Irish in Britain:

Mark McGhee signs David Connolly for Wolves on a year's loan from Feyenoord

Mark McGhee signs David Connolly for Wolves on a year's loan from Feyenoord. Connolly fails to score in his first 15 games of the season. McGhee is sacked on Wednesday. Connolly scores four goals in Saturday's 6-1 away win over Bristol City. Who'd be a manager, eh?

At least Connolly's international manager will be happy. Niall Quinn made it an encouraging weekend all 'round for Mick McCarthy, who names his squad for the game against Yugoslavia this week. Quinn, who was 32 last Thursday, scored the 100th league goal of his career, and his fourth in successive games, in Sunderland's 3-1 win over Grimsby.

Former Irish striker Owen Coyle was also amongst the goals at the weekend, scoring twice for Motherwell in their 2-2 draw at Dundee United and former Shamrock Rovers striker Stephen Grant scored his first goal of the season when he came on as a sub for Stockport County in yesterday's 4-2 win against Port Vale.

In the second division, Irish under-18 captain Gary Doherty made his first appearance of the season when he came on for the last 20 minutes of Luton's 3-1 defeat at Stoke.

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times