Less than a week after what can only be described as a mindless attack on the All-Ireland football final, Sky Sports are at it again.
We've grown to expect it with Conor McGregor, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell and other such international superstars, where the English media inexplicably attempt to claim them for the Empire, but surely not even the most ardent of cynics could have predicted that they'd try to pinch Stephen Ward from under our nose.
Take our eyes, Sky, but not Stephen Ward. Never Stephen Ward!!!
In an article titled 'Burnley v Watford: Sean Dyche’s side face cosmopolitan opposition', Sky note how Burnley manager Sean Dyche has "already fielded 10 Englishmen in their first five Premier League games on their return to the top flight."
Incredibly, the original article brazenly listed Steven Ward as one of said Englishmen, despite the former Bohs man from Portmarnock having already been capped 38 times by Ireland, and hailing from England in no way, shape or form.
In actual fact, Burnley have fielded 10 English players this season, in Patrick Bamford, Andre Gray, Tom Heaton, David Jones, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Michael Keane, Matthew Lowton, Dean Marney, Ben Mee and James Tarkowski. And yes, Michael Keane is English, despite having played for Ireland at u17 level.
And while Danny Rose might be looking over his shoulder this morning, he can breathe a sigh of relief that Stephen Ward is in fact not coming for his position. In fact, he should be thanking his lucky stars Ward was born 250km too far west to be eligible for England.
Could it have been simple human error from a sub-editor who saw the name 'Ward' and presumed he was English? Absolutely not. This never-ending campaign is more sinister, more conceited. We urge Irish football fans to remain vigilant during this extremely distressing time.
Cheers to Kevin Bannon for being on the red alert.
