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Early Doors

The Morning Score: Friday

Trap sweats on Sheasy, a Kiwi wins at the Rás and Padden is set for his northern exposure.

1. EURO 2012 Sean St Ledger has been ruled out of next month’s crucial qualfier against Macedonia, leaving Giovanni Trapattoni hoping that John O’Shea can make it through tomorrow’s Champions League final in London.

Richard Dunne is also suspended for the trip to Skopje leaving Ireland bare at the back.

2. #CHAMPIONSHIP Former Mayo star Billy Joe Padden will make his Ulster Championship debut in tomorrow night’s quarter-final clash with Down at the Morgan Athletic Grounds.

The game throws in at 7.30pm, after the Ulster Council refused to account for the much-anticipated Manchester United-Barcelona decider.

John O’Keeffe (Clonoulty-Rossmore) gets his Munster championship debut in a changed Tipperary half-back line against Cork on Sunday, meanwhile.

3. #GOLF It wasn’t a particularly good day for the Irish at Wentworth yesterday.

While a bogey-free six under par round of 64 gave Jeff Overton the first round lead at the Byron Nelson Championship.

4. #NBA The Miami Heat last night beat the Bulls 83-80 to set date with the Dallas Mavericks in the finals. We’ll have more later.

5. #RÁS Myson Simpson won yesterday’s fifth stage of the RÁS from Castletownbere into Blarney.

The young Kiwi made an opportunist attack from a long breakaway close to the finish line and he managed to hold off the peloton, which finished just behind. There was no change to the yellow jersey, or the top five placings, as Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post Sean Kelly) finished ninth. He remains top of the overall classification, with Olexsandr Sheydyk (Ukraine ISD Lampre) second and Nikolay Mihaylov (France AVC Aix en Provence) third.

Check out the images from the day here.

6.  #CHAMPIONS LEAGUE We’re getting very excited about tomorrow night’s game and will continue the build-up. Join us for a liveblog before kick-off tomorrow.

Yesterday we brought you 10 of Barca’s best European Cup moments. More of this please.