VETERAN STRIKER DAVID McGoldrick scored just his second goal of the season as Sheffield United defeated Cardiff City today.
The 34-year-old – who retired from international football a year ago – had come close on two occasions before he finally got the goal his performance deserved as his shot trickled inside the post to give Sheffield United a 3-1 lead.
Earlier, Conor Hourihane had curled just over from the edge of the area after Oliver Norwood picked him out from a corner, while McGoldrick shot straight at Cardiff keeper, Alex Smithies, from the left of the six-yard box.
The match swung in the visitors’ favour seven minutes after the restart when Sean Morrison was shown a straight red card for chopping down Billy Sharp as he raced on to Irishman McGoldrick’s through-ball.
Cardiff’s young Irish defender, Mark McGuinness, got a 90th-minute header but proved to be mere consolation for Steve Morison’s Bluebirds.
Irish forward, Aaron Connolly, came off the bench for Brighton and teed up Maupay with a fine low ball, only for the Frenchman to fail to take advantage of the Galwegian’s creativity. It was Connolly’s first Premier League game since September.
Elsewhere in the Championship, Scott Hogan provided an assist for Troy Deeney but it was Millwall who ended a four-game winless streak with a 3-1 home victory over mid-table rivals Birmingham.
Birmingham captain Deeney combined well with Irishman Hogan to get past the Millwall defence before blasting a rocket past Bartosz Bialkowski into the roof of the net in front of the travelling fans.
In the same game there was an assist by Millwall’s Irish right back, Danny McNamara, for George Evans, who curled his shot beautifully into the top corner.
Earlier today Callum Robinson was on hand to deliver an assist to Karlan Grant, who had not scored since the Baggies’ last win at Hull almost a month ago but Robinson’s defence-splitting ball enabled the striker to calmly fire past Simon Moore to give the Albion the lead en route to a 2-1 win over Coventry.
