LAST week was the worst seven days I’ve had for some time. We sent our penultimate magazine of the season to the printers, ready for release prior to Sunderland’s match against Hull.

I HAVE been following the story of the summer, banning all GAA fans from invading pitches especially Croke Park, with a mixture of interest and trepidation.

THE Ladies Football finals took centre stage at Croke Park on Sunday and what a wonderful spectacle it was.

THE people of Louth will never forget the past week.

WELL, I’ve returned from Istanbul safe and sound and have had all pre-conceived views of the city and its people blown away. It has to be one of my favourite trips of recent times for a whole host of reasons.

A TWO points victory for Kerry, but, as manager Sean Geaney and team captain Killian Young conceded, the Kingdom were fortunate to stave off a magnificent Tipperary challenge in the Munster U21 FC decider at Ardfinnan on Saturday.

THE All-Ireland champions travel to Pearse Stadium on Sunday still in contention for a league final place after surviving Saturday’s fighting display from Kildare in Tralee.

NEVER in my Chelsea-supporting career have I felt so much as though I were simply going through the motions. We won on Sunday, and regained second spot, from arch-rivals Arsenal — not that anyone seemed to notice, or care much, to tell the truth. The feelgood factor that I have always got from football, even in some of our darkest hours, seems to have gone.

A SOMEWHAT diluted Cork football squad suffered the first setback of their truncated season on Saturday night but coach Conor Counihan will not be rushing James Masters back into action any time soon.

WE’RE WORKING hard on a title here for events in Dublin’s Parnell Park last weekend. Buttgate sounds like an animated comedy for MTV. Headgate suggests a revolutionary trepanning procedure. Parkgate is a street near the Phoenix Park.

SUNDERLAND’S first away win of the season against Aston Villa on Saturday was a massive fillip for their fanatical travelling army who have clocked up thousands of miles this term for very little reward.

AFTER exhausting, successive away trips to games against Hull, Cardiff and Everton, about the best thing that can be said about yet another uninspiring Arsenal performance last Saturday is that at least I only had to walk around the corner.

CORK got the defence of their Munster minor football championship title off to the best possible start at the Gaelic Grounds last night, inflicting a three goal defeat on Limerick in a one sided first round tie.

BELIEF. That was the major difference between the teams in yesterday evening’s Munster MFC first-round game in Ennis. There were other differences; Kerry were that bit slicker in their movement, they had the better fielders in the middle of the park, they had more balance in their attack, but on this evening at least, had Clare had any belief in themselves they would have been much closer at the finish.

THIS column may be writing itself soon via predictive text.

I GUESS I should be grateful that Arsène Wenger’s team is considerably more tenacious than the Arsenal’s not-so faithful, or else the entire 60,000 crowd might as well have joined the premature evacuators, taking their leave with 10 minutes left on the clock on Saturday.

IF CROAGH PATRICK fell back on its arse, there are people in Mayo would swear it was Austin O’Malley’s fault. He’s so much of a fall guy that when the Ancient Order of Fall Guys hold their annual social, they leave him off the list. Even fall guys need a fall guy.

ROSCOMMON manager John Maughan will wonder what to do next after witnessing his side’s total collapse against an Armagh team that never got out of first gear.

NOT a game that will survive in the memory bank for very long, but an experimental Cork side did what it had to against a very poor Antrim outfit to record their second win in succession in Division 1A.

“HE’S gonna quit in a minute” was the somewhat predictable chant which echoed around our stadium on Saturday, as we begun to relax and enjoy our second-half domination of a relatively toothless Toon Army.