IT'S DAVID CONNOLLY WEEK: 23rd to 29th October

From Wikipedia.....

David James Connolly (born 6 June 1977) was born in England to Irish parents and attended St Joan of Arc School, Rickmansworth. He is married to Joanna Martin.



Connolly started his career with Watford where he scored 15 goals in 34 games. That impressive record earned him a move to Dutch team Feyenoord Rotterdam. He was at one point the highest paid player in Dutch football, and had loan spells at Excelsior Rotterdam and Wolverhampton Wanderers (where he scored four goals in one game against Bristol City) before joining Wimbledon in 2001 on a free transfer where he scored 42 goals in two seasons. West Ham United signed him in 2003 for £285,000 where he netted 14 goals in a single season.

Connolly signed for Leicester City in 2004 for £500,000, finishing as the club's top scorer in his first season. He managed a hat-trick against Stoke City in August 2005, prior to signing for Wigan.

On 31 August 2005, he joined newly promoted Premiership club Wigan Athletic for £2 million (with the possibility of rising to £3 million if Wigan stayed in the Premiership, which they did). He scored on his debut for Wigan in a 2–1 win at West Bromwich Albion, but was hit by injuries for much of the rest of the 2005–06 season. His only other goals for Wigan came against Newcastle in the League Cup and Leeds in the FA Cup.

In 2006, also on 31 August, Connolly linked up with his former Republic of Ireland team-mate Roy Keane at Sunderland. His first goal came against Colchester United on 18 November, when he came on as a sub and smashed the ball in off the post from about 18 yards out. Connolly ended up Sunderland's top scorer and was an integral part of their promotion in the 2006–07 season, scoring 13 goals in the campaign and scoring the final goal of the season for Sunderland against Luton Town on 6 May 2007, in the match that made Sunderland champions of the Coca-Cola Championship.

In the 2007–08 season, Connolly played just five games, three of them in the league. In the 2008–09 season, Connolly did not make a single appearance. He was released on 28 May 2009.

After being released by Sunderland in the summer of 2009 he became a free agent. On 8 October 2009, Connolly signed a deal with League One side Southampton, lasting until the end of the 2009–10 season but capable of being extended by a further year if he hits an undisclosed number of appearances. He scored on his debut on 17 October 2009 against Oldham Athletic, and grabbed another in the next game against MK Dons, once again off the bench. He scored two in the FA Cup first round tie against Bristol Rovers, in a 3–2 victory, his first start. Connolly's contract was then extended for the 2010–11 season.

He struggled with injury in the 2010–2011 season, but scored in an F.A. Cup match against Shrewsbury Town FC, and then scored a crucial goal in a 2–1 victory away at champions Brighton. He followed that up with a goal in a 3–0 win at Brentford and then on the final day of the season in a 3–1 win over Walsall to end the season with four goals from 18 appearances in an injury-hit season. It was Connolly's late season form that helped Southampton clinch promotion.

Following Southampton's promotion to the Championship, Connolly continued his goal scoring form into the 2011–12 season by scoring the final goal in Southampton's 3–1 victory over Leeds United in the first game of the season. He then netted the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Barnsley a week later. On 16 August, he scored against Ipswich Town at Portman Road as Saints won 5–2, with the third of the night making the score 3–0 to Southampton at half time. This result firmly planted Southampton on top of the Championship table with three wins from their first three matches. Connolly scored again for Southampton against Leicester City on the 27th August, but this was not enough to prevent the Saints from slipping to their first defeat of the season, losing 3-2.



Connolly has also been a regular member of the Republic of Ireland national team, since making his debut on 29 May 1996 against Portugal. He was part of the 2002 World Cup squad that lost to Spain in the round of 16, where Connolly's penalty kick was saved by Iker Casillas during the shootout. He has scored nine goals for the Republic in 41 caps and also scored once for the Republic in Niall Quinn's benefit match on 14 May 2002, against his former club, Sunderland as well as once in Mick McCarthy's testimonial on 26 May 1996 against Celtic. In the 2007–08 season Connolly failed to feature in any of Steve Staunton's panels despite being Sunderland's top goalscorer, though was called in to Giovanni Trapattoni's first 40-man squad in 2008 despite being injured at the time.