Dinny Corcoran made a surprise appearance on Channel 4's Countdown on Monday afternoon.
The show aired at 2:10pm. Just two hours earlier, the Bohs striker was named League of Ireland Player of the Month for February.
"Of course, it's a bit of a rugby nation but you get a decent following, do you?" asked host Nick Hewer.
"Yeah, it's not bad. The way the rugby's going at the moment, there's a lot of fans for that," Corcoran answered diplomatically.
The 30-year-old acquitted himself well against tough opposition - a retired librarian from Lutterworth named Maggie Barlow.
After a tough start - Corcoran found himself 22-0 down at the first ad break - he finally got on the scoreboard with an eight-letter word, 'enlarges'.
A couple of rounds earlier, the professional footballer amusingly found himself with a target of 442 in the numbers round. Rachel Riley was the only one to spot the opportunity for a joke.
It was in the third numbers round where Corcoran began to close the gap. He followed that up with the five-letter 'Demon' while Maggie floundered with a risky eight, 'compends', which is not in the modern dictionary.
That scoreline - 55-36 - was as close as Corcoran got. Maggie eventually won 97-50. That included her finding a swift solution to the conundrum.
The answer was 'washboard'.
Daniel left with a Countdown goodie bag.
Picture credit: Sportsfile
