Folks,
98FM’s weekly sports show “Now That’s What I Call Sport” airs every Sunday morning from 9-10am.
Presented by myself Johnny Lyons, this week’s show broadcast on Sunday May 17th features the following guests :
- Mark Connolly –
Mark’s story is more and more the tale of the modern day footballer.
Taken out of his comfort zone almost as soon as he’s out of nappies, Mark was whisked off to Wolves as a chisler.
‘Twasn’t long before then Premier League Bolton came a calling and with the piper paying a million pound tune, off Mark was to the Trotters.
As he says himself, he had to rub his eyes as he found himself sitting in the dressingroom sandwiched between England internationals Kevin Davies to his right and Gary Cahill to his left.
But as time went on the reality of his life began to hit home right bang middle in the solar plexus where it hurts.
The native of Clones was living in a swanky mansion in Manchester but he was young, all on his own and with nothing to do.
He believed he was better off at Wolves where he was in the youth team and had a domestique to look after him, clean his place, cook for him.
Depression swept over him and his football was going down the tubes.
The Bolton docs gave him a few days off and gave him medication – you know as if that was gonna work.
These were the darkest days of his life - he describes his daily existence as “feeling like the longest life ever”.
Crawley Town rescued him from this miserable life as regular first team football coupled with better lifestyle practices turned his life around.
And then he signed for Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership where he’s turned over a new leaf so to speak.
He’s just earned the Footballer of the Year title at Killie, his partner Rosie is expecting their first child and has settled into a new house.
But here and there there’s occasionally a reminder of the dank days in middle England – in the rigmarole of moving house he forgot to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and recently got a bill from British Gas that ran into the thousands !
2. Fiona Coghlan
Fast becoming a household name in domestic sporting circles, Fiona’s one of those who’s responsible for the fantastic news this week with the Womens Rugby World Cup comin’ to the island of Ireland in 2017.
Fi Fi was an excellent captain of Ireland and skippered the Girls in Green to an incredible fourth place finish at last years’s World Cup in France.
This directly contributed to the success of the Irish bid in landing the right to stage the competition on the Emerald Isle.
Fiona’s back on the show to explain what the World Cup will mean to the development of the game in this country.
- And with four Dublin teams in the finals of the FAI Intermediate and Junior Cups, we talk with Liffey Wanderers’ John ”Wembo” Young, Sheriff YC’s Alan Reilly, Tolka Rovers’ Paul Doyle and Crumlin Utd’s Martin Loughran.
It’s a big day at the Aviva on Sunday !
Competitions :
- New Liverpool home jerseys to give away
- Tix for the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh
- Tix for the FAI Intermediate/Junior Cup finals
Thanks,
Johnny.
