The Championship team of Celts

A full team of former and on loan Celtic players can now be found playing in the Championship which is apparently the fifth richest league in the world, miles ahead of the SPL.

They may not read like Fallon, Young and Gemmell but Marshall, Healy, O'Dea, Crainey, Wallace; Hartley, Sno, Pearson; Alidiare, Beattie and Sheridan wouldn't be the shoddiest team to wear the hoops.

Almost every week every fixture in the division carries a Celtic connection with former players Roy Keane and Malky Mackay in charge at Ipswich and Watford.

MADEJSKI
Both teams were in the hunt to sign Darren O'Dea on loan but it was Reading boss Brendan Rodgers, a long term admirer of O'Dea, that persuaded the defender to move to the Madejski Stadium.

O'Dea will make his debut for 'the Royals' against Doncaster Rovers tomorrow with his new club trailing in the race for a lucrative place in the Premiership with the relegated trio of Newcastle, Middlesboro and West Brom setting the early pace at the top of the table.

Swapping the green and white hoops for blue and white shouldn't be too difficult for O'Dea with Reading now sporting a natty green and white away kit.

PLAY-OFFS
Reading are in need of a win after a disappointing start to the season after losing out to Owen Coyle's Burnley in last season's play-off's which led to the departure of long term manager Steve Coppell.

The collapse of last season has continued into the new term with manager Brendan Rodgers looking for a first home win since January at the impressive but clearly not intimidating Madejski Stadium.

Rodgers admitted: "There is no doubt we need to make our home into a fortress. That will be the key. We want to get back to winning ways there and quickly because results have not been good for a long time now.

"We've got two home games in a row coming up and a chance to take maximum points. They're against difficult opponents but we want to maximise our home advantage.

MOURNING
"I think some supporters are still be mourning what happened last season because they feel the team should have gone up.

"I understand that because for a long time they had a team they could identify with, but times have changed. This is a new cycle and new players now and we need supporters to identify with them instead. The way to do that is to win games and show our quality.

"There have been big changes here over the summer and we're having to go through a bit of pain first of all. But for me the pain will be worth it when we emerge as a stronger unit."

A new era is well underway at Reading with the majority of their Premiership players such as Kevin Doyle and Steve Hunt having moved on back to the top flight.

ANCHORING
O'Dea will have a key role to play in the new look side anchoring the defence and providing the leadership qualities that gave him the Celtic captaincy in the absence of Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell.

Around the loan Celts Cillian Sheridan will be boosted by his goal for the Irish u-21s when Plymouth travel to face West Brom separated by twenty places after just five games.

Down a division Simon Ferry and Ben Hutchison will be hoping to make it three wins out of three when Swindon face Colchester United.

O'Dea gets Ireland call up

Darren O'Dea has been called up into the Ireland squad to face South Africa at Limerick on Tuesday.

The defender joined Reading on loan last week after signing a new three year contract at Celtic and is desperate to get a chance at international level.

Richard Dunne and Kevin Kilbane are amongst five players that Giovanni Trapattoni has excused from the South African game giving O'Dea a chance to stake his claim for the international side.

Dunne and Preston's Sean St-Ledger formed the central defensive partnership in the 2-1 win over Cyprus on Saturday.

As a former u-21 captain Dubliner O'Dea is hoping to make the step up into the full international squad with his loan deal to Reading viewed as the perfect platform to accelerate his ambitions for Celtic and Ireland.

After scoring for Celtic against Rangers in the final of the Co-Operative Cup in March O'Dea was called up for an international get together but left out of the final squad that travelled to face Italy in Bari.

Ireland host the Italians at Croke Park on October 10 with three teams still battling it out for the top two places with Italy facing Bulgaria on Wednesday in Turin.

The Ireland-Italy match is certain to be a massive occasion at Croke Park with Trapattoni confident of his adopted countries chances of making it to the World Cup Finals.

Refereeing decisions will be watched closely in the Italy-Bulgaria match with 12 Italians knowing that a booking in Wednesday's match will mean missing out against Ireland due to suspension.