Bullshitter or the Bees-Knees? Jury still out on Keith

MARTIN O'NEILL MIGHT NOT RATE HIM BUT WE DON'T KNOW YET IF ANDREWS IS WORTH HIS SALT AS A BOSS

- BY GARRY DOYLE

WHEN it comes to point-scoring, Martin O'Neill is world class. Ask Keith Andrews.

The former Ireland, Celtic and Nottingham Forest boss has never knowingly passed up a verbal counterattack, especially when armed with a microphone and a memory.

You could give him a 1-0 lead in diplomacy and hed still find a way to make it 3-1 before full-time, because for O'Neill, settling scores isn't so much a pastime as a competitive sport.

And as Andrews has learned, once he's on the receiving end, you're playing on his pitch, by his rules, under his floodlights.

Their feud began with Andrews being a 'vitriolic critic' of O'Neill's when the Derry man was manager of the Ireland team.

Fair game in punditry, you'd think.

But O'Neill, never one to let things lie, fired back with both barrels: calling Andrews "a failed player" before taking aim at what he saw as the Brentford manager's high opinion of himself.

"If he had a tenth of the ability that his confidence suggested, he'd be alongside Guardiola," said O'Neill, point scoring again, something he struggled desperately to do in his final year in charge of Ireland, when they ended their Nations League campaign with two draws from four matches.

This, however, isn't just a clash of egos. It's generational.

Old-school versus new wave.

O'Neill, forged in the fire of Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, stands for grit and experience.

Andrews represents analysis, data, powerpoint presentations and buzzwords.

"A bullshitter," was Roy Keane's assessment of the Brentford manager.