It's dizzy work keeping up with the movements of the Irish abroad, particularly the players in England's lower divisions. Last week alone Alan Lee made his move from Burnley to Rotherham permanent (and then scored for his new club on Saturday), Barry Conlon left York for Colchester on loan, replacing Kieron Durkan who rejoined Macclesfield. West Ham goalkeeper Alex O'Reilly moved to Wigan for a month while Alan Maybury returned to Leeds after a loan spell at Crewe - and made it to the bench for Wednesday's game against AC Milan. See what we mean?

A little further away Ben Burgess is having a whale of time with Australian club Northern Spirit who he joined on loan from Blackburn (see for yourself at http://www.northernspirit.com.au/qa.html). Things are going nicely on the pitch too: "Striker Ben Burgess scored a stunning first half hat-trick as Northern Spirit . . . thumped Auckland Kingz at North Sydney Oval - the teenager, who turns 19 on Thursday, scored in the 23rd, 30th and 35th minutes," as their own website put it.

Special mention, though, for 20-year-old defender Keith Andrews who was loaned out by Wolves last week to Oxford United and promptly scored the goal that gave them their first away win of the season (2-1 at Swansea). We'd love to describe the goal for you but according to two separate Sunday paper reports it was a "speculative 20-yard shot" and a "spectacular shot from 20-yards". Take your pick (we prefer the latter).