O’Neill Clarifies Eligibility Row

Northern Ireland Head Coach Michael O’Neill caused a row with his comments last week that the FAI favours Catholic players. The manager wants increased transparency over player eligibility after having issues with the Football Association and losing talented youngsters to the Republic of Ireland.

O’Neill lost players like Shane Duffy, Darron Gibson and James McClean who all opted to play for the Republic’s senior side despite representing Northern Ireland at the youth level. The coach’s comments caused a row when it was published on the Irish Daily Mail that he said the FAI “only ever” targets Catholic to play for their team. Read more »

Elliott Bennett pleased to cap return with a Blackburn Rovers win

Elliott Bennet was delighted to secure three points with Blackburn Rovers during Tuesday’s League One triumph over Rochdale. Bradley Dack and Charlie Mulgrew found the scoresheet for the Rovers as they kept their recent unbeaten run intact. Bennett missed the last four matches owing to a suspension, which he incurred after being sent off in the FA Cup tie with Crewe Alexandra earlier this month. Despite this, Mowbray was quick to retain the 29-year-old in his side, once available, and he played his role during the 2-0 win over Rochdale at Ewood Park.

While the Rovers were not at their best, they bounced back from the disappointment of last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Northampton Town, to chalk up their seventh win in eight League One matches. Speaking after the game, Bennett said: “It was brilliant to be back. Obviously, I was disappointed to be suspended and miss the games but delighted to be back and more importantly get the three points.
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Evans fitness should be managed

Blackburn Rovers coach Tony Mowbray believes that Corry Evans fitness should be managed closely given that the player has just returned to full fitness.

Indeed the player had not played a 90-minute match for a long time, and it is only last month that he has managed to return to full fitness.

Tony Mowbray said that he is managing the player carefully and that he expects the Northern Ireland team to do the same. He said that Michael O’Neill is aware of Corry Evans injury problems and he is sure that he will deal the player well.

The Blackburn Rovers coach said that he is happy for the player to have been called in the national team and that given that he is a quality player there is no doubt that Northern Ireland will be looking towards the player to win them some game. Read more »

Evans back for Blackburn

Blackburn coach Tony Mowbray has stated that Corry Evans will be back with the team for the pre-season training.

Corry Evans has been plagued with injuries last season, and he is expected to be back in training for the pre-season.

Indeed he has only managed to play one time for Blackburn Rovers last season, and he would be expected that things change for the best this season.

Tony Mowbray said that Corry Evans has been working hard during the close season in order to get back to full fitness and he hopes that he will be ready for the start of the new season. He said that Corry Evans is an important member of the team and that he is glad that he is back on the pitch. Read more »

Tony Mowbray is a little unhappy with David Wagner

Tony Mowbray is a little unhappy with David Wagner who is his counterpart at Huddersfield for the reason that he didn’t try and show any intent of winning against Birmingham City.

It was a game which was more important for Blackburn that it was for Huddersfield because the latter had already made it to the playoffs and the result of the game was not going to bother them.

But, Blackburn wanted the defeat of Birmingham because both the teams are the contenders of demotion to the third tier at the moment and neither of them wants the other to take away points.

Blackburn started the weekend on a great note by beating Aston Villa which was obviously a great result for them and then they thought that Huddersfield for sure would get the better of Birmingham because they are a stronger and also an-form team.

But, Wagner who is in charge of Huddersfield did not put his main players on the pitch and instead went with most of his second choices as a result of which Birmingham tuned out to be the dominant team and won by a margin of two goals. Read more »

Mowbray happy for Corry Evans

Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray said that he is happy for Corry Evans to be playing for Northern Ireland.

Indeed with Evans spending more time on the bench because of injuries, there were fears that the Tony Mowbray would not want to see him take a risk with his country.

However, it appears that the Blackburn Rovers boss is more than happy to see Corry Evans playing with the Northern Ireland squad as he feels that this will be a great opportunity for the player to get some playing time.

Tony Mowbray said that he has no problem for Corry Evans to being called up by his national squad as he feels that will do the player some good. He stated that many footballers like to represent their country and he believes that this could be a significant boost in the player’s rehabilitation. Read more »

Owen Coyle Hails Resilience of Blackburn after Brentford Victory

Blackburn Rovers manager Owen Coyle hailed the resilience of his team after they managed a 3-2 win over Brentford to rise up to one place away from safety.

There was a danger of Blackburn being cut off from the rest of the Championship at one point. However, recent victories have helped the team gave hope about avoiding relegation, and none more so than the result against Brentford. Despite conceding after just 30 seconds on the clock through a goal from Scott Hogan, Blackburn did not lose faith and they were soon level through Danny Graham in the 15^th minute.

The English striker soon helped the home team go ahead in front through a penalty in the 20^th minute. It was a great turnaround, but Blackburn were not able to keep the advantage for long after Hogan equalised for Brentford. Coyle says that it would have been easy for his players to give up after the setback. Read more »

NORTHERN IRELAND ANNOUNCE SQUAD FOR AZERBAIJAN AND CROATIA

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has invited 25 players for the forthcoming games.

The list shows that O’Neill invited Chris Brunt and Will Grigg to the camp. West Brom’s Brunt returned after eight months due to a knee injury. He played last month for West Brom. Wigan’s Grigg will make his return after missing out twice because his partner gave birth.

Watford defender Craig Cathcart was not invited, as he is yet to fully recover from the groin injury he picked up in September. Michael McGovern, Alan Mannus and Trevor Carson are the invited goalkeepers. Aaron Hughes, Gareth McAuley, West Brom’s Jonny Evans, Ryan McGiven, Conor McLaughlin, Lee Hodson and Tom Flanagan are the invited players to stop the attack of the opposition

Steven Davis, Niall McGinn, Jamie Ward, Shane Ferguson, Ollie Norwood, Corry Evans, Paddy McNair, Paul Paton, and Matthew Lund would play in the middle.

Norwichcity’s Kyle Lafferty, Josh Magnennis of Charlton Athletic, Conor Washington of Queen Park Rangers will pair up with Grigg to lead the attack. Read more »

Evans enjoyed his time at Hull

Former Hull City midfielder Corry Evans said that he does not have any regrets for leaving the club.

He said that he had enjoyed his time at Hull City, and it was more the desire to play regular football that convinces him to leave the club.

He said that at that time he was quite young and that he wanted to have regular games to as to help his development. Indeed at that time, Corry Evans was only 22 years old, and he felt that playing regularly could help him progress, and this is why he left the club.

At that time Blackburn Rovers was interested in him, and he felt that he had a better chance of playing week in and week out if he made the move there. He admitted that the Hull City manager came to him at that time but only offered to play him as a substitute. He was not guaranteed any first team football and the club was willing to bring in some new players. Evans believed that it would become even more difficult for him to get a place in the team with the new players and this is what tempted him to seek a move away from the club. Read more »

Corry Evans Gets Into A Euro 2016 Team

Corry Evans has been in the news for different reasons.

For instance, playing the part of midfielder in Blackburn Rovers had noticed him for Euro 2016 training. He would be attending the training camp which will be held in Northern Ireland. The selection is definitely a great chance for him to be in shape and train up ahead of Euro 2016. Being 25 years of age, he will be joining several other international players of the team in Manchester for four days. Northern Ireland has become the first country to have won the right to participate in the European Championship qualifying rounds. Their name was drawn from a pot five. The team will be basing themselves in Dublin for a span of five days. Michael O’Neill will have his men heading home for a friendly match in Belfast to be held against Belarus. The game will be held at Windsor Park on May 27^th. Read more »