Steven Reid (Millwall), Dessie Byrne (Cambridge) and Willie Boland (Cardiff) were the latest Irish victims of the current red card epidemic sweeping through English football with all three sent off on Saturday to add to Brian Carey (Wrexham) and Spurs' Gary Doherty' dismissals midweek - Doherty, though, is expected to win his appeal against his sending off this week.

Happier times for Blackburn's Alan Mahon (pictured) who returned, impressively, from injury on Wednesday in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United before scoring in Saturday's 2-1 win over Spurs - his goal was set up by Damien Duff who then scored the second.

Our player of the week award goes to former Republic of Ireland under-21 captain Phil Hardy, who scored in his second appearance for Port Vale on Saturday. So? Well, the left back once held the record for having played more games than any other current outfield player in Britain without scoring a goal. His "run" came to an end in April 2000, 10 years after making his debut, when he scored from a penalty for Wrexham - his only goal in 439 appearances for the club.