Michael Noonan’s mam shares hilarious ‘back to school’ snap hours after Shamrock Rovers teen makes football history
MICHAEL Noonan is back hitting the books this morning after hitting the back of the net on Thursday evening.
The teen prodded home the winner for Shamrock Rovers in Norway yet was back in Dublin by last night.
His proud mother Sandie shared the evidence on social media, captioning the above snap: “And back to school he goes…”
In the immediate aftermath of his winner in the first leg of Rovers’ Europa Conference League tie with Molde, she’d exclaimed: “I think it’s safe to say I’m the proudest Mam in the whole world tonight!”
In bagging the game’s only goal, Michael made European club footballing history.
He became the youngest scorer in modern UEFA club competitions – since group stages began in 1991 and not including preliminary rounds – at 16 years and 197 days.
Even playing in Europe in February is uncharted territory for a League of Ireland club as the Hoops became the first side to progress beyond the group stage.
And now they face Molde next Thursday in Tallaght with a one-goal advantage and a great chance to continue going where no Irish club has gone before.
That the match winner was Noonan was a fairytale story.
Stattos had to dig deep to find a younger scorer in Europe with Nii Lampty being 16 years and 78 days when scored for Anderlecht in 1991 before group stages existed.
His inclusion just a few weeks after his move from St Patrick’s Athletic was a big call by Stephen Bradley but he declared in advance that the teenager was ready.
And he never looked out of place as he ran the line well, and got one Molde player booked and another sent off when cynically brought down during the first half.
Valdemar Lund could have no complaints when he dived in to bring down the striker when the last man.
But the goal scored was all about Shamrock Rovers the team rather than just the boy wonder.
With the man advantage, the Hoops were hunting the ball in all areas of the pitch as Molde looked to slow the game down to get some control.
And it paid off for the Hoops on 27 minutes as they pressed high on the right as Dylan Watts chased midfielder Mats Moller Daehli all the way back into his own penalty area.
As his goalkeeper moved out to make an angle for a pass, Watts pounced to win possession and fire into the six-yard box.
And there was Noonan to do what he has done all the way through academy football and tap the ball home.
He celebrated in front of the 200 Shamrock Rovers that had travelled over with them.
Watts also got plenty of plaudits on what turned out to be a night to remember for the Hoops.
Back home, the likes of Des Cahill have led the mind-blown online reaction to Noonan now holding such an incredible slice of the footballing record books.