LAST UPDATE | 26 May 2024
TROY PARROTT SAYS it was a “special feeling” to score a half-hour hat-trick as Excelsior Rotterdam fight for Eredivisie survival.
The Republic of Ireland striker helped Excelsior to a 7-1 win over ADO Den Haag yesterday as they reached the final of the relegation play-offs.
“This is my first time scoring three goals, it’s a special feeling,” Parrott told Radio + TV Rijnmond afterwards.
“We came here to do what we had to do, to win the game, and I thought we won it in really good fashion.”
The 22-year-old Dubliner, on a season-long loan from Tottenham Hotspur, was on target in the third, 27th and 30th minutes at Stadion Woudestein, bringing his tally to 13 goals and four assists for the season.
The first two goals were deft, chipped finishes while he rounded off the hat-trick off from the penalty spot.
“I think there were two passes leading up to the [first] goal that maybe could have been offside,” Patrott recalled.
“I knew the first one wasn’t but the second one, I wasn’t too sure because I couldn’t see what was behind me. You have to just play until the whistle goes, good for us that it was onside and it got us off to a good start.
Troy Parrott that is magic!🤯🇮🇪
— Rep of Ireland Player Tracker (@reptracker) May 25, 2024
Take a bow son, what a finish☘️ pic.twitter.com/adL27Up3tu
“After the first one, I thought maybe the keeper will think that I will do this again. He dropped early again [for the second], it was a nice goal.
“If anyone scores two goals and we get a penalty, I think it’s only right that this person takes the penalty. It was good.”
The game was halted shortly after the third goal due to fireworks on the pitch. The hour-long delay was “frustrating,” Parrott said, with the game’s other goals coming on its resumption.
He was substituted in the 77th minute, with NAC Brada up next across two legs on Tuesday and Sunday.
“For me, I always want more, but I also understand that we have two more games to play. Especially now at this time of the season, it’s difficult where we have a lot of games in a short time.
“We have two important games left to play and we’ll do everything that we can to win the two games.”
While Adam Idah and Jake O’Brien were both on target in the Scottish and French Cup finals yesterday, there were other Irish goalscorers on the continent.
Amber Barrett (two) and Claire O’Riordan scored in Standard Liege’s 5-1 win over Club Brugge. They finished overall to Anderlecht in the Belgian women’s top-flight, with Barrett bringing her goalscoring record to 19 for the season.
There was disappointment for three other Irish women’s players this afternoon.
Diane Caldwell’s FC Zurich were beaten 3-1 by Servette FCCF in the Swiss league final, while Hearts (Ciara Grant and Kate Mooney) fell to a 2-0 defeat to Rangers in the Women’s Scottish Cup decider.
Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed