THREE months ago to the day, May 16th, their league campaign over, Munster championship opener against Waterford still several weeks away, Limerick played Cork in a senior hurling challenge match.

FROM high in the south terrace or Curva Sud of the Stadio San Paulo, Napoli’s ultras hang a bespoke banner at every game. Stitched carefully into the sky-blue fabric is the poetic epithet: “I have seen him, now I can die”. The tifosi need not say who they mean.

A MAN was stabbed and violent battles broke out between rival football fans in “large-scale” crowd trouble last night.

Fans in other counties may be angry about one thing or another, but this week

ROY KEANE has lost patience with his Ipswich team and has vowed that some of the players involved in the 2-0 defeat at West Brom on Saturday will never play for him again.

THE FORENSICS team always warn to step back from the gory detail and survey the peripheral evidence.

IT was an encounter most people found impossible to call beforehand and, while no-one will be shocked by the result, the utterly convincing fashion in which Cork achieved it was something no-one foresaw.

LONG after the final whistle, Clare manager John Minogue was still struggling for words.

The Noel O’Leary you see on the field is not the man you get away from the raging tempest of Championship football. And the Cork defender is working on closing the gap between the perception and the reality. He spoke to Tony Leen.

Between hurling and football,I suppose you could say we were very fit, but you had a dilemma to try and pace yourself or play as hard and as long as you could

LAST Wednesday, I rang a pal who’s seen more than his fair share of inter-county training sessions with a proposition.

BURNLEY celebrated a night they will never forget as veteran duo Robbie Blake and Brian Jensen emerged the heroes in a sensational victory over Manchester United.

SO some of our banks, who can wade in behind failed developers and be bailed out by the public, refuse Pat O’Leary a loan to make arrangements for his paralysed daughter (August 18)

THE IDEA that plain old hard work and discipline are the twin planks of success can be hard to accept, particularly for perennial runners-up.

IT WAS like old times at Claughaun yesterday as Thurles CBS held out for a thrilling one-point victory over St Flannan’s in a superb Harty Cup quarter-final clash before a huge crowd.

IT’S hard not to harbour hope of straddling the Premier League ship summit, subsequent to this evening’s encore with Owen Coyle’s side.

THERE have been a few games where I could claim Chelsea could have scored seven or eight, but not one where we can say we could have had 15 or more – and still be on the conservative side.

ANOTHER Irish clean sweep sees all four provinces still alive across the two European competitions.

OWNER David Whelan has insisted Wigan will sell none of their major players during the January transfer window.

Kerry will defend their All-Ireland football title without their last, and most experienced, line of defence. And for keeper Diarmuid Murphy, there’s no going back. He spoke to Tony Leen.