ULSTER champions Derry have earned a paltry one Eircell Allstar nomination among the 45 players in with a chance of claiming one of the coveted honours this year.
Full-back Sean Martin Lockhart is the only Oak Leaf player to have impressed the Allstar selectors.
The first nominee from the Banagher club thoroughly deserves his inclusion and would be many folk’s fancy to take the fullback jersey.
In all only five Ulster players are among the 45 nominees: Lockhart, Kieran McGeeney (Armagh) and Barry McGowan (Donegal) in the backs plus Brendan Devenney (Donegal) and Paul Brewster (Fermanagh) in the forwards.
The dismal Ulster representation, which on balance can scarcely be quibbled with, is a stark representative of how football in the northern province has deteriorated in recent times.
Of the Ulster omissions, the names of Tony Boyle and Derry goalkeeper Eoin McCloskey stand out.
Football nominations
Goalkeepers: Martin McNamara (Galway), Declan O’Keefe (Kerry), Christy Byrne (Kildare);
Defenders: Kieran McGeeney (Armagh), Sean M Lockhart (Derry), Barry McGowan (Donegal), John Divilly, Gary Fahy, Tomas Mannion, Sean Og de Paor, Ray Silke (all Galway), Seamus Moynihan (Kerry), John Finn, Brian Lacey, Ronan Quinn, Anthony Rainbow, Glen Ryan (Kildare), Darren Fay (Meath), Finbar Cullen, John Kenny (Offaly), Damien Donlon (Roscommon)
Midfielders: Sean O Domhnaill, Kevin Walsh (Galway), Dara O Se (Kerry), Niall Buckley, Willie McCreery (Kildare), John McDermott (Meath)
Forwards: Brendan Devenney (Donegal), Paul Brewster (Fermanagh), Michael Donnellan, Jarlath Fallon, Niall Finnegan, Padraig Joyce, Derek Savage (Galway); John Crowley (Kerry); Dermot Earley, Declan Kerrigan, Martin Lynch, Eddie McCormack, Karl O’Dwyer (Kildare); Trevor Giles, Tommy Dowd (Meath), Vinny Claffey (Offaly), Eddie Lohan (Roscommon), Declan Browne (Tipperary).
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BELFAST light flyweight Harry Cunningham boxed brilliantly in Buenos Aires last night to grab a place in the World Junior Championship medal stages.
And there’s the promise of more Irish glory to follow in Argentina today as Dublin featherweight Bernard Dunne and Darren Campbell (Glin) are involved in quarter-final action.
Cunningham, with his dad and Saints coach Harry Snr in the Irish corner at the World event, streaked through to the semis with a 7-1 trouncing of Francis Ruiz Martinez (Dominican Republic).
There were celebrations in the Cunningham household in Twinbrook.
The reigning Irish Junior champion is just the latest member of the family to bring home major championship medals.
Older brother Liam, (19), bagged Commonwealth silver at the Kuala Lumpur Games in September.
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OLE Gunnar Solskjaer proved there is nothing second-string about him by cutting down Nottingham Forest in the Worthington Cup last night to take a Manchester United reserves line-up through to the last eight.
The Norwegian international, out of favour because of the form of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, scored twice in three minutes to book United’s place in the quarter-finals.
Once again Ferguson fielded a team mostly of reserves for the fourth-round tie.
United finally made the breakthrough in the 57th minute when Jordi Cruyff played Solskjaer through with a neat pass, and the Norwegian shot past Dave Beasant.
Three minutes later it was 2-0 when Cruyff again released Solskjaer on the left and he slotted home his sixth goal of the season.
Forest responded by bringing on van Hooijdonk to boos from the United supporters.
Steve Stone threw the visitors a lifeline in the 68th minute but they couldn’t find an equaliser.
