04/09 The Sports Pages

All of this morning’s papers are united in saluting Ireland’s Keith Fahey after the Birmingham midfielder scored the only goal against Armenia in the Euro 2012 qualifying opener in Yerevan yesterday evening.

The Star make a decent effort with ‘By the skin of our Keith’, which amply reflects just how difficult a task it was for Trapattoni’s men, while The Irish Sun let themselves down a little with ‘Fahey’s a jolly good fellow’, possibly with the idea that readers would pronounce Fahey’s name (Faw-hee) which seems to be the trend amongst commentators across the pond.

In any case, while it wasn’t pretty, Trap’s boys came away from a difficult venue with a good win and are in good stead ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Andorra at the Aviva Stadium.

The other big news this morning is that Henry Shefflin will indeed start tomorrow’s All-Ireland final against Tipperary, completing a remarkable recovery from a ruptured cruciate ligament sustained against Cork less than a month ago.

The Sun redeem themselves with the headline ‘Hen Picked’ in relation to the story, while also revealing that fellow injury doubt John Tennyson will start in place of broken finger victim Brian Hogan at centre back.

Most of the experts in today’s papers are predicting that Kilkenny will win and go on and complete a momentous five-in-a-row, including the Irish Independent’s Cyril Farrell, who believes that the Cats’ seven heavenly virtues of power, pace, poise, precision, pattern, persistence and perception will lead them to victory.

An ever-improving Tipperary side shouldn’t go into the final without hope, however, as one of the game’s most famous names, the outspoken Ger Loughnane, believes that the Premier County can upset the odds tomorrow.

Loughnane writes in The Star: “The comeback against Galway was something special, the kind of thing that makes a team and drives them onto greatness.

“Their recovery from the Pairc Ui Chaoimh disaster in late May has been the making of them, wiping away any notions of grandeur and hardening them mentally to the realities of sport. They are now a genuine force and, despite having weaknesses, they are more importantly a really genuine team.

“Strange things sometimes happen in finals, so against all the odds, I’m going for a Tipp win.”