Mmm, tricky one this week. Terry Phelan almost won our vote, not for anything he did on his Fulham debut on Saturday, just for the fact that when he opened his Sunday papers he read that Ruud Gullit might soon be his new manager. Just when he thought all his troubles were over. Our thoughts are with you, Terry.

Young Jonathan Daly caught our eye, too. Only last October he was playing for the Irish under-16s; on Saturday he was recalled to the Stockport first team, after scoring twice in midweek for their reserves. Daly (middle name Marvin - we heard it through the grapevine) is one to watch, but be prepared to strain your neck - this lad was 6 ft 2 ins when he was 15.

In the end, though, we went continental for our Irish player of the week. Granted, his team lost 3-1 to FC Volendam but David Connolly (above) did score his 16th league goal of the season (in 18 games) on Saturday for Excelsior, the Dutch first division team he joined on loan from Feyenoord at the start of the season. "Uiteindelijk scoort Connolly in de 68e minuut een schittert doelpunt door de bal perfect in de kruising te schieten," as the match report put it. Frankly, we couldn't have put it better ourselves.