After naming Fulham's Steve Finnan as our Player of the Week last Monday we then watched as his team surrendered a two-goal lead with five minutes to go in their League Cup quarter-final against Leicester, which they went on to lose on penalties, before seeing him concede a penalty against Manchester City yesterday from which they wrapped up a 4-0 victory.

So, clearly, this award has taken on all the kiss-of-death qualities associated with the Manager of the Month award in England (Stephen Carr, Niall Quinn, Joe Murphy and Alan Kelly - to name but four - can vouch for that: they all picked up nasty injuries not long after we picked them as our men of the week).

Apologies, then, to Clondalkin's Alan Quinn (20), who returned from suspension on Saturday to produce a blinding midfield display for Sheffield Wednesday in their desperately needed win over Bradford. "The lad was absolutely triffic," as a grateful Danny Wilson put it after the game. We will watch young Quinn's progress over the next few weeks from behind a cushion.