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It was one of my finest moments of my 25 year career in life. I love English football and I was lucky enough to have a friend that made it to the premiership. He invited us over to a match he was starting in as his manager gave him the nod a few days before. He was excited so he booked us on a flight and had the tickets waiting for us at the Madejski Stadium. Reading were at home to Arsenal. They were flying high in 6th place that year. A year after coming up from the championship. For my mate it was a dream come true. He grafted and pulled his way up the leagues by sheer determination. He was on his way back to Ireland at one stage and he received a phone call telling him to come back and train with Reading. He did and now he was getting a game ever week. He played against the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney, John Terry, all the legends. He told us that he would bring us in to the players lounge after the game to meet the boys so we were excited. 
At the time there was a quiz question doing its rounds. The question had a twist to it and it was really only suited to Ireland. 
The question was :
*Name the players that have received at least 1 international cap for England:
One is named after a city
One is named after a country
One is named after an animal*

Now my dad is a football fanatic and I asked him. 
*The player named after a city is Dion Dublin*

*Correct* Well done.


So the country took him a while but after looking up the Weetabix atlas that was buried under the papers on the lower bit of the coffee table he finally got the answer. The magnified glass was even used. It got serious whenever that came out. 

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*Alan Brazil for the country*

*Good one dad*

*The animal one is hard now. You got to think outside the box.* 

The father lives for a football quiz. He even does  quiz master for sports quizzes around town. He takes them very seriously. The answer to this question is a bit of a joke to say the least. 
The England footballer he was looking for isthe one and only 
*Steve Coppell*

Now most people in the world will ask 
*How is Steve Coppell named after a horse???

The word *Coppell* is a horse in the Irish language. 

The father was not impressed as he spend hours scouring old football memoirs on England caps hoping to find a Cat or a Fish surname to solve my question but no, the answer was the Steve bloody Coppell. He finally found the funny side and asked his friends the same question down the pub. 

Back to the players lounge after the game. Reading always got beat by Arsenal so it was no surprise it was 1-3. My friend always told us Arsenal were the hardest team to play against based on their tactics.But looking back at the Arsenal team, it really was strong .
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The lounge started to empty out with players and families starting to go home. 
There was only the 3 Irish boys sitting down and who is at the bar only Steve Coppell.
*Blanchy ask him the quiz question!!!*
*Go on go up and ask him!!*

*Not a hope am I asking him that!!

*Gaffer* shouts my friend hiding his face slightly.
*My mate from Ireland wants to test your sports knowledge.*

*You are fucking dead, I am gonna to ....*
*Ask him the question!!!*
A bead of sweat rolled down my brow as I stood up like a bold schoolboy and asked the a premier league manager and ex England international the question. 

*I will have a think about it* Steve Coppell said and turned to the bar where he was sitting with Wally Downes* 
 
I sat back down and enjoyed the notoriety of asking a question where he was the answer. and about an hour later the manager got up to walk out. He passed me and said 
*Alan Brazil
Dion Dublin 

and I can't get the last one but I bet it's facking me!*

*Correct* I said 

And that's when Steve Coppell found out he was called Steve Horse in Ireland. 

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