LOI Central

"Guess who's back? Damo's back..." and while we're talking back, let's talk full backs. Because the debate will rage over who was better, Damien Lynch or San Fransisco born Neal Horgan, who's also back. Despite his best efforts Neal ends up talking again about crisis clubs and this time it's Athlone Town. Johnny gets all fanboy with Galway United's Ronan Murray who talks about their cup run and working with Roy Keane at Ipswich. There's the usual random degrees of separation from the Hitler Youth comparisons with Social Media to mass defections of Bray Wanderers players in Inverness....but the main thing is that Damo's back and he's got 1600 emails to answer!

On this week's show we welcome Ger 'Buzzer' Rowe from Crumlin to talk about their upcoming cup match against the reigning champions, and his fond memories of Shelbourne legend Ollie Byrne on the tenth anniversary of his passing. He also offers expert opinion on which ex pros make the best taxi drivers, little people kicking in his door in Mosney and how five a sides in the flats honed his skills from a very early age. If this wasn't enough for you, we have Shane Keegan from Galway Utd on the phone and the results of the piano man poll are in as to whether it's gonna be Ollie Horgan or Ollie Horgan who tinkles the ivories at Dan's Wedding! Goodness Gracious, Great balls of....

In between selecting Dan's Wedding Songs and appraising Dublin's formal menswear retailers, 'Smooth' Johnny Ward and 'Dynamic' Dan McDonnell, play host to Longford Town manager Neale Fenn, who tells us about his love of the job and his career to date. Ollie Horgan is back on the phone from 'Harps to talk through the end of season run in, we don't discover what Alan Cawley cooked for Johnny, and Johnny takes ten minutes to to come up with a pun for 'Chambers'! All this and more....Because you just keep giving us 5 star reviews!

This week we welcomed Bohs Duo Oscar Brennan and Shane Supple to the studio...well almost! Our transition year sound engineer insisted on recording the first half of Oscar's contribution in a corrugated iron roofed shed for effect. We abandoned this experiment after about ten minutes and instead focused on Bohs beating Cork, Stephen Kenny's new contract and The Shawshank Redemption - Gypsy Style

The boy genius Johnny Dunleavy takes the train to our studio just north of North Korea where he joins a stag weary Dan and a Galway Races weary Johnny for a humdinger of a show that tackles head injuries, the obvious observations of middle aged cork men, amnesia, Aaron Lennon's driving position, going Hurling with Hunt, and "How The Simpson's would do press releases". It's so good that this weeks episode would get 12 A's in it's Inter Cert, including Latin!

Dan returns to accompany Johnny after an 'Oh-So-Short' European adventure to analyze what went wrong for the LOI teams. Luke Byrne from Shamrock Rovers drops in to preview the upcoming Bohs-Rovers game and Alan Reynolds from Waterford talks hurling, tenors, and the cup run. Oh, and Vincent Browne somehow gets a look in.

Gary McCabe from Bray Wanderers gives us a frank and honest opinion about the situation at the club from a players perspective in one of the most revealing interviews we've broadcast thus far. Also as it's make or break time for LOI clubs in Europe, Dan McDonnell is in Rosenborg and joins Johnny and Aidan Fitzmaurice from The Herald on the line from Norway to discuss if "it's over now?". Oh and there might be a little 90's Nordic pop theme too..

We kick off the next week of European games Dan-less as he's in Louth for the big game in Dundalk but does manage to secure a telephone line to discuss the Rosenberg choice of accommodation as well as the big game. Johnny is joined by Alan Keane formerly of Dundalk and Sligo Rovers who's well used to European Football. Also dropping by is Shamrock Rover's goalkeeper Tomer Chencinski, the first Hebrew speaking guest on the pod. Tomer looks back on his career to date, his first brush with girls at eight years old, and life in Ireland. Oh, and he pushes Johnny's spelling prowess to it's limits! All this and the usual news and views on everything League of Ireland.

This milestone episode unfortunately concentrates on the current border town of despair just a few miles south. Bray Wanderers' current predicaments prompt Johnny and Dan to phone former Cork City footballer and author Neal Horgan for a detailed discussion on the latest crisis to hit the league. On a more optimistic note the current round of European games provide good news stories. We round up the weekends action with usual predictions and ask who will be the next addition to Sénor Ward's photo album? Answers on a postcard to....

This week’s bumper LOI Weekly is a truly trans global affair. Regular schemers Johnny and Dan are joined in studio by James Chambers, the star of Bethlehem who plays his soccerball stateside these days. There’s also European giddiness and a telephone chat with Derry Manager Kenny Shiels on their prospects in Hamlet’s old stomping ground. Plus for good measure we head north with The Herald’s Aidan Fitzmaurice going all "Bjork meets Sigur Ros” in Iceland. If you add to that, Johnny’s visa debacles via Iran and Dan’s attempts to bring Guinness etiquette to Russian visitors, all we would need is another 'Home and Away’ bit and we’d have covered more air miles than a FIFA delegate in the off season. Oh, and Cork will still win it though…The league that is.