Daryl Horgan puts club before country

As Stephen Kenny was delivering his post-match team talk in the dressing rooms of Oriel Park on Tuesday night, he turned and asked “Where’s Daryl?”.

The Daryl he was referring to was his “special talent” Daryl Horgan whose two goals — the first of which found the net via goalkeeper Mark McNulty — had just helped the champions to a 2-1 victory over Cork City to give them a four-point lead at the top of the table with five matches to go.

The 24-year-old was off collecting his man of the match award at the time but someone piped up with the joke “he’s at the Bernabeu”.