D Wednesday, October 7, 2009 METROSPORT 23 Backlash for Barry shows up jealousy, says Shay SHAY GIVEN claims fans of Man- chester Citys rivals are jealous of the vast money the club spent this summer. The City keeper spoke out after Gareth Barry was booed from the minute he stepped off the team coach until the final whistle on his first re- turn to Aston Villa on Monday. The England midfielder moved to Eastlands in the summer after 11 years at Villa Park, during which time he made 440 appearances. His departure saw Villa pocket 12million they would not have received if he had seen out the final year of his contract and left as a free agent at the end of this season. Craig Bellamys second-half goal handed the visitors a 1-1 draw after Richard Dunne, formerly Citys cap- tain, had opened his account for Villa early on. And Republic of Ireland No.1 Giv- en, who left Newcastle for a reported 5.9m in January, said: Fans up and down the country are perhaps a bit jealous of City in the sense they have new owners and what they can bring to the club. But they should respect Gareth for what he did beforehand. I was a little bit surprised by the reaction. He deserves a lot of credit for what he has done for Villa. It is a bit harsh on him, getting booed and the reception he got. He was at Villa for so many years and did great service there, got them 12m after Villa hardly paid a penny for him as well, so I thought it was a bit unfair. Gareth has come to us and wants to further his career and hopefully win trophies and I think the fans should respect what he has done for the club and move on. The reaction to Barry was in stark contrast to the applause City fans gave Dunne after he chose not to cel- ebrate his first-half header. And Villa boss Martin ONeill was particularly pleased with his new cen- tre-back partnership of Dunne and James Collins. I thought Dunne was magnificent against City, he added. He was given man of the match by our fans and I am delighted he is at the club. But his partner [Collins] has also been fantastic, hes a real player. SOCCER PREMIER LEAGUE BY KEVIN AITKEN Adebayor regrets Van Persie stamp EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR admits he regrets his attack on ex-Arsenal team-mate Robin van Persie. The Manchester City striker (pictured) was hit with a three-match ban after FA officials reviewed footage of the incident in last months win over the Gunners. The Togo star raked his studs down Van Persies face after the Dutchman slid in to tackle his former colleague. Adebayor had denied any intent at the time but now admits he wishes things had turned out differently. He said: Its one of the things you cant do in football, thats for sure. If someone did that to me it would annoy and hurt me. I regret it, for sure. RESULTS LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION Cork City .............2 Derry City.............0 Kuduzovic 18pen Dennehy 25 St Patricks ..........0 Sligo R..................2 Cretaro 14, 19 P W D L F A Pts Shamrock R 30 18 9 3 42 21 63 Bohemians 30 19 4 7 47 18 61 Cork 30 15 7 8 34 19 52 Derry City 30 15 5 10 40 24 50 Dundalk 30 12 5 13 39 40 41 Galway Utd 30 11 4 15 30 45 37 St Patricks 30 10 3 17 23 40 33 Sligo 30 7 9 14 30 44 30 Drogheda Utd 30 6 10 14 26 39 28 Bray 30 5 8 17 25 46 23 FIRST DIVISION Monaghan Utd ....1 Finn Harps............0 Grimes 73 Waterford Utd .....P Shelbourne...........P P W D L F A Pts UCD 28 19 5 4 50 16 62 Shelbourne 27 19 5 3 51 22 62 Sporting Fingal 28 18 5 5 54 21 59 Waterford Utd 27 17 6 4 44 14 57 Wexford Ys 28 13 4 11 24 25 43 Monaghan Utd 28 11 7 10 43 46 40 Limerick FC 28 9 8 11 39 36 35 Finn Harps 28 6 10 12 27 42 28 Longford Town 28 6 5 17 38 49 23 Athlone Town 28 5 8 15 26 46 23 Mervue Utd 28 6 4 18 26 56 22 Kildare County 28 3 3 22 17 66 12 SETANTA SPORTS CUP GROUP 2 Bohemians ..........0 Coleraine..............0 P W D L F A Pts Bohemians 2 1 1 0 2 1 4 Coleraine 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 Glentoran 2 0 1 1 1 2 1 LEAGUE OF IRELAND Leesiders take third from Derry GOALS from Faz Kuduzovic and Billy Dennehy saw Cork City leapfrog Derry City into third place with a 2-0 win at Turners Cross last night. Kuduzovic struck for the opening goal on 18 minutes when slotting home a penalty after Guntars Silagailis had been fouled inside the area. Dennehy added the second seven minutes later when heading home Kuduzovics cross. Elsewhere, Raffaele Cretaro hit a double inside five minutes to give Sligos hopes of avoiding relegation a massive boost as they dragged St Pats into the mix at the bottom. Cretaro struck to open the scoring on 14 minutes when latching on to a poor defensive header to outpace Jason Gavin and shoot past Brendan Clarke. The diminutive striker scored again on 19 minutes when tapping home at the back post after good work by skipper Connor OGrady and Matt Blinkhorn. The win moves Sligo above Drogheda to third from bottom, just three points behind St Pats, with six games to go. CORK C ..... 2 DERRY C....0 Bohs are held by Coleraine SETANTA CUP BOHEMIANS ..0 COLERAINE... 0 COLERAINE frustrated Bohemians at Dalymount Park as the Gypsies had to settle for a point following a tedious Setanta Sports Cup Group 2 clash. Bohs dominated but Neale Fenn missed the best chance when he headed a first-half Gary Burke cross wide. Picture: Action Images Pompey to spend PORTSMOUTH manager Paul Hart has been assured he will have money to spend in the January transfer window following Ali Al-Farajs purchase of 90 per cent of the Premier Leagues bottom team. Chief executive Peter Storrie said: Ali is a passionate follower of the Premier League and wants Portsmouth to remain in the best league in world football. There will be money to spend in January to make sure we do not lose our coveted place in the top flight. Bolton reported WOLVES have reported Bolton to the Premier League over an illegal approach to Irish academy player Mark Connolly, who moved to Bolton this summer for 1million. But Wolves allege Connolly, 17, was subject to unapproved communication from assistant Bolton boss Chris Evans before the deal. Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey said: It is not an issue about money; it is about the protection of the clubs academy. Benitez given huge boost as Aquilani nears fitness LIVERPOOL manager Rafael Benitez has been buoyed with news 20million summer signing Alberto Aquilani could make his long- awaited debut this month. The 25-year-old Italy midfielder arrived at Anfield from Roma in August having had surgery on an ankle injury and has yet to make an appearance for the club. However, Benitez, whose side have lost successive games to Fiorentina and Chelsea in the past week, is optimistic Aquilani will soon be match fit. Liverpools next league match away at Sunderland a week on Saturday may come too soon for Aquilani (pictured) opening up the prospect of him making his debut against champions Manchester United at Anfield on October 25. I have been speaking to the doctors and things are going well with him, Benitez said. Alberto is progressing all the time. It could be two to three weeks before he is back. But we need to use caution. We will take it one step at a time and we have the international break to look forward to now. That will be good for him, as he will have some more time. He is running and swimming and he is working in the gym. He is doing almost everything and he is doing some things with the team. The only thing he is not doing is kicking a ball. Aquilani was bought following the summer departure of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, although as a far more attacking player he is not a direct replacement. At the time Benitez knew the player would not be fit enough to feature early on in the season but has stressed the acquisition was part of a long-term plan. We knew he had the problem but we knew we were signing the player for five years and not five weeks, Benitez added. We will see if he can improve. Clearly he is a player with quality we are desperate to see on the pitch but we will not push him too much. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html