Country pride lifts Shay’s City pain

WHEN the advance word came through that Shay Given didn’t want to talk about Manchester City, I was reminded of comedian Ardal O’Hanlon’s dream of interviewing Neil Armstrong on a chat show – and never once mentioning the moon.

You could understand Given’s reluctance to bring up the club that dare not speak its name, but the chance of 20 minutes in his company elapsing without mention of his predicament at Eastlands was always going to be remote.

However, when the moment did come, it was Given himself who brought the subject up, even if it was in response to a question about Roy Keane appearing to have yet another little pop, as they like to say in football, at Ireland’s 106-cap goalkeeper.