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Can Murphs Do It For The Irish Too?

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After his staggering haul of 27 goals last season, we were all a little shocked to see the Championship’s leading scorer finding goals so hard to come by this time around.

I suppose you could argue there were mitigating circumstances. After his involvement with the Irish squad on top of all the games he played, it seemed reasonable to assume he would return to training much later than the others and so it was to prove.

Then he had one or two niggly injuries, which meant he was not firing on all cylinders and for a striker when the goals dry up so too does the confidence – although he has said that this was not a factor in his prolonged barren spell.

Manager Mick McCarthy had indicated that any sort of goal would do him the world of good and so it was to prove because his first strike was a mishit apparently and if he had struck it cleanly Murphs said, it would probably not have found the net!


But in it went and he did not have to wait long for his second after what seemed like an eternity since the last time he scored.

Once his broke his duck though he was on fire again and all his self-belief returned!

His third was a gem and the best one of all and spoke volumes for his new found confidence. It was very typical of the type of goal he was scoring with such frequency last term in fact.

Amazingly, we have to go back to his days as a kid with Waterford United in Ireland to find the last time he scored three in a match and in all his years of playing in the United Kingdom he had never gone home with the match ball!

Now the next question we should ask ourselves is can he break his duck with the Irish too?

He has played seventeen times but never scored for his home nation but everyone will be hoping that his luck changes against Bosnia Herzegovina away this Friday evening in the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off encounter.

The statistics are a little misleading though because most of his appearances have come from the bench – although he did play the first 65 minutes when Ireland surprisingly beat Germany in one of the group games recently.

It is the luck of the Irish perhaps that they can call on him when he is on fire because they are seriously short of strikers.

Shane Long is doubtful with an ankle injury and even if he is passed fit to play, it is unlikely he will be risked from the start and ex-Ipswich man Jonathan Walters is suspended.

Robbie Keane is a super-hero for the Irish but sadly probably past his best so there is every chance that Murphs will actually start.

I believe too that there has never been a better time for Daryl Murphy to open his account for the Irish and this much loved Irishman will be the toast of Ireland if he nets on Friday night!

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich


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