SAM ALLARDYCE is not one of those managers who needs an excuse to celebrate his own talents, but even the biggest critics of the self-styled ‘Big Sam’ would not begrudge him a sense of satisfaction on Saturday evening.

PERHAPS it’s just as well that only a third of Sunday’s likely starting line-up were in the Munster team that lost 23-8 to Perpignan in the Heineken Cup in 2003.

CHELSEA could be without 18-goal striker Didier Drogba for tonight’s clash with Portsmouth after the Ivory Coast international hurt his back in a training ground incident yesterday.

GIVEN the desert wasteland nature of this week’s Bahrain course, the European Tour issued a special rules notice to all Volvo Champions event competitors declaring – “There is no bunkers on this course”.

MANCHESTER UNITED will avoid the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Valencia and finish top of Group C; but, as so often this season, it is hard not to feel a little underwhelmed.

ALAIN ROLLAND will help kick-off the 2011 RBS Six NationsChampionship when he referees the opening day clash between Wales and England at the Millennium Stadium on February 4.

JUST for the record, the last train out of Dublin’s Heuston Station to Cork tonight is at nine o’clock.

YOU can always rely on Liverpool supporters to find the right words and the handful of hastily made banners unfurled among the visiting fans at the Shed End captured the mood perfectly.

KILKENNY booked their place in the All-Ireland Vocational Schools Intercounty Hurling final after they easily dismissed a spirited Cork challenge at a wet and windy Mourneabbey on Saturday afternoon.

THREE ROCK ROVERS sprung a South African surprise on Cork Church of Ireland on Saturday, as Jody Hosking’s double helped them to a noteworthy 2-1 Irish Junior Cup round one win at Garryduff.

THE sight of South African props falling to their knees in relief and their team-mates raising arms to the stars in triumph at the final whistle spoke volumes about how much victory over Ireland meant to an under-fire Springboks camp.

BARELY had Sars captain Alan Kennedy lowered the Sean Óg Murphy cup from over his head in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday afternoon, but he was already thinking ahead to November 14 and the Munster club championship date with whoever is crowned champions of Waterford.

NEW Ireland U20 coach Mike Ruddock got off to a winning start, as his new-look side saw off Italy in a friendly at Donnybrook yesterday.

THE WEEKEND of the British Open, which is detailed elsewhere in these pages, is a perfect cue for talk of tradition and the past, though the (doubtless) heroics of various slacks-wearing, v-neck sporting super-athletes need not detain us here.

All-Ireland SFC Qualifier(R3)

UNITED STATES midfielder Landon Donovan and coach Bob Bradley were both left without an answer as to why what would have been a winning goal in their dramatic World Cup Group C match against Slovenia yesterday was disallowed.

DUBLIN chairman Gerry Harrington last night described as “absolutely unbelievable” the omission of referees from the capital on the list of officials for this year’s senior championships.

TIPPERARY TOWN club St Michael’s advanced to their third FAI Umbro Junior Cup final since 2000 after a surprising but well-deserved victory over local rivals Clonmel Town in Cahir yesterday.

THE Red Knights have vowed not to overpay in their battle for control of Manchester United.

ON A normal day the sympathy for Burnley would have been all too evident in the wake of this cruel defeat.