Irish player of the week

If we take their managers' word for it we'll be hearing a lot more about Michael Reddy and Joe Murphy, joint winners of our Irish Player of the Week award, in the coming seasons. Both players made their senior debuts in English football in the Worthington Cup last week, Reddy for Sunderland and Murphy in goal for Tranmere. Nineteen-year-old Reddy joined Sunderland from Kilkenny City during the summer and after an impressive run in the reserves was given his first team chance in the 3-2 defeat at Wimbledon on Tuesday night, playing 20 minutes of normal time and the half-hour of extra time, during which he set up a goal for Kevin Ball and had a shot cleared off the line in the last minute. Sunderland manager Peter Reid was sufficiently impressed to promise that we'd be seeing more of Reddy in the Premiership this season. Murphy had an even more eventful debut for Tranmere, saving a penalty in a 2-0 win over Oxford and producing a display that had his manager John Aldridge tipping him for senior international honours (under the ace heading 'Aldo: Joe's Eire to stay' in The Sun). (Defender John O'Shea also made his senior debut on Tuesday, playing for Manchester United in their 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa).