Darren Randolph staked a further claim for both the West Ham and the Irish Number 1 jersey with his impressive performance against Liverpool in the FA Cup last night.
Randolph starred in our daily sports podcast The Racket as we pitted the 2016 Irish team against the 2002 squad. Listen below:
West Ham beat Liverpool with an Angelo Ogbonna goal a minute from the end of extra-time, with Randolph critical in ensuring the game went that far.
The blame for the goal that he did concede could be pinned upon his defenders:
A view of Coutinho's free kick last night from the away end!#LFC pic.twitter.com/agyV5NNkuF
— Away Day Fans (@awayfanzone) February 10, 2016
The Irish goalkeeper made seven saves to ensure the Hammers progressed to the fifth round. Of those saves, four were from efforts from Christian Benteke, making Randolph the latest player complicit in making Benteke appear as the least offensive Christian since Mother Theresa.
Here is some of the reaction to Randolph's performance:
#whufc through, good header from Ogbonna, Payet touches of class, and a terrific display in goal from Darren Randolph.
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) February 9, 2016
Got to be happy with that result from Irish perspective - Darren Randolph is the right option for France and needs the games
— Daniel McDonnell (@McDonnellDan) February 9, 2016
Only Randolph and bad finishing keeping West Ham in this.
— Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) February 9, 2016
Fantastic game mate @Randz587 you were brilliant! #MOTM??
— Peter Lovenkrands (@lovenkrands11) February 9, 2016
Whilst this comes from a parody account - and in do way does the author with a byline avatar of Paul McCartney endorse identity theft - it is included because it's pretty funny.
When you make a £32million striker your bitch https://t.co/VbR4OGBn7I
— Cartlon Cole (@_CarltonCole9) February 9, 2016
