Alex Murphy joined an exclusive group of Galway men to have played top-flight football in England when he made his Premier League debut for Newcastle United on Saturday their 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea at St James’ Park.

The Corrandulla teenager came on in the 87th minute of the game at St James’ Park, which saw him join the late Eamonn ‘Chick’ Deacy (debut on December 1979 for Aston Villa), as well as Rory Ginty (December 1997, Crystal Palace), Tony Folan (May 1998, Crystal Palace), Greg Cunningham (April 2010, Manchester City), and Aaron Connolly (August 2019, Brighton) as Galwegians who have played at the highest level of the English league.

The former Corrib Celtic and Galway United defender had received his first call-up to the match-day squad for a league game a fortnight earlier, before the break for the international window, when he was an unused sub for the 2-0 defeat away to Bournemouth.

A personnel crisis at the Magpies, which sees them missing 11 senior squad members through injury, meant manager Eddie Howe dipped into the club’s reserve and U-21 squads for back-up, and Murphy was again named in the 20-man squad for last Saturday’s game, getting his first taste of Premier League action when replacing Miguel Almirón three minutes from time.

“He is absolutely over the moon, his feet haven’t touched the ground yet. Since he was five years old, it is all he has wanted to do, he knows it is a dream come true and he realises he is in a very privileged position,” his family told the Connacht Tribune this week.

Caption: Alex Murphy in action for Newcastle United last weekend.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.