THE latest episode of Cowengate was a bit of a hoot, wasn’t it?

WE know all about coals to Newcastle but how about ‘B’s’ to Braga and duds to Donetsk?

I GOT a call the other day to inform me that the boys who present ‘Football Crazy’ on UCC campus radio are celebrating 50 editions today and, as I relayed my congratulations, it struck me that, in a week which began with Chris Hughton getting the elbow at Newcastle and ended with his replacement Alan Pardew being handed a five-and-a-half year contract, they might well boast the most aptly named show in sports broadcasting.

YOU might have noticed that so grim are things in this country — with what few assets we have left now well and truly frozen — that it actually took the news of a man’s death this week to raise a genuine chuckle.

A FRIEND of mine once told me that he’d briefly toyed with the idea of joining Friends Of the Earth but then decided against it. “You know me,” he explained, “I’d want to be more than just friends.”

FOR the Ireland manager, the draw in the hand is always worth more than the win in the bush — until that is you end up with neither.

THEY’VE always been one of the biggest draws in world football but it’s wins Manchester United need right now.