Ciaran Hanley

I know a thing or two about being two footed. I'm naturally right footed but growing up I loved watching left footed players like Diego Maradona, John Barnes and Chris Waddle. There was something unique about left footed footballers so I wanted to be one. Under Bill Shankly, Liverpool introduced The Boards to their training. It was basically wood fence panels nailed together to make walls in the middle of a football pitch so his players could play one twos off them while moving, improving their first touch, control of the ball and working on their weaker foot - much like they might have done as kids, kicking a ball against the side of their house. That was how I got a left foot. After that, it was about taking the ball out into the back garden and seeing if I could hit the wall above the coal bunker. It wasn't long before I was kicking it even further and almost breaking the kitchen window, further back and to the right of my initial target. I practiced every day and played kno...

Man City extended their lead to 11 points by defeating Arsenal at the Emirates on New Years Day. The Cityzens had cruised to the top of the league at Christmas again on the back of the type of long winning run that has marked their ascendency to the best team in England over the last 10 years. The signs are looking ominous again. When City are in front on the 25th December they stay there until the season is over. Indeed during this time, the only league leaders on Jesus' birthday who haven't gone on to win the premiership are Liverpool, a wrong we finally put right in 2020. City though have become notoriously slow starters and that season the reds relentlessly punished them by winning game after game leaving the blue side of Manchester with no room for error by the new year. Last season it was similar but having got to the top in time for Santa again, the wheels came off and we barely made the top 4 as Guardiola's men strung another long run of wins together to take their ...

I got my first vaccine on Sunday, marking another step towards getting back to life as we know it. I booked online and could have had one the same day but instead chose the weekend at the SSE Arena formerly known as the Odyssey - it opened in the new millennium, a symbol of the new, modern, peaceful Belfast. I first went there in 2001 to watch the recently formed Belfast Giants ice hockey team play in front of thousands of Northern Irish fans hoping this group of north Americans would represent the beginning of a better future. Since then they've been regular season champions 5 times and play off champions twice. I've probably been to the arena at least once a year to see live comedy such as The Fast Show, Micky Flanagan and Kevin Bridges or bands like Pearl Jam and took my son to see live action Marvel Avengers. Today, it has been transformed to vaccinate the population as quickly as possible. As I drove into the car park, I remembered the nightmare of getting out of there aft...

On New Years Day 2021, Manchester United joined Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, the two footballing giants separated only by goal difference. As English football begins another year, the longest running rivalry in the top division shows no sign of dissipating. I've been winding up my United supporting mates over the last few months that the Red Devils are now at the Roy Evans stage, if you use Liverpools thirty year wait to win the league as a measuring stick. The Reds of Merseyside brought in former captain and very successful Glasgow Rangers manager, Graeme Souness to replace the exhausted Kenny Dalglish. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to replicate what he achieved in Scotland and the downfall of the most successful side in English football began just as Alex Ferguson found his mojo down the East Lancs Road. By the time Sir Alex retired in 2013, he'd fulfilled his prophecy of knocking Liverpool off our perch, winning 13 of the 21 Premier Leagues he competed in ...

"I have to get in there". Sunday night, the second of two drunken, roasting hot, July days at the 2005 Oxegen music festival. It had already been an action packed couple of days taking in bands of the moment like The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Kasabian but it was seasoned performers like Ian Brown, Snoop Dogg and Audioslave who stole the show for me. On the Saturday night, I chose The Stone Roses frontman in a marquee over Green Day on the main stage, touring their career defining American Idiot album. When Keane arrived after The Killers on Sunday evening, it was time to decide what headline act would bring down the curtain on our weekend. We debated among the 20 of us, the choice was between staying here and waiting for the always brilliant Foo Fighters or go to one of the big circus tents and see James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. No contest. There was plenty of time in life to see the Foo Fighters (I've seen them twice since), how many opportunities would...

Going to watch Liverpool from across the Irish Sea takes some organising. There are two ticket sales for the season, one in the summer for the first half of games and one in November for the rest. My mate Damian (Smiddy), was planning on surprising his son Tom with a trip to Anfield for his 7th birthday in April and I was able to get us all tickets for Crystal Palace at the end of that month. We decided we would fly over on the morning of the game and fly back after which makes for very a long day but saves on the added cost of staying in a hotel. It's something I'd done a lot when I was going over to games on my own and Smiddy felt that Tom would be able to handle it. The next part is waiting for TV to dictate when the game will actually be played and then book flights. This wasn't finalised until the end of February. The game was scheduled for Sunday 23rd April 2017, a date that still resonates today. As it was a 4.30pm kick off, we didn't have to fly at stupid o'...

As with most of my sporting awakenings, tv coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup got me playing the oval ball game. It was mainly to do with the fact that Ireland, with Ralph Keyes and Jim Staples, reached the quarter finals, only losing narrowly to the Australia of Michael Lynagh and David Campese at Lansdowne Road in Dublin but it was the small scrum-halves like Nick Farr-Jones and Rob Saunders that made me think "I could do that". That day, it was Northern Irishman, Gordon Hamilton who scored the try that put Ireland ahead when he ran onto an inside pass from Jack Clarke and improbably scampered away from the lightning quick Campese then fought off a last ditch tackle from the winger coming across from the far side to go over in the corner. Landsdowne Road erupted. Fans spilled onto the pitch. Ireland were seven minutes away from defeating the mighty Aussies to set up a semi final with the All Blacks. Moments later the old stadium was silenced when Lynagh brilliantly picked...