Of the two sides it would be Teemore who would have taken more from the opening day defeat which both teams suffered. They came close to getting a result in Donagh, Devenish on the other hand collapsed in the final quarter of their home meeting with Tempo.

Devenish had built their league title success last season on the back of an impressive opening string of victories. Should they lose this game their grip on the title will have been considerably loosened.

And they might be heading into a second defeat. Teemore will be a very tough handful for the Blues and they will certainly need to produce a full sixty minutes if they are to emerge winners here. A very difficult afternoon ahead for Devenish and it is hard to see them getting anything from it.

Verdict: Teemore win

l ENNISKILLEN V ST PATRICKS

It is only very early days but Enniskillen have perhaps served up some indication that they could be heading for a league challenge of some substance. They more or less overwhelmed Derrygonnelly over the closing thirty minutes in round one with a tasty attacking display. But it had taken them half an hour to rouse themselves.

St Patricks will present the Gaels with a tougher test, one suspects, for the Donagh team have a sturdier look about them. Midfield a key area here. If Shane McDermott can establish a St Patrick 's platform and thus channel in a steady supply to a forward line centred around Gary and Eamon Maguire plus Pat Cadden, then Enniskillen will be pushed to the pin of their collar to squeeze out a win. Not a lot to separate them, with a hesitant vote going to the Gaels, primarily because they are on their home turf.

VERDICT: ENNISKILLEN WIN

42 clubs have played in the Premier League since its inception in 1992/93. See if you can name them all here

http://www.sporcle.com/games/premierleaguealltime.php

Great website too by the way.

Got spent that quiz today.  Got all but 5.  Mediocre

As noted by two other posters, Kilcar Gaa pitch has to be in the running for best ground location.  Stumbled across it when driving around Donegal at the weekend:

The girls fair enough...but the group of guys bating yer man with belts and the like earlier on was different. Watching the 12 yr old girl getting beat was just plain awful.  But in other circumstances it can be more difficult and harder to gauge where bravery starts and foolishness ends. Like someone said earlier its not always black and white.

Playin devil's advocate:  Yer man in the shop was a fool for taking on people with guns and knives but the people on the bus are cowards for not taking on groups of youths who more likely than not have knives (it is London)?

I got the brother for for the Monday night show in Croker.  But their €135 a pop (half way up lower teir of cusack, right beside the stage).  Not sure if him and his mates are taking them now cause they dear with exchange rate (£125).  Will I get face value for them nearer the time you reckon?  Good seats but wary that they for a Monday..

Rory McIlroy is 30-1, seventh favourite. Jee whizz how his stock has risen!!

Hurling

Limerick 2-12 Cork 1-16
KK 3-12 Clare 1-08
Waterford 0-10 Galway 1-14

Football

Laois 2-10 Wexford 0-10

Donegal 0-12 Westmeath 1-6

Galway 0-11 Mayo 1-06

Fermanagh 1-7 Kildare 0-11
Pat Cadden Goal 22 min gone in 2nd half
Daryl Keenan few points
Not looking good for Fermanagh

Galway 1-11 Waterford 0-8

Joe Canning 5 placed balls

Dan Shan coming on

Referee injured but continues


Cork 1-13 Limerick 1-14

Niall Moran 0-8
Pat Tobin goal
Gerry O Connor Cork goal

Sean Og injured

Kilkenny 2-11 Clare 0-8
Shefflin goal


NFL

Laois 2-7 Wexford 0-7

Pauric McMahon 12 min into 2nd half


Dublin 1-13 Kerry 0-11

Galway 0-9 Mayo 1-05

O'Malley just scored a point. Mayo wakened up a it 2nd half and breeze behind them now


Donegal 10 WMeath 1-5

Fermanagh pretty much at full strength

Aye dead on.   If you ignore the fact we were missing our two best backs (Owens and McCluskey), our midfielder / best performer in last years league (Murphy) as well as not having Shane McCabe, losing Marty McGrath relatively early on and losing one of our most in form players in the first ten minutes (Rory Foy).  Losing these players is, in relative terms, probably a bigger loss for Fermanagh than Armagh not having the Cross lads.  But aye you's beat Fermanagh's best team by a point. Well done.

Anyhow to the game.  Was fairly pleased with the performance at the time but on reflection i'd be a bit worried given it was an Armagh team missing so many men (although as stated above we would hope to have more back before the summer as well).  

Hard to pick out who really played well as they all mixed the good with the indifferent.  Losing Marty McGrath was the turning point as after than Carson, who had been operating well at FF alongside Ferris for most of the first half, came out to Midfield.  The high ball in that had worked so well then dried up or was not as effective.  I think if Foy and McGrath had of stayed on the whole match we would have won this game.  

O'Brien played reasonably well I thought and hit some nice frees but, as eluded to earlier, he missed the two crucial frees and that is a concern.  Not sure what the penalty was for (foot block or something?) and if that had of went in we would have looked at a much larger defeat (though I didn't really fancy AOR to score it - he possibly should have went for a point anyway to put Armagh three points ahead).  Daryl Keenan was out in front of his man twice when he came on and was duly fouled twice winning fairly scoreable frees (which of course we missed) and should start come Championship time.  Darren McQuaid was a bit like a rabbit in the headlights and may not be fit for intercounty level.  

The tactics were a wee bit different as normally when Fermanagh win possession we would have extra men behind the ball and so would have runners to pass to.  This was not the case last night and as a result there were many instances where a Fermanagh man was caught in possession with two bigger stronger Armagh men around him (which often led to inconsistent refereeing i.e. free in sometimes, free out sometimes, throw up sometimes).  So instead in the first half there was more high ball played in to the FF line (which may have been to try to expose some weakness in the Armagh Full Back line).  I think Tommy McElroy needs to come back to WHB with Kelly/Foy fighting it out for the other WHB position (although Johnston played reasonably well when he came on)

For Armagh I thought Andy Mallon was very good in keeping Eamon Maguire anonymous for the whole game and the Half Back line played very well.  Up front Clarke was always a threat and more ball into him could have resulted in a wider winning margin.

The pitch was pretty good I thought and although it may have been a tad greasy I don't think it was the only reason for the numerous Armagh handling errors.  I didn't like the booing of the ref so much and there was a fair bit of verbals between Armagh and Fermanagh supporters during the match (from both sides).  The main cheering I heard for an Armagh wide came after a bad refereeing decision where a free out was given as a free in, so the wide was seen as justice.  There are of course arseholes in every county.

Reports that Tony Fearon stayed back late to get the referee to sign the piece of Belleek pottery he bought yesterday are as yet unfounded

My wife came home from work crying yesterday and asked me to console her.

So I hit her over the head with my Xbox.

BY DAMIAN CAMPBELL

CORK ..................................... 0-10

FERMANAGH ........................... 0-7


Fermanagh slipped to their second defeat in the league when they had a fruitless journey to Pairc Ui Chaoimh, losing out by three points to home side Cork.

This away tie always had the appearance of being one of the toughest assignments that the Erne side would have to face, the league record against the Rebel county not good, but by the time that the interval was reached, Fermanagh had certainly put themselves into a very promising position.

So much so that a win was on the cards for despite facing into the breeze they had more than held their own, going in at the break trailing by just a point on a scoreline of five to four.

An upset in the making but unhappily for Fermanagh they found themselves unable to push on from that and they failed to maintain the brisk and purposeful approach that had served them well over the opening thirty five minutes.

That approach had seen them play an intelligent brand of cohesive football, ever present support for the man in possession as the ball was worked forward out of defence.

But a greater mix in the style of play would perhaps have paid better dividends and the team failed to build on what had been an encouraging first half performance for this was a game which might have been won.

Cork increasingly took a command of matters and they were to be the stronger side from there on though they were never to edge themselves into what could be called a comfortable position. With just a slender gap always separating the sides, Cork only momentarily managed the insurance four point margin, the game could always have served up a surprise Fermanagh goal.

And a drawn tie would have been a tremendously good result for Fermanagh. But the outcome was a defeat, though a lot of encouragement can be taken from the seventy minutes.

Getting anything here would have been a major bonus. Instead there was the fact that the team was always in the chase against one of the division's presumed strongest sides and Fermanagh can now look with reasonable confidence to collecting a better return in the remaining four ties, beginning with next Saturday night's clash in Brewster Park with Armagh.

It was Cork who made the initial running and they had early scores from Donncha O'Connor but Fermanagh bounced back with scores from James Sherry and from advancing half back Thomas McElroy to tie matters up on eleven minutes.

The trend of the opening half had been set and there was little to separate the teams with Fermanagh looking comfortable on the ball as they played with fluent precision. Not a lot by way of scoring from either side but Fermanagh did come very close indeed to snatching what would have been a huge score.

Defender Shane Goan made headway beyond the half way line and eventually the centre came in to full forward Seamus Ryder whose fisted attempt was somehow clawed away to safety by full back Noel O'Donovan.

O'Donovan had earlier been foraging himself as he knocked over a 16th minute point for the home side who at this stage were finding it all a bit of a struggle against an Erne opposition who had settled down well to the business in hand.

Shane O'Brien was to shoot two Fermanagh points, one from a close in free, the other a finely judged effort from open play out on the wing and Fermanagh were clearly in this game with every prospect of pulling off an upset.

Cork, despite the promptings of their talismatic centre back Graham Canty, were laboured though they did edge the interval lead with a pointed free from Conor McCarthy as the interval approached.

Just a point adrift, Fermanagh had to be optimistic as the game resumed, but the push never materialised and it was Cork who stepped up the tempo of their performance. They strode through for a three point haul, scores from Daniel Goulding (free), substitute Paul Kerrigan and Donncha O'Connor putting them four in front on the fifty minute mark.

Cork were now the sturdier side but they weren't in sufficient command to make it an anxiety free closing spell.

The introduction of Daryl Keenan gave the Fermanagh attack an injection of fresh pep and Keenan was to mark his presence with a two point return. Shane O'Brien also popped over a free and at one stage the lead had been trimmed down to a mere two points.

Cork might well have put the game beyond doubt when a defensive misunderstanding in the Fermanagh defence saw a great chance fall to Paul O'Flynn but Hugh Brady managed to rescue the situation with a goal line clearance.

So it remained in the balance, the possibility of a snap Fermanagh goal, keeping the issue alive and the Cork support ill at ease.

Final score of the game did go to the concerned home side, John Hayes steering over the team's tenth point of the afternoon and Fermanagh were once again left to seek out a match saving goal but the opportunity to collect it was never seriously threatened.

Cork have picked up five points from six and are on course for promotion, Fermanagh with just two from six are now in the relegation zone but they will have been heartened by the way that they pressed Cork at this away venue.

Back on home soil next Saturday with familiar foe Armagh the visitors, Fermanagh can genuinely anticipate a victory that would mean survival in this ultra competitive league is well within reach.

Well FP - how was todays performance and the Cork trip?

I see Daryl Keenan scored - how did he play?

Dead centre _ _ _ _ _

Middletown?