In appreciation of the cat who made it onto the pitch at Anfield this evening I felt that it was about time I drew up another "Best XI". This time it's for players with "cat" in their name.

Cat XI

Between the sticks is Antalyaspor's 35 year old custodian Omer Catkic.

Tweet ban The Irish FA has handed a three-game ban to ex-Chelsea striker Leon Knight for comments he posted on Twitter. Knight's often outspoken use of the social networking site has raised eyebrows in the past. In fact, nobody is quite sure which comments in particular have landed the Glentoran man in trouble.

Tiger Woods is still looking for his first official win in more than two years. However, he's slowly but surely climbing the official world golf ranking. In the latest ranking, Tiger is 17th overall. He's sandwiched by Phil Mickelson at 16 and Sergio Garcia at 18.

Luke Donald of England is No.

On October 11 last year in the provincial city of Pescara, Italy ended their qualifying campaign with a 3-0 win over Northern Ireland. It was the perfect ending as Italy finished top of their group. It was also just reward for coach Cesare Prandelli who managed to rebuild a strong Azzurri from the wreckage of the 2010 World Cup disaster.

The Home Internationals Soccer Tournament, 1946-84, A Complete Record by Gary Watton is a match-by-match record of this annual tournament, once played amongst the four national teams of the United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Each match gets its own page and the details include lineup (interestingly including which club the player played for at the time, a great touch), scorers, and a brief summary to give it context.

After an amazing cup tie and a full week off it's time to return to the real business of Premiership football with a visit to The Liberty Stadium to take on Swansea.

Swansea Town was founded in 1912 and changed it's name to Swansea City in recognition of the town being granted City status in 1969.

The A-League's answer to Richard Dunne If new Melbourne Victory coach Jim Magilton was paying attention last weekend, he would have seen that the key to success in the A-League is simple: get out of the way of the opposition and leave them to it. The former Southampton, Ipswich and Northern Ireland midfielder was on [.

Rory Donnelly set to move to Swansea

Swansea look set to finally complete the signing of Cliftonville striker Rory Donnelly after manager Brendan Rodgers revealed the club have agreed a new fee and personal terms for the Northern Ireland Under-21 international.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-29 15:56:26 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

The U.S. Women's National Team has ended 2011 as the top-ranked team in the world according to the year-end FIFA rankings.
The USA remained at #1, just ahead of Germany and third-place Japan, which has achieved its highest ranking ever.
The Nadeshiko benefited from Brazil's inconsistent performances: two draws against Canada (7th, up 2), narrow wins over Mexico (21st, up 1) and Costa Rica (41st, up 3) and a defeat by Denmark (12th, up 2) not only leave Brazil with a loss of 28 points and in 4th place, but see the Brazilians slip out of the top-3 for the first time since June of 2008.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has confirmed the club's interest in sought-after Northern Irish starlet Rory Donnelly.
Cliftonville striker Donnelly is being chased by Swansea and Everton with both clubs thought to have agreed a fee with the Northern Ireland club for the 19-year-old.
However, Liverpool have now joined the chase for Donnelly with Cliftonville chairman Gerard Lawlor revealing earlier this week he had spoken to Dalglish about the forward.

Got, Not Got: You Too Can Go To Bed With George Best Shock

Now here's an offer you don't get every day it's your chance to hit the sack with 1970s sex god, boutique owner and noted footballer George Best of Manchester United and Northern Ireland fame. What's more, Alan Ball, Bobby Moore and Gordon Banks come as a special bonus a dream Christmas gift for the lady football fan who previously imagined she had everything.

Swansea face a battle with Liverpool to sign teenage Cliftonville striker Rory Donnelly reports the Daily Express.
The 19-year-old is attracting interest from a number of English clubs, with League One side Brentford having also made an offer for the talented youngster.
Reds boss Kenny Dalglish has been alerted to Donnelly's potential and is weighing up an attempt to entice him to Anfield when the transfer window reopens in January.

By Alan Duffy

In recent years, there has been a constant trickle of players from Northern Ireland switching allegiances to the Republic, including Manchester United's Darron Gibson and Stoke City's Marc Wilson. Now, Northern Ireland legend Gerry Armstrong, who is currently the Irish FA's 'elite player mentor', has suggested that ditching 'God Save The Queen' could entice more players from the country's nationalist background to play for the North.

Wales boss Gary Speed death- 42 year old Speed dead after allegedly commiting suicide is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Wales boss Gary Speed death- 42 year old Speed dead after allegedly commiting suicide is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Former Wales manager Gary Speed has been found dead at his home in Huntington, Chester.

Inver Park, the 3,000 capacity home ground of Northern Irish team Larne F.C., who play in the IFA Championship first division, one step below Ireland's premier national league, the IFA Premiership.

Photo credit: vip223 on Flickr

14/11/2009 Brazil 1-0 England (Qatar)
12/11/2005 England 3-2 Argentina (Switzerland)
10/11/2001 England 1-1 Sweden
13/11/1999 Scotland 0-2 England
09/11/1996 Georgia 0-2 England
13/11/1991 Poland 1-1 England
11/11/1987 Yugoslavia 1-4 England
12/11/1986 England 2-0 Yugoslavia
13/11/1985 England 0-0 Northern Ireland
14/11/1973 England 0-1 Italy
10/11/1971 England 1-1 Switzerland
12/11/1952 England 5-2 Wales
14/11/1951 England 2-2 Austria
10/11/1948 England 1-0 Wales
13/11/1946 England 3-0 Wales

The full list is here:

http://www.

Football Team of the Decade: 1960s - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The 1960s just might be football's golden decade. George Best, Garrincha, Pele in his prime and much much more. Recently on the Total Soccer Show podcast, we picked our starting XI from the 1960s. None of of us were alive back then, but thanks to television, YouTube and brilliant books like Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid, we were able to weigh the various options at each position and argue out the perfect starting XI to represent 10 of the most glorious years in the history of the beautiful game.

$2 million for a Summer of Soccer in 1960: several decades before Soccer United Marketing and others figured out the value of bringing Europe's best teams to play in North America during their summer breaks, New Yorker Bill Cox had already given it quite a shot with the International Soccer League.

Great Britain Olympic team should feature Welsh, says Craig Bellamy

• Liverpool forward has no concern about independent status • 'It will benefit Welsh football. How can we lose our identity?' Craig Bellamy fully supports the selection of Wales's best young talent to play for Great Britain in next summer's Olympics.

Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has stepped down as the Faroe Island's manager despite a relatively successful Euro 2012 campaign which included a win against the Republic's euro 2012 play-off opponents Estonia. The Faroe's were hoping Kerr would lead them through another qualifying campaign but the loveable Irish manager decided the time was right to step down.

Football politics is likely to be amongst the headlines over the next few months following Stuart Pearce's appointment as manager of the Team GB football team for the 2012 London Olympics. It is the first time since the Rome Olympics of 1960 that a team representing GB will be participate.

For Leicester City, might British be best? is a post from: Just Football

By David Cockcroft

An October managerial casualty seems to be the norm in today's game, yet the news of Sven Goran Eriksson heading out of the Leicester City exit door came as no little surprise to the football world.

After yet another disappointing campaign under Nigel Worthington, and a continuation of the unenviable streak that will now see Northern Ireland fail to make a major tournament for at least 32 years, the IFA will seek out a new manager to try and reverse the fortunes of the small nation who have struggled in recent years for both talent and results on the international playing field.

We haven't bothered to cover the whole Team GB Olympic 2012 football side palava mainly because proper Football Association business makes us nod off. Our view was that if/when the British powers-that-be stopped bickering and decided to field a unified squad to play, we would post photos of them looking hot.

Robbie Fowler wants Northern Ireland job

Robbie Fowler wants the chance to lead Northern Ireland to the 2014 World Cup. Fowler has thrown his hat into the ring after Nigel Worthington stepped down as manager.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-10-18 10:37:27 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

By Chris Wright

Glentoran goalkeeping coach David McClelland came about as close to losing an eye as is humanly possibly when his contact lens was knocked out by a rogue firework that exploded in front of the dugout during his side's Irn-Bru League Cup tie with Portadown (a fixture you may well remember produced a storming goal from Matty Burrows last season) in Northern Ireland last night.

Blown out of the dugout The match between Glentoran and Portadown in Northern Ireland's Irn-Bru League Cup (great sponsor) was on the verge of being abandoned last night after fireworks were repeatedly thrown onto the pitch. One firework exploded near the Glens dugout, blowing a contact lens from the eye of goalkeeping coach David McClelland [.

Now that the group stages of the Euro 2012 qualification are over, I thought I'd take a look at the attendances. It's especially interesting this time around as many of the games have been played on Friday/Tuesday rather than the traditional (and I use that term very loosely) Saturday/Wednesday. For the record of the 240 qualification ties 26 were played on a Saturday, 4 were played on a Tuesday, 103 were played on a Friday and 106 were played on a Wednesday.

By Alan Duffy

Sir Alex Ferguson reacts to the news that Vidic has retired from international football

In one of the shocks of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, plucky little Estonia made it out of Group C, a group which contained Italy, Serbia and Slovenia, all sides well above them in the FIFA rankings, along with Northern Ireland and the mighty Faroe Islands.

Inspired performances by Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Cassano lead Italy to a memorable 3-0 victory over an ordinary Northern Ireland side in Pescara. Qasa Alom reports AC Milan's Antonio Cassano was warned prior to the match that this would be his last chance in the national set-up after offensive comments to a journalist last week – and FantAntonio really didn't disappoint with a brilliant brace.

Italy v. Northern Ireland
11/10/2011 • 20:45 CET • Stadio Adriatico, Pescara (ITA) [read more]

Italian football blog: Prandelli's progressive approach is bad news for Northern Ireland but good news for Juve

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day.

Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington will lead his team out as manager for the last time on Tuesday night as his team take on Group C winners Italy. Worthington took the job in 2007 but has failed to qualify for any major championships in his time and fans have been frustrated with the fact their Country was beaten twice by Estonia who could now qualify for their very first international finals.

Ah, leave it to the Azzurri to tour the football pitch in style! Seriously though, you could set up a fashion runway right in the middle of Belgrade's Marakana stadium and the Italian national team won't look an inch out of place. Work it, bellissimo!

On the 11th of October of this calends, two teams full of what Juventini call Great Champions will convene in the once beautiful seaside city of Pescara to give an exhibition of football of the highest quality. Yes, contain your excitement, Italy will play against the famed galacticos of Northern Ireland in conditions that usually bring out the finest in Italian national teams, a game that doesn't matter to anyone, as not only have Italy qualified, but Northern Ireland have failed to.

By Alan Duffy

Pies' pick of the ten finest snaps from Friday night's selection of Euro 2012 qualifiers (other than England's game, that is).

Kevin Doyle and Co. celebrate scoring against the mighty Andorra

Gareth Bale scores as Wales start to get their act together, albeit too late for Poland and Ukraine

Estonia's Raoi Piiroja beats Northern Ireland's Kyle Lafferty to the ball

Spain celebrate Juan Mata's opening goal against the Czech Republic

Robin van Persie leaps with Moldova's Stanislav Namasco and Igor Armas

Greece celebrate vital win against Croatia

The much-coveted Eden Hazard is swamped by team-mates after scoring for Belgium

Les Bleus celebrate second goal against Albania.

England is a point away from cementing a place at the 2012 European championships, but the Three Lions will have to earn that point on the road at Montenegro.

That match is one of the few highlights among the day's European qualifiers, in addition to the anticipated matchup between Germany and Turkey.

Some rather strange news this morning that Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington is unable to get in touch with Newcastle United's impressive defender/winger Shane Ferguson, before tonight's European 2012 qualifier against Estonia. Shane Ferguson - gone missing? Our immediate question would be, why not?

Shane you couldn't make it Newcastle youngster Shane Ferguson has avoided a call-up to Northern Ireland's Euro 2012 qualifier against Estonia this evening after failing to answer calls from manager Nigel Worthington. Worthington went public to say that he had attempted to draft the 20-year-old into the squad but had been unable to get in [.

Not since Franck Ribery started his underage prostitute charity program has one footballer seen his value drop so precipitously in such a short frame of time. From a staunch tag of somewhere in the £40m in the summer to, well, that poster on the left.

Home to all the greats, also known as the second division in Northern Ireland.