Alan Judge making compelling case for Euros inclusion
The case to bring Alan Judge to the Euros grows more compelling by the week.
Despite being named in recent squads, Judge has not played for Ireland but should he maintain his current form he will surely get a chance to make his debut in one of the pre-tournament friendlies.
Judge was brilliant again on Saturday, scoring twice, the first a free-kick, the second a penalty as Brentford beat Huddersfield 4-2 in the Championship.
Judge has now netted 10 times in 20 games from midfield this point and his exploits have not gone unnoticed.
Premier League duo Swansea and Bournemouth are said to be to be pondering a January swoop.
Not that Brentford boss Dean Smith is unduly worried. “That’s down to other clubs.
"If they’re interested they have to make a bid and we deal with it. I don’t need to waste grey matter on that as it hasn’t happened.”
Elsewhere, Brighton manager Chris Hughton urged his team to go again after their 21-game unbeaten start to the season was ended by leaders Middlesbrough.
“We’ve caught Middlesbrough at the end of a week where we’ve had two tough away games,” Hughton said after the emphatic 3-0 defeat watched by former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
“Our general play at times was good, but it was just the hard fact that they were better than us. It has to be a springboard now for us to go again.”
To add insult to injury, defeat saw Brighton slip to third after Derby climbed to second following a 1-0 win at Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich.
It was a quiet weekend for the Irish in League One with Donal McDermott the only scorer. His goal came in Rochdale’s 3-1 win over Colchester.
In League Two, Carl McHugh was on the mark as leaders Plymouth won 2-1 at Hartlepool, Rory Gaffney netted for Bristol Rovers in their 3-0 win at Dagenham & Redbridge while James Berrett scored in York’s 2-1 win over a Morecambe side whose consolation goal came courtesy of Jamie Devitt.
In the Scottish Premiership, Adam Rooney and Jonathan Hayes were among the scorers as Aberdeen won 4-0 at Kilmarnock.
In the Netherlands, Jack Byrne made a little bit of history yesterday as he became the youngest scorer in Cambuur’s history.
Byrne, on loan from Manchester City, netted in the 4-1 Eredivisie win over Excelsior.
