Well, so much for the five-day release rule. After all last week's fuss only two of Mick McCarthy's 20-player squad for the Yugoslavia match didn't kit out for their clubs over the weekend - Rory Delap (Derby don't play until tonight) and Jason McAteer (suspended).
Denis Irwin, Phil Babb and Gary Breen were unused subs at the weekend but the remaining 15 players in the squad were in action, including Roy Keane and Keith O'Neill who came on as subs for Manchester United and Norwich.
Sunderland and Nancy both benefited from FIFA's inability to implement their own rules - Niall Quinn scored his fifth goal in six games for Sunderland, in a 2-0 win away to Port Vale, while Tony Cascarino drew level with Fabrizio Ravanelli in the French leading scorers' list when he gave Nancy the lead against Toulouse on Saturday, his seventh league goal of the season - Toulouse equalised with just two minutes to go.
Elsewhere Brentford's two former Crystal Palace players, Tony Folan and Robert Quinn, scored three of the team's five goals between against Camberley Town in the FA Cup while Owen Coyle scored twice for Motherwell in their 3-2 win over Hearts in the Scottish Premier Division.
On the move this week was former B international Steve Finnan, who joined Kevin Keegan at Fulham (after a £600,000 transfer from Notts County), but not in time to play in yesterday's draw against Leigh RMI in the FA Cup. And Irish under-21 Neale Fenn made his debut for Swindon in Saturday's 3-0 defeat for Bradford - Fenn has moved on a month's loan from Spurs.
