McCarthy's men abroad

We don't like to boast, indeed bragging is alien to Planet Football's self-effacing, diffident nature but . . . We got an email during the week from a member of the Nottingham Forest Supporters' Club (Ireland Branch) who exclusively revealed to us that they are the shirt sponsors of Keith Foy (wake up: he was our player of the week last Monday after scoring a stupendous goal against Tranmere). That's a scoop you won't find in any paper published west of Sofia, trust us.

Micheal Spain also urged us to acknowledge young Andy Reid's first team debut for Forest midweek against Sheffield United, when he scored one and made one in a 2-0 win. Will do, Micheal.

But, being a Forest fan, Micheal mightn't appreciate us doffing our hats to Rory Delap who scored Derby's winner against Ipswich on Saturday (Forest anthem: "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little lord Jesus stood up and he said: we hate Derby, we hate Derby, we hate Derby, we hate Derby . . .").

A big `well done', too, to Rotherham's Alan Lee who scored twice in a 3-2 win over Millwall on Saturday and a hearty slap on the back for Richie Partridge who made his first team debut for Liverpool during the week in their lucky 8-0 win over Stoke in the League Cup (with a bit of luck Richie'll get a move to a big club soon).

But our player of the week award goes to Plymouth's Sean McCarthy who returned from injury to score twice in the world's biggest derby - the Devon one, between Plymouth and Exeter (which Plymouth won 2-0). And how did the Plymouth supporters celebrate? By singing their favourite tune, of course: "Ooh aah it's Ambrosia, ooh aah it's Ambrosia (repeat to fade)".