Ireland makes headlines for right reasons

STILIYAN PETROV insisted Aston Villa’s players never stopped believing Stephen Ireland would come good after the midfielder put his Twitter troubles behind him to inspire their shock victory at Chelsea.

Saturday saw Ireland deliver the perfect response to manager Alex McLeish’s demand for him to make headlines on the field after making more waves off it over Christmas.

Days earlier, Ireland’s girlfriend posted a photograph of the 25-year-old smoking a Shisha pipe on Twitter, something that clearly irked McLeish.