OTD: DARYL MURPHY BORN

Born on this day in Waterford, Republic of Ireland, in 1983, is former Sunderland striker Daryl Murphy. Murphy scored 14 times in 124 appearances for the Lads, with his best season coming as we won the Championship title in 2007.

Daryl started his lengthy football journey in the youth set up at Southend United (in his native Waterford, not Essex) then Luton Town, spending a year there with his only first team games coming while on loan at Harrow Borough. He returned to Waterford in 2002 and scored 39-odd times in 85-odd games for Waterford United, helping them to the League of Ireland First Division title in 2003 and the next season was named PFAI Young Player of the Year. Sunderland came knocking in May 2005, when we were still in “search for a new Niall Quinn” mode, having tried Lilian Laslandes and Kevin Kyle, so a bustling 6’3 target man was a sensible choice. Daryl made his debut when he replaced the slightly smaller Andy Welsh for the final few minutes of a 1-1 draw with West Ham United at the Stadium of Light on 1st October 2005. His first goal came after replacing Liam Lawrence, a last minute leveller against Tottenham Hotspur the following February after he’d been recalled from a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday. The season ended with relegation on a mere 15 points, so we’ll not dwell on it too much.

Then Roy Keane arrived and Daryl scored ten as we charged to the Championship title after a dreadful start under Quinn, including an absolute belter at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and a brace in that glorious final day 5-0 romp in the sunshine at his former club Luton. His performances earned him the first of his 32 Ireland caps to add to his nine under-21 outings (he scored three at each level) and he eventually appeared at Euro 2016. An Match of the Day Goal of the Month choice against Wigan Athletic in February 2008 was one of only three that season but a winner (as a substitute) against Middlesbrough did help us stay safe. The next two seasons brought only 34 appearances and no goals, so a move was imminent. He was a trier, that’s for sure, but could never quite make himself first choice centre forward under Keane, Ricky Sbragia, or Steve Bruce.

Keano obviously liked his fellow Irishman, taking him on loan to Ipswich Town in early 2010, where he scored six times in half a season before we sold him to Celtic for £1 million. He didn’t spend much of his three years with Celtic actually with them as he had two full seasons on loan back at Ipswich, then signed for them permanently in 2013 and scored a fair few goals before blotting his copybook, and CV, with a year with Newcastle United. A couple of seasons at Nottingham Forest, during which he received a six week ban after admitting taking cocaine on a night out, “out of competition and we had no game. I immediately regretted it” and one at Bolton Wanderers followed before he headed back across the Irish Sea in 2020 to finish with a handful of games back where he’d started, at Waterford. Retirement came in 2021 at the age of 38 and, rumour has it, he’s gone into coaching.