Papadopoulos wins first cap

Last updated : 21 November 2002 By Tony Scholes

It was Ireland’s first game since the resignation of manager Mick McCarthy but Burnley fans were more interested in the Greek side and in particular striker Papadopoulos who was in the full squad for the first time.

He was one of nine substitutes named by the Greeks and one of seven to make an entrance at the start of the second half but apart from one half chance on the hour when Shay Given came out quickly to smother his chance he had little opportunity to impress in a boring game.

It had started well in the first few minutes but soon became a very poor advertisement for international football and was played in front of just a 5,000 crowd. The Greeks had been desperate to attract a large crowd and had slashed prices to just 1 Euro but a basketball game elsewhere in Athens still attracted a considerably higher crowd.

The Greeks didn’t have it wrong either in staying away from this game but Dimitri will not be too concerned about this. He certainly did nothing to suggest that he won’t soon be adding to this first cap.

He has become the fifth Burnley player to win a full cap in just over two years following on from Phil Gray (Northern Ireland), Ian Cox (Trinidad Mob), Gareth Taylor (Wales) and Nik Michopoulos (Greece) although only Coxy of the five has started a game.

This is after over sixteen years without any internationals, Brian Flynn in 1984 was the previous Burnley player to Coxy to win a full cap.

Congratulations to Dimitri who has tonight become the 48th Burnley player to win full international honours whilst a Claret. Click HERE to see the full list.