THE CONVERSATION WAS a straightforward one.
There was no need to shout or scream or tear strips off the walls. Even if, inside, Chris Wilder felt as though he was ready go through Enda Stevens for a shortcut in order to make his point.
“But that’s not how you get through to him,” the Sheffield United manager explains to The42 of their relationship, one which stretches back six years to when they first worked together at Northampton Town.
“You don’t have to bark at Enda for him to respond. I don’t think I’ve ever had to bark at Enda. Even now, he is a leader in our dressing room but he is calm, you know you can trust him.”
As they sit sixth in the Premier League, Wilder and Stevens are making headlines together. A win against Bournemouth this afternoon (Sunday) and they will move to within two points of Chelsea in the fourth Champions League spot.
For context, Sheffield United have never qualified for Europe in their 131-year history.
Stevens has played all 2,250 minutes of their 25 top-flight games this season – pipping his Republic of Ireland team-mate at Bramall Lane, John Egan, by 101 minutes. He is just one of 19 ever presents in the Premier League and has featured more than any other Irish player.
Stevens turns 30 this summer and, a decade after he was making his way in the League of Ireland while delivering pizzas part-time in his prized jet-black Honda Civic, he is currently one of the most accomplished, athletic and consistent left backs in the game.
Wilder, too, has journeyed to this point by breaking down barriers and stereotypes. He was manager of Oxford United in the Conference Premier at the same time as Stevens was finishing up with St Patrick’s Athletic, and his job with Dominos, before joining Shamrock Rovers full time.
Their paths in the game crossed for the first time in October 2014 when Wilder, then in charge of Northampton, needed a left back on an emergency loan. So, Stevens, by this point a Premier League player with Aston Villa, spent a month under his guidance.
It was enough time for Wilder to see something special and feel compelled to make an intervention. The end of the loan was the perfect time for the conversation that changed everything, one which was delivered with sober realism and genuine concern, helping to sharpen Stevens’ focus by making him look within himself to decide what he wanted for his future.
“It was very frank. He was with us for the month and it was so obvious that he had quality,” Wilder recalls. “It stood out, just that undoubted quality and ability. But I felt as if he was doing it for us in second gear, it was as if he was playing within himself and afraid to let loose, he was holding back and we wanted him to open up, to stretch out those legs and show us how much more was there.”
It is a point Paul Cook, the man Stevens and those close to him will attest to having a profound influence when he signed him as a free agent following his release by Villa in 2015, backs up.
You will never hear a person say a bad word about Enda,” Cook, now manager of Wigan Athletic in the Championship, says as he begins the early morning drive to training on a bitterly cold Thursday morning when the sky is still filled with darkness.
“Enda is such a lovely lad and to be honest, being such a lovely lad was probably one of the things that was stopping him from going on in football. He needed to develop a ruthless nature, a ruthless style, an aggressive style.
“That’s not kicking people or doing stupid things on the pitch. That’s aggression in his play. That’s getting forward quicker, that’s crossing the ball with more anger in the cross, little bits of devilment in his game. They call it an edge in football and Enda was playing without an edge…”
“I told him all this,” Wilder continues, taking up the story and returning to that one-one-chat in Northampton six years ago.
Stevens’ loan was coming to an end, a second temporary spell with Doncaster Rovers beckoned and there was a sense of drift.
“I asked him; ‘what are you doing with your career? Where is your career going? What do you need from it and what do you want from it?’ Basically, ‘what are you doing to make it happen for yourself?’
“Some don’t grasp that moment, they don’t get it, or they don’t want to get it,” Wilder adds. “It goes over their heads or they don’t take it in. That’s fine, but Enda took it in.”
…
They had their routine down to a tee. Four cans of cider between them, bunk on the Luas red line at Drimnagh and travel the five stops to Kingswood.
It is 2007 and Enda Stevens and Ciaran Fadden are best friends in Templeogue College. They have just started going out with two girls from the same road in Tallaght, so the regular journeys begin and some Dutch courage (not Gold) is needed.
“All these years later and Enda is still with Sinead, he’s getting married and has a beautiful daughter. I lasted about a month with the other one,” Fadden laughs.
They are still thick as thieves now, even if their first encounter was hardly friendship at first sight. “He was 1st Year and I was 2nd Year. He had the mullet, he used to straighten that thing constantly. I remember saying to him when I saw him ‘I bet you’re a good footballer. I bet you even wear Calvin Klein jocks’. And he did an’ all!”
Their relationship blossomed. Stevens had his Honda Civic, “his baby, his pride and joy” by 16 and would endeavour to pick Fadden up in time for the first bell in school. It didn’t always happen. Sometimes he would just sleep in or, if they were late, they’d head down the Belgard Road for a Burger King or McDonalds to talk about much more important things.
Like football.
They travelled to Paris together with friends Paddy Stewart and Lee Ennis for the second leg of Ireland’s infamous World Cup play-off with France.
“We all ended up on top of each other about five rows down when we celebrated Robbie Keane’s goal. The bruises are still there I’d say. It was crazy. It was only the next day in an Irish pub that we realised it was a handball,” Fadden reveals.
“So, to think of those moments we shared following Ireland, just all growing up together, it’s surreal to see him where he is now. It makes you so proud.”
Stevens, now Ireland’s first choice left back, could be walking out in Aviva Stadium at Euro 2020 this summer.
You wonder what they must think of his rise in Templeogue College. It was not a football school and, while he was not even from a football family – he played Gaelic and hurling, his father’s first love – it was with a ball at his feet that he focused his energies.
Stevens helped Templeogue reach a Leinster football final as his time there came to an end and, a few days later, he was part of the Gaelic team that also reached a Leinster showpiece.
“We lost both finals,” Fadden chuckles.
But there were still guiding lights in the school, like English teacher Milo O’Shea who took charge of the football team, and recently met his former pupil after his Premier League game away to Tottenham Hotspur. As Stevens and his Templeogue teammates prepared to venture into the real world, O’Shea’s description of the talented Drimnagh native in an end-of-season report has borne fruit.
“Balance and poise couple with tremendous vision, Enda is the complete footballer. Pitched on a barbwire fence in Baghdad, Enda would take it all in his stride. Has a bright future ahead of him.”
Cook and Wilder are quick to agree. “He deals with things that come at him and doesn’t hide, it’s why he is one of the leaders in our dressing room by his actions rather than just words,” the latter says, with the Liverpudlian adding: “Nothing fazes him, knock him down he’ll get back up and keep going.”
Stevens might never have needed to prove his credentials in Iraq, but he has overcome his own obstacles to reach the stage he currently thrives on. Personal tragedy and professional hardship have been dealt with head on both at home and in England.
His eldest sister, Elaine, suffered with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a disease which attacks the nervous system. She was 12 when the feeling in her legs went. Stevens was eight and well aware of what was happening. It wasn’t something hidden away.
But as they both grew older, he watched as his big sister began to lose her balance, the use of her arms; he watched as her sight and breathing was attacked. Elaine got every ounce of joy from life that she could before eventually her whole body shut down.
She passed away just three days after he had signed his three-and-a-half-year contract with Villa in late August, 2011. The funeral was later in the week, the same day as Richard Dunne’s legendary display for Ireland against Russia and that brought just the briefest of respite from the grief as family and friends gathered to watch in the Red Cow.
Dublin’s All-Ireland win courtesy of Stephen Cluxton’s last-minute point provided another another poignant memory.
Stevens remained at home until the January before beginning his new life in Birmingham but Elaine’s loss, coupled with partner Sinead (he has a second sister also named Sinead) remaining at home rather than moving took its toll.
The well-told story at this point, one which Stevens acceps, is that he wasn’t doing enough to make the grade at Villa – despite seven first-team appearances before beginning his travails on loan.
But there were deeper struggles to contend with – grief, loss and isolation – and his experiences at places like Doncaster, Northampton and then Portsmouth on a permanent basis helped mould him into what he has become: a genuine Premier League and Ireland star.
But long before he had to deal with such struggles of forging a life for himself and his family, everything seemed much simpler in Dublin.
“He used to rock up for training in Ballyfermot on his scrambler,” Keith Ward, his former Cherry Orchard team-mate, beams.
The pair progressed from schoolboy level to begin their League of Ireland careers together with UCD, and while they went their separate ways in the game, they grew closer away from it.
He had an apartment in Cabra that was passed down in the family. I had the spare room and he charged me 50 quid a week. Can ya believe that? My landlord he was! And he was on the big bucks at Rovers at the time, he’d do anything for a bit of money that lad,” Ward teases.
“We were both full-time, I would train with Dundalk at 10 in the morning. He trained later in the afternoon and we’d be up all hours of the night playing Fifa. I’d be dying in the morning, come home from training in the afternoon and he’d be still asleep. He’s the laziest man ever, an absolute sleeping bag.”
That fondness for a nap almost cost him dearly while on a European trip with Rovers. Former team-mate Pat Flynn can’t recall the exact game, or the date, but he will never forget Stevens’ face as he sheepishly traipsed down the aisle of the plane after staff were forced to re-open its doors when he was eventually found.
“We had a stop-over, I think it was Germany or somewhere like that, and he’d fallen asleep somewhere by himself. We were all on, so were all the other passengers cause it wasn’t a charter or anything like that.
“Now Enda could be ditsy at times so when we realised it was him that was missing no one was surprised. There was panic but they found him and opened the doors for him…
“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me at all,” Ward adds. “When we lived together, I don’t mind saying it, ask anybody and they will tell you it was like the two dumbest people who could live together.
“I don’t know how this was possible but if one things sums us up it was the day we locked the house keys in his car and the car keys in the house. Only we could do that. We were getting ready to go out for the night and there we were standing there like two eejits waiting for his sister to come over with the spare keys.”
By the time he was flatmates with Luke McCullough during his loan period with Doncaster, Stevens had, well, a bit more cop on. McCullough, from Portadown, had come through the ranks with Manchester United and was attempting to find his own way in the game.
Stevens could relate, as he realised his days at Villa were numbered. The two self-confessed film geeks would spend their spare time in the local cinema. “Watching anything to kill time,” McCullough recalls.
“It’s a funny one because you get really close to some lads in football over the space of a few months and then they’re gone or you’re gone and you never talk again, you don’t see each other, that’s just how it is.
“Enda is different, he has stayed in touch.”
McCullough played his first game in 19 months earlier this week for Tranmere Rovers, after a knee injury robbed him of so much time. He is on non-contract terms with the club and, while Stevens’ career trajectory has taken a different direction, the mutual respect is evident. “He’ll get in touch and check up to see how things are going, he doesn’t just forget you,” McCullough adds.
It’s a trait that Cook, who attended Stevens’ daughter’s christening in Dublin last year, saw up close and personal.
He has an interest in other people’s careers and their lives. There are so many people delighted to see him do so well and develop into a top-class Premier League and international player.
“In a lot of football clubs, the manager can be close to players. That’s how I like to be,” Cook, the former Sligo Rovers boss, continues. “Some are different. I think it’s important to know players’ families and about their lives.
“Enda has Sinead and the little un. He’s surrounded by fantastic people, a fantastic family. Being there for the christening and being around them all, it just opens your eyes to that.”
Stevens and his partner named their daughter Bella Elaine, the poignancy of which is clear, and it is through his exploits on the pitch that he can now provide for this family of his own. “There comes a time when lads need to stand up and take responsibility for their own careers,” Cook insists.
“Talent alone will get you nowhere. There are academy lads in England and it’s just… Enda came over and got his big move from Shamrock Rovers. It didn’t work, he could have finished up and said it wasn’t to be but sometimes having that little bit of hurt is good for a lad’s hunger.
“There were was a realisation with Enda when he was at Portsmouth about what he needed to do to start his career again.”
It’s something Chris Wilder has felt the benefit of ever since, but if it wasn’t for the encouragement of Paul Keegan at Doncaster things could have turned out so differently when Portsmouth, then in League Two, expressed their interest.
“From the outside, you probably look at it and think the Premier League is this untouchable place in some ways. But he started at Villa and ended up in League Two with Portsmouth in the space of three years, so Enda knows nothing is certain,” Keegan begins.
“He realises how quickly things can change or be taken away, I think having that fear in you of realising that drives you on even more.
He is showing his class now every week in the Premier League but it will still be there in the back of his head about what he has already been through to get back there. I remember when he came and had a chat with me when the chance to go to Portsmouth was there.
“He wasn’t sure what to do, he didn’t think moving to League Two would be good or moving to the other end of the country. I told him that Cookie would be great for him. The style of play, attacking, energetic, it was perfect. And the type of manager Cookie is you can’t help but love the game with him.”
If Paul Cook provided the love, captain Michael Doyle, another Dubliner and Cherry Orchard alumnus, instilled just a little bit of hate to drive him on across the white line. Their families remain close now and discussion never strays far from football.
“Behind the nice fella and the lad who is good craic there is someone really determined and who understands what he wants,” Doyle says. “Things have clicked for him, in his head and on the pitch. I think he realises what he wants from his life.
“You hear so many sob stories now of lads who go to England, go through some of what Enda went through, when it’s not nice off the pitch and you’re away from people you love, your family who care about you when you think no one else around you does, you hear how bad it all is when they come back, all the bad stories.
“Enda has those stories but it just dropped with him. I know he had that chat with Chris Wilder, where it was basically put up to him about what he wanted to achieve in his life. There can be so many weak-minded people in football who wouldn’t have taken that conversation well and gone the other way.
“So what Enda is doing now, the rewards he is getting by playing in a top Premier League side and getting into the Ireland team, that’s down to him. The lower leagues can be demoralising, trust me, I know, but you have to love it to keep going through the grind of it. I love it and Enda does too.
“He fights through injury; dead legs, tight hamstrings, knocks all over the body. He has the attitude of never wanting to come out of the team, always being available.”
A mantra he has continued into the Premier League with Sheffield United this season, an ever-present without missing a second of action.
“There were no doubts about his ability to step up from the Championship,” Wilder continues. “You challenge Enda and he’ll rise to it. He’ll face it and enjoy it. He’s out there now after training most days doing more work, getting better and improving. You can trust him. That’s the professional he is.”
That’s Enda Stevens.
Fair play to them
@DL_8_5: overall deserved winners without a doubt.. But Having said that i really hope they don’t win it.. the arrogance and over confidence before the world Cup even started annoyed me, at times they really do make themselves the most unlikeable country ever when it comes to sport. Also we’d literally never hear the end of it if they won
@Acedeuce: it’s only overconfidence by some stupid papers..players have been pretty chilled
@Acedeuce: I had not heard anyone say they were going to win it before the tournament started in fairness.
@Paul Fahey: it’s the England fans I’m on about, the “it’s coming home” shouts after beating the worst team in the competition that annoyed me
@DL_8_5: Agreed. England were the better team for most of the game. Also, they were over due a change of luck in a penalty shootout. Can’t really say they were jammy, penalties are a lottery after all.
@Acedeuce: I understand what you are saying as a country, but these group of players and Southgate aswell seem fairly grounded. Don’t think they will win it but I’m glad they knocked out those Columbian thugs!
@Acedeuce: thats not the team.. it’s the cartoon English press rags…especially the toon sun rag…lets not forget Hillsborough and I’m not actually a Liverpool fan but a fan of football and being able to a game in peace without racism and bias…
@DL_8_5: ah yfg beat everybody else to the punch.
@Dan: well said….as Keano said…one game at a time and we’ll see how good you are…
@Acedeuce: like the ‘you’ll never beat the irish’ ones. Same thing in fairness. Fans are always going to be overly optimistic!!
They are the least arrogant and most likeable English team in a long time!
@Acedeuce: Surely the Irish are worse? You’ll never beat the Irish even when we are getting the shlte bet out of us!
@Acedeuce:
They have Sweden now, a andy enough game at this stage of the tournament, could reach the semis then please God someone will batter them and send them back to Blighty.
@Charlie Hunter: Sweden have always been England’s bogey team!
@joe: ahh.. But the “you’ll never beat the Irish” is in fact true.. Doesn’t matter if we’re getting slaughtered, the fact of the matter is you’ll never beat the Irish :)
@Acedeuce: Try living in Germany or Italy !!
@Dan: absolutely Dan…the English boys are the EXACT opposite of being arrogant….
@DL_8_5: Thugs is tight..they were a disgrace
@DL_8_5: I don’t think they have the players to win it but fair play to them for coming through this evening, Columbia’s antics were shocking at times. England had to win a penalty shootout at some stage & in fairness Southgate seems to be a a fairly sound grounded guy who had his own penalty heartache & deserves a break.
@Acedeuce: it’s from a song, which the English do not take literally, but you seem to.
@Acedeuce: honestly, what are you talking about?
@Acedeuce: don’t forget that Ole Ole Ole cringe nonsense out of us. They’re entitled to sing footballs coming home. I don’t see the problem. Seem like a decent bunch too. No John Terry ‘s etc. Happy for them
@Acedeuce: yawn
@Paul Fahey: Paradoxically it’s we don’t want England to win their games, but we want them to progress to keep our interest in it.
I think Belgium have a good chance of winning.
What a save by Pickford… England were due a win in penalties in fairness… you have to fancy them now against Sweden. Southgate proving to be a fairly good manager in fairness.
@An Observer2: Agree on Southgate. You could see that England had put a lot of work into their penalty taking and they are a well organised team.
@EK: Yeah, you can see he isn’t taking the piss with tactics. Imagine they win the World Cup with him as manager? It would wipe out his penalty miss that hopefully isn’t still hanging over him…
@An Observer2: Him missing that penalty has probably made him put more focus on them as a manager. Hopefully it mends Southgate’s reputation in the long run.
@An Observer2:
Watch that save again pal.
It was nothing special.
Straight at him!
@An Observer2: they will beat Sweden and you are right Pickford had a brilliant game and save..
@An Observer2: in fairness you’re right…in fairness :-) You’re not related to Ronan Keating by any chance…in fairness :-)
@joeyhem: it was already past him. Reached back to save it! Great save!!
@Sloop John G: I only spotted the 2nd in fairness when I posted the comment…in fairnessh…
@joeyhem: Really? The ball was going in. He went the other way. He extended his hand and saved it. It was a tremendous save,look what it led to…
@joeyhem: You are right pal, unbelievable save
@An Observer2: the one before the equilizer was the save of the tournament?
@An Observer2: true enough in fairness
@An Observer2:
Once again keeper off his line.
Fair play to them.
But how come our keeper got a red card for doing the same thing in the run up to the World Cup.
Refs must have been told to ignore this in the World Cup.
@joe:
He was half way out on the pitch.
That’s why he had to reach back.
If he was on his line the ball would have been in the back of the net.
Colombia lost my support after that display of petulance and cheating. Glad England won in the end and very happy for young Pickford. What a save that was from Uribe!
@Daniel Donovan: that’s was an amazing save.
@Daniel Donovan: my wife was gutted..i was delighted..great save
Don’t really see the point in begrudging this England team. They were better than Colombia on the night and deserved to go through.
@EK: W
@EK: Who’s begrudging? All fairly positive comments on here towards England…
@EK: were they??
Despite their possession, they did f all with it.
Colombia only started to play in the last ten minutes and England looked very ordinary.
Croatia to thump em.
@An Observer2: Thankfully it’s mostly positive on this article but I think the live commentary comments sections have been a bit juvenile during England games.
@EK: they are our local rivals you dope. Should galway people be cheering on Mayo in games ?
@EK:
The commentary was was all about how great England played.
I mean they critisied previous matches, over the keepers coming off their lines.
But it took a long time after the match for them the even mention the fact Pickford was off his line.
Fair play to England. Strong finish to the Shoot out. Bit of me wanted them to win after the way the colombians acted through out the game. It was embarrassing. England won a shoot out what a world cup
@Yorkie1892: Agree Yorkie. Colombia were a disgrace and made it difficult for the referee.
@Daniel Donovan: the var charade game is very annoying too also
@Daniel Donovan: well done also to the ref. I feared for his safety at one stage the Colombians were a disgrace they got the equaliser in the add time that their behaviour created hardly fair
Congrats to England. The best team won. It’s fantastic to have some representation from the British Isles in the Quarters!
@Sean Dilligan: ah here, I’d take France over england as a neighbour
@Sean Dilligan: speak for yourself.
@Sean Dilligan: It really isn’t though, is it? Totally nonplussed at the notion of another country ‘representing’ us.
@Sean Dilligan: “british isles” f*ck me
@Conor Mahon: after what they did to us in Paris …leave it out mate…hope Uruguay HAMMER them..
@Sean Dilligan: Fuvk off!
@Sean Dilligan: British and Irish Isles compadre
@Karlos McGrath: Christ it was fairly obvious now that I was joking. Calm down
@Sean Dilligan: It was not obvious in the slightest. You should have your Irish citizenship revoked. Immediately.
@Ray Farrell: Speaks for me too, so suck it up…it’s coming home…
@Norvik_1602: well of course he does. Speaks for all blow-ins.
@Norvik_1602: Well then go and Live on one of your precious Brit Isles..
I’d mixed feelings before the game and just wanted the better team on the night to win.
My six year old son who’s been glued to the World Cup and as a Dad answering 200 questions every 10 mins of every game was hoping England would win.
He simply said “they are beside us Dad” .
As a six year old he knows nothing about the conflict and disturbing history our nations shared, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him.
So we sat there and enjoyed the football .
I hope his generation will not be instilled in the animosity certain people of our generation still hold strong.
Another memorable night with my son .
As a Villa fan I’m personally delighted for Southgate too
Met him many times before and after games and a lovely genuine person.
@Denis White: your six year old shows more sense than most Irish…we are supposed to be trying to get on from the ‘bad years’ ..seems the only ones that can’t let it go are the Irish…most English I know are quite embarrassed by the antics of the British Empire…
@Denis White: Name me a country that doesn’t have a disturbing history (whatever that means) with another. England has been at war or allied to nearly every state in Europe. Only in Ireland do people get upset about things that happened centuries ago. People need to fcuking grow up. It’s a sport, nothing more.
@Desmond Cassidy: Antics? Lazy broadside much? The British Empire has fat more positives than negatives. Also since Ireland was an integral part of the UK when then Empire existed why are you not apologising as well?
nice – an Irish Unionist and an little Englander arguing.
I hate the English media with a passion the team aren’t bad but ugh the media
@Joe: BBC bias = RTE bias. it happens in every country.
@Sean Conway: yep Sean…same here in Germany….
Living in London, people are going absolutely nuts, roaring “footballs coming home”. If it does, I’ll go home.
@Ben Coughlan: hope to see you when you come back home
@Ben Coughlan: That’s the problem with the English – Indignant in defeat and unbearable in victory………if it wasn’t for this I’d wish them well.
@Dan: Dan the man, well said Dan!
@Martin Horan: what about us we are having thirty,th anniversary celebrations of the Houghton goal in 1988 off the ball even had special panels discussing it
@Ben Coughlan: or you could join in the craic over there and celebrate a team that actually has a chance of winning. Not like Ireland will be giving us a reason to celebrate anytime soon.
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: you must be joking i cannot see how any self respecting irish person can lend their support to England!
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: Ffs..
Happy for England our closest neighbours. Let’s leave brexit to one side for tonight!
@Brian Waldron: and leave the 800 years aside too is it?
Brilliant, delighted for them. What a safe from Pickford
Harry Kane whose grand father came from Connemara comes across as a really sound grounded player. I believe himself and Southgate have brought England to a new level and as a duo have brought a humility to a team which in the past was missing. If only the press and some of their fans followed suit then England would have more fans in this part of the world.
@Tom Reilly: Well said Sir…
Hate to say it completely deserved. Great saves by Pickford. Colombia should have had a few sent off. Delighted they got done in the end for all their antics
Amazing penalty save by Pickford.
Well done England deserved winners. I hope the can go all the way….!
Deserved the win in the 90 minutes but the bias in the RTE commentary was astonishing.
@the druid: don’t have it with virgin otherwise I’d be doing the back and forth remote thing. Plus George Hamiltons “hindsight” penalty commentary very annoying, “never in doubt” after the ball hits the net.
@Jg Igoe: Those foreigners playacting with their diving and total silence with the likes of Young diving. Pathetic
@Jg Igoe: Richard Dunne, working class Dub, on RTÉ last night – “I hope WE win.” Embarrassing stuff.
How was Falcao not sent off for his antics; referee must have a sore ear from all the complaining he was doing. Well done England!!
Unpopular opinion on here but I fancy them to win it
Surely one should support a European team in World Cup vs non European? Not to do so is bitter anti English in the extreme. Best team won in the end and Columbian behaviour during match embarrassing and should have resulted in at least one if not two red cards. Sport above nationality and fair play above all I say.
@unlaoised: you did notice both McGuire and lingard diving in the box looking for penalties? The antics were on both sides last night.
@Jg Igoe:
Some people only see one side.
They never see the antics of both teams.
Mon the Swedes!
All up england deserved the win. Pity Colombia only started playin after an hour of trying to ruffle England’s feathers.
Delighted for the Colombians, they were filth and deserved that!
England deserved it , but they have had some easy route to the the semis. Easy qualifying group, easy world cup group, a bad combian team, and next sweden.
Delighted for them . They are our closest neighbours and no doubt some irish blood there
Pickford shaking the bar just before penalty hit and a mile off his line before the penalty hit. Feel sorry for ospina after making a truly great save.
@Mel Roberts: incorrect. His left foot was behind the line when the ball was kicked.
@Mel Roberts: did you actually watch the penalty shoot out….BEHIND THE LINE…
@Brendan Murphy: your toot he was
@Mel Roberts:
You must’ve been watching a different penalty shootout.
Either that or your begrudgery got the better of you.
@Brendan Murphy:
Where were you watching the match.
He was nearly up on the player.
Right through the last 16 the refs have turned a blind eye to the keepers coming off their lines.
3 Irish lads on the team Kane, Maguire and Henderson great to see them win.
Three Lions on the Shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming, Thirty Years of Hurt, Never Stopped me Dreaming…
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming….
Well done England. Pickford was great in goal Colombia were playing like a bunch of gougers.
Knew Henderson would miss, very overrated player
@Stevie Doran: he stuck it in the corner ffs, great save by keeper
@Damien Byrne: he totally telegraphed where he was aiming for and the pen was the perfect height for the goalie .
Henderson feigned confidence doing solos leading up to the kick you just knew he would miss. I’m a Liverpool fan but thought he had an awful game
Watch football for the enjoyment, to cheer on Ireland, cork city, spurs (and yes aware of the hypocrisy coming) and to hopefully watch England lose. But the ridiculous behavior, cheating (more than usual in football) and anti-football of Panama and now Columbia have had me cheering for our neighbours twice now…feckers! That said…..come on Sweden!
Fair play England. The better team won and got the job done.
Our Leeds cult hero Pontus Janson might make life difficult on Saturday however.
Great tournament so far.
Wrong on so many levels almost unatural to see England won a penality shootout
2 hours of my life I’ll never get back.
@John A. Dixon: there’s always RTE +1
@John A. Dixon:
Don’t worry John, there’s always next Saturday afternoon to do it all again.
@John A. Dixon: go and watch Rugby then…bitter….
i can’t see Sweden troubling England tbh
@Just Some Guy: well Swedish record v England is good
Vindaloo nah nah nah
Just more heartache when Croatia chin them in the semis
Jesus do.not buy “Red Tops” in.the morning,
Need to get Ibra back in the Sweden team to put England to the sword again
Nothing to brag about. England’s performance was horrid, and the skill level – or lack thereof – in this team is absolutely cringy.
Was going to read this article, but came across the phrase, “early doors”and thought WTF…..
@Acedeuce: The exact opposite is true. English people are generally pessimistic about the football team’s chances, through bitter experience. Some Irish people are just haters, if the roles were reversed almost all English would very happily cheer for us.
England fans have got used to disappointment over the decades. We had to suffer a “golden generation” full of unlovable, horrible individuals like Terry and Rooney and Cole.
I live in Ireland now but I don’t know of any England fans who are arrogant about the team. Many are completely fed up of them and never watch the matches anymore.
Granted you’ll always have some of the tabloid rags making cringeworthy statements etc but the vast majority of fans are far from arrogant.
I don’t rate the team that much. We’ve no midfield and Stirling is a passenger up front. But we controlled much if the game last night and deserved to win and I was so pleased because Colombia’s antics and attitude was absolutely appalling.
Another grindingly dull game to come against Sweden now I’m afraid.
Come on Harry!
Better tournament with Colombia out. Such a shower of cheats. Well done England.
They were the better team but then it’s no great boast to say they were the better team. Colombia were absolutely brutal and their carry on was startling, they’re headers!!!! England really are no great shakes they didn’t create an awful lot and if Colombia had kept up their extra time 1st half form they could easily have won. Poor game
https://youtu.be/Ie7d08Og_60
Nothing against England best of luck to them but they are simply not good enough
What a turkey of a game.
Its….
Would be madness if them and Russia made the semis. Unlikely but there’d be murder.
You’ll never beat the Irish.
Of course you won’t, they didn’t qualify.
Usual chip on a shoulder Irish begrudgery, what really annoys these gits is that no one in England gives a flying *£%¥ what they think.
Glad to see England win but my money is still on France to win overall.
@Norvik_1602: except you of course. You seem to care a lot. Very annoyed. In fact you’re whole post seems to be projection.
Right lads. Were all
Because that side of the draw is so pathetic. England have a legitimate change of being in the final.
England wouldn’t have scored from open play if they were still playing at 12 am. Colombia beat themselves by giving that stupid penalty away! Henderson is shocking! Some difference when you look at modric or rakitic for Croatia
that has to be the easiest route to the final not a big team in sight the other side of the qualifiers are so much tougher and they all finished top of their groups