On Thursday night's episode of Off The Ball, Stephen Hunt was on the line to join Kevin Kilbane and Ger Gilroy in a discussion about Joe Lapira, of all people.
After detailing some of the goings on in that strange tour to the US under Steve Staunton, where Lapira was handed his one and only Ireland cap, Kilbane then sent Hunt up to explain why he didn't like former Reading and Ireland striker Simon Cox.
And Hunt was more than happy to.
It started when Hunt was discussing how Trappatoni wanted him to play in a friendly with Italy back in 2011, despite the Reading man having an achilles problem. Hunt played, and set up a goal, and Kilbane asked who had scored it, knowing full-well that it was Simon Cox and that Hunt was going to have to tell a story.
And it was a good one.
Ah Simon Cox killed me. Have you ever seen the celebration?
I ran half the pitch with the ball, and I've had to tee up Simon Cox who, wasn't my favourite player on the Irish team, everyone probably knows that, so I've had to set him up. You've teed me up Kev [Kilbane]!
I had no choice, it was one of those where the best thing was to pass the ball, so he tapped it in, and I actually gave him a kick up the backside when he was in the net, if you look at the replay. He scored the goal, then I came in and volleyed him and walked off. It was a sarcastic kick though.
Through the magic of the internet, we can show you that goal after three seconds of searching on google:
Hardly a volley, although he did run half the pitch to be fair.
So why did he dislike Cox, give him a kick in the arse, and want nothing to do with the celebration? Because of an incident on a golf course in Co.Wicklow a few days before.
The day before, we were playing golf, and they kept hitting golf balls down on top of us. So we were at Druids Glen playing golf, and he kept landing balls down, and you guys play so you know how dangerous that is, so I ended up picking up a couple of balls and hitting them back towards the tee box, towards them [Cox and his playing partners].
Cox gave me a bit of lip, so I just reminded him that he used to clean my boots at Reading and he should calm down. It is what it is.
Well played, Stephen. Well played.
Kilbane's laughter then interrupted Hunt as he was trying to explain that it was all in good fun, the former Everton man was delighted to have set his pal up to tell that story live on Irish radio.
Keep up the good work, Killer.
You can listen to tonight's episode of Off The Ball, and we recommend that you do, in full over on Newstalk.com
