KEN EARLY: A game fit only for footy anoraks

Aston Villa against West Ham on the day Ireland play England in the Six Nations is not an assignment many Irish journalists dream of being handed.

That’s particularly true on a bitterly cold day at Villa Park when the rain is drifting in under the roof of the Trinity Road stand, threatening to soak your equipment, and you haven’t worn enough layers because you keep forgetting how much colder it has been in England than in Ireland this winter.

Villa began the game quivering like nervous wrecks while West Ham shambled forward like zombies in search of nutritious brains. The match quickly degenerated into a flurry of Nathan Baker throws and free-kicks lumped towards the opposing box by Jussi Jaaskelainen.