How Sam Allardyce plan kept a hard-drinking Limerick player off the beer

How incoming England manager Sam Allardyce contrived to keep a hard-drinking Limerick player off the beer was recalled yesterday.

Noel O’Connor, who managed Limerick FC in 2001/2002 before joining Cork City as assistant to Pat Dolan, met Sam shortly after he came to Limerick in 1991 as player-manager. Noel, who comes a well-known Limerick butchering family, said: “I hung around the club a lot and was particularly friendly with one of the younger players who was around my own age and I’d meet him after home games in Rathbane.

“One Sunday before a game, Sam beckoned me near the dressing room before the game and said my friend was drinking too much and wasn’t in great shape when he’d come to training on Tuesday nights. He made his view known in no uncertain terms as he knew I was a friend of the player. We’d watch a game in a pub but this player, who I won’t name, used stay to closing time after watching games on Sky Sports. He’d then give it another lash on a Monday and Sam got wind of what was happening and saw what it was doing to this very promising young player’s game.”