Outside the Box: Irish brothers give Bradford the Obama treatment

It may be a while until Bradford City have another day in the sun as bright as their forthcoming Wembley appearance in the Capital One Cup final, so who can blame all manner of people for wanting to cash in?

On Tuesday the Corrigan Brothers from Co Limerick will release a song and video entitled "There's No Team As Wembley As Bradford City", which references their previous recording "There's No One As Irish As Barack Obama", a celebration of the US President's roots in the Irish village of Moneygall that accumulated several million hits on YouTube. They will play in Bradford before the final and have been invited to Wembley.

Also leaping aboard the bandwagon are three brewery companies, coming up with what might be termed claret-and-amber nectar. Saltaire Blonde beer has been renamed Bantam Blonde; an ale named Giant Slayer has been produced; and another has been named City Wembley Gent (The City Gent is one of the longest-running club fanzines).

Dalai Lama's a Bantam

Stunned by the news that the Dalai Lama will be supporting City — his representative has sent best wishes to them for the final — Swansea have hit back, with club chaplain Kevin Johns offering to intercede.

The Rev Kev said: "I will have a quiet word with the Lord and remind him of his Welsh connections — Swansea is the home of the great 19th-century religious revival that touched the world."

On a visit to Leeds last year the Dalai Lama was presented with a personalised club shirt by fundraising group Friends of Bradford City, who had noted the similarities between club colours and the traditional robes of Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Baby's a big boy now

Remember the Brazilian striker Bebeto and the first of those much-copied celebrations of a new baby that he performed in a 1994 World Cup quarter-final? That "baby", Mattheus Oliveira, continues to flourish, and could recently be seen in midfield at the South American Under-20 Championships in Argentina.

Surprisingly, however, the Brazilians finished bottom of a tightly contested group and failed to qualify for this summer's World Under-20 finals.

Eyres and graces

Football can be a small world, as Steve Eyre doubtless told Mark Lillis when they recently became joint managers of Huddersfield Town.

Eyre's father, Fred, the after-dinner speaker and broadcaster, has a photo on his wall of Steve as a 12-year-old being presented with a trophy as Player of the Year for Barr Hill Juniors in Salford by none other than Lillis, at the time the captain of Manchester City.

Fred, meanwhile, points out that the only League match of his career as a journeyman wing-half was (almost) between the Capital One Cup finalists. He appeared against Swansea in a 5-0 defeat for Bradford Park Avenue in 1969-70, when they finished bottom of the Fourth Division and were voted out of the Football League.

Who ate all the truffles?

Everton have at long last added to their honours list — by winning the gold medal in a national catering industry contest. Darren Ryder and Antony Smith, who produce food at Goodison Park, won in the football-stadia category of the Salon Culinaire competition, run as part of The Hospitality Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

But Gwladys Street regulars hoping to see a drastic improvement in match-day pies will be disappointed. The two chefs, whose competition entry included saddle of venison, chanterelles and black truffle, cook exclusively for the boardroom.

HP sauce

It had to happen sometime and duly did against Notts County last week, that Hartlepool's scorers were Hartley and Poole. And credit to Matt Badcock of the ever-impressive Non-League Paper for pointing out that when the Blue Square Premier leaders Grimsby Town meet Braintree this month, the Mariners' Lenell John-Lewis will be up against the Essex team's Marks and Sparkes.

s.tongue@independent.co.uk; twitter.com/@stevetongue