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Following a meeting of Ulster CCC, reported breaches of Pre Season 3rd Level Policy & Regulations were reviewed, and the following decisions taken in relation to the fielding of ineligible players:

The Fermanagh v Cavan game is null and void and no team is awarded the points.

The Armagh v Down game is awarded to Down.

Doubt we will lose much sleep over it

integrity of the pre season competitions not good on it's return year.

A coin toss to find out who won between Longford,Westmeath. The likes of Kerry,Galway fielding development panels and now this with the McKenna Cup. 

[Billy Morgan]

Wim Jansen, Frank Rijkaard, Xabi Alsonso

Billy Morgan, Paddy Cullen, Davy Fitz

Now away and shite

He's old and not the best of health but that Cork man is more likely to be appointed Man United manager than the one you are obsessed with.

From journalist Jonathan Liew.



Long periods of this game were played at literal walking pace. In a game with this many good footballers it was a truly boring contest.

Long periods of deliberately sterile football liverpools second-half possession was 67%, which produced five shots, all by Dominik Szoboszlai, all from distance, all off target. Arsenal, for their part, failed to produce a single shot from the 43rd to the 90th minute as Liverpool rondo-ed their way through the second period, a strange spectacle.

Was anyone in this stadium actually enjoying themselves?

Of course, atmosphere at most of the big Premier League stadiums is not purely an Arsenal problem, and an ambient discontent is not purely Arsenal's cross to bear. But only one club are sitting top of the league, not that you would know it to listen to them.

They groaned when Myles Lewis-Skelly took too long over a throw. They groaned at Declan Rice for misplacing a pass. They even groaned at Gabriel Martinelli when he brilliantly escaped two Liverpool players on the left wing and then overcooked his through-ball out of play. And the Emirates Groan is a real and visceral thing: an expression not just of disappointment but a kind of disgust, the encrusted revulsion of 22 barren years.

What must it be like as an Arsenal player to play in front of these people right now? To be responsible for this surgical, slow-burning excellence, 14 wins out of 16 at home in all competitions, and to be met with this wall of growling and grizzling, the sound of 60,000 people having really bad sex? And look, I'm not a footballer and I don't know for sure. But maybe ... it doesn't help?

But of course they can do nothing about the real root cause: the years of festering angst and Big Feelings, the ingrained disquiet of a fanbase that has been burned by hope so many times before.
Arsenal are six points clear. They have got players coming back from injury. Manchester City have drawn three in a row and Aston Villa, lol, give me a break. Things are good. Things are fine. And in a way the whole Arteta project – the patient buildup, the cold accumulation, the refusal to run like headless chickens to placate the gallery – feels like the ultimate trust exercise.
We will play with control and purpose. We will calmly work the ball into these dangerous areas. We will do it again and again. This is how we're going to score, this is how we're going to win, and this is how we're going to make you love us. Up close, it can feel calculating and bloodless. In truth, it's the ultimate act of faith.

Knew the 3/1 odds for a draw was good value. Awful boring match. Bad looking injury for Bradley, Martinelli showed a lack of class in that incident.

Uneventful half between Arsenal and Liverpool.

4 of the last 6 Arsenal v Liverpool Premier league games have ended in a draw, 3/1 for a draw tonight looks like decent value.

Live match tonight.

The new Chelsea manager was given a five and half year contract but how long will he actually last?

I actually dont think Rashford was a shite trainer. I think he was mentally beaten by the club whether that be through expectation, pressure, criticism or loss of faith. He mentally shut down. No mention of him being a bad trainer at Villa, Barca or England.

If he turned up or was on time he was apparently a decent trainer but I believe he had issues with England and this was one incident with Barcelona

Marcus Rashford was left out of Barcelona's starting line-up to face Getafe on Sunday night after arriving late to training on the morning of the game.

Rashford, 27, had been looking to continue his good form after scoring twice in Barcelona's 2-1 Champions League victory at Newcastle United.

But his lack of punctuality — which sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to The Athletic — saw head coach Hansi Flick continue his policy of not selecting players to start a match if they have been late to training or a meeting

The answer to how to fix Man U is simple - new ownership!  Everything else is just tinkering.

New ownership needs to be a group of competent people in charge what Man City,Liverpool and Arsenal all currently have. Radcliffe and Co are just extension of the incompetence under the Glazers.

DCU should be further than 3 points ahead,  debatable call to disallow that DCU goal before the break.

[another desperate stab in the dark]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/01/05/sir-jim-ratcliffe-has-got-all-big-decisions-wrong-at-united/When you reflect on this saga, perhaps the most extraordinary detail is United's surprise at the manager that Amorim turned out to be. Ratcliffe prised him from Sporting Lisbon in the first place, knowing full well that he was a headstrong personality wedded to a rigid tactical system. And yet now he has cast him aside for the very same reasons. An impression grows that Ratcliffe, for all his staggering business successes, has not the faintest conception of how to put the listing United supertanker back on an even keel. For fans hoping fervently for a turning of the page, Amorim's exit signals less a masterstroke than another desperate stab in the dark.

What's been going on since Ferguson retired in 2013, he ran the club on and off the field with a Iron fist and over the last decade it's clear under the ownership of the Glazers how desperately run the club are and has been no improvement by passing on the football side of things to Radcliffe and with hand picked guys.

I might add the day's of a manager holding everything together as Ferguson did are over and unless the club can become well run off the field you can't expect to be challenging for major honours on the field.

Man Utd have spent £2 billion on players since Ferguson left.

Mainly squandered.

[another desperate stab in the dark]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/01/05/sir-jim-ratcliffe-has-got-all-big-decisions-wrong-at-united/When you reflect on this saga, perhaps the most extraordinary detail is United's surprise at the manager that Amorim turned out to be. Ratcliffe prised him from Sporting Lisbon in the first place, knowing full well that he was a headstrong personality wedded to a rigid tactical system. And yet now he has cast him aside for the very same reasons. An impression grows that Ratcliffe, for all his staggering business successes, has not the faintest conception of how to put the listing United supertanker back on an even keel. For fans hoping fervently for a turning of the page, Amorim's exit signals less a masterstroke than another desperate stab in the dark.

What's been going on since Ferguson retired in 2013, he ran the club on and off the field with a Iron fist and over the last decade it's clear under the ownership of the Glazers how desperately run the club are and has been no improvement by passing on the football side of things to Radcliffe and with hand picked guys.

I might add the day's of a manager holding everything together as Ferguson did are over and unless the club can become well run off the field you can't expect to be challenging for major honours on the field.

Sigerson Cup Round One

Tuesday 6th January

St Mary's v Maynooth University in St Mary's at 1.30pm

TUS Midlands v MTU Kerry in TUS Midlands at 7pm

TU Dublin v DKIT in Grangegorman at 7.30pm

Ulster University v DCU Dóchas Eireann in Burren at 7.30pm

Wednesday 7th January

UCD v ATU Galway in Belfield at 7.30pm

Queens University v University of Galway in Abbottstown at 7.30pm

MTU Cork v UL in MTU Cork at 7.30pm

ATU Sligo v UCC in Edenderry at 8pm

**venues and throw-in times subject to change due to the inclement weather conditions.  Ulster University v DCU will be live on YouTube.

Croke Park finals shouid be three good matches and all hard to call

This Sunday

All-Ireland IFC final
An Ghaeltacht (Kerry) v Glenullin (Derry) 3.30pm

All-Ireland JFC final
Ballymacelligott (Kerry) v Clogher Eire Og (Tyrone), 1.30pm

Sunday the 18th

All-ireland SFC final

St Brigids (Roscommon) v Dingle (Kerry) 3.40pm