Sports
Republic of Ireland's Under 21 side suffered a dismal 2-1 home defeat at the hands of 10-man Armenia and are stuck at the foot of their European Championship qualifying group.
Levon Hayrapetyan and Gevorg Ghazaryan both found the net for the visitors before the break at Tallaght Stadium to complete the double over Ireland.
Substitute Ian Daly's 80th-minute strike proved to be nothing more than scant consolation for the hosts, who had a man advantage for the final 12 minutes after Masis Voskanyan was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Don Givens' side are now three points adrift at the bottom of Group 2 and without a win in their seven games to date.
They are not in qualifier action again until August, when they play their final home game against Estonia, who lost 2-0 in Georgia earlier in the day.
Givens made six changes to the side which lost the reverse fixture in Yerevan 4-1 in November last year, and that meant returns for Everton full-back Seamus Coleman and skipper Owen Garvan, who were injured and suspended respectively that night.
In a lively start, Hovannes Goharyan and Sean Scannell traded efforts on goal, although the game was repeatedly interrupted by referee Nerijus Dunauskas' whistle.
Cillian Sheridan and Scannell also threatened as the game approached the half-hour mark with the Republic pressing, but Darren Dennehy and Goharyan were both shown yellow cards in quick succession in a feisty contest.
However, for all Ireland's pressure, it was the visitors who took the lead when Hayrapetyan struck 11 minutes before the break, and worse was to come for the home side six minutes later when Ghazaryan made it 2-0.
Given introduced Daly for Sunderland's David Meyler at the break and Sheridan and Alan Judge both went close as the half got under way.
West Ham striker Terry Dixon was handed his chance on his return to the Under 21s set-up as a 62nd-minute replacement for Scannell, and Armenia were reduced to 10 men when Voskanyan saw red.
Ireland made their numerical advantage tell within two minutes when Daly pulled a goal back, but that proved little consolation as Armenia held out to claim all three points.
Armenian - Austrialian Vic Darchinyan vowed to defend his super flyweight world titles in a desert duel with Mexico's Tomas Rojas on Saturday.
The Armenian-born Darchinyan, disappointed in a bamtamweight title bid in July, said there's no way Rojas will take his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association super flyweight belts.
"I am a fully loaded gun and will shoot him down with my boxing skills," Darchinyan said.
Darchinyan is the favorite, despite dropping a unanimous points decision to Ghana's International Boxing Federation bantamweight c
hamp Joseph Agbeko.
In his super flyweight comfort zone, Darchinyan has already won once this year, punishing Mexico's Jorge Arce for 11 rounds before the fight was stopped on doctor's advice.
A battered Arce was hospitalized overnight in the wake of that fight in Anaheim, California, in February.Darchinyan, who boasts a record of 32-2-1 with 26 knockouts, had unified the super flyweight titles before moving up to fight Agbeko.
He scoffed at Rojas' assertion this week that the belts would go to the challenger."Team Rojas can believe what they want to believe," Darchinyan said. "They say they are going to take me out and take my belts?
"How does he figure that when I have beaten every opponent he has fought?"
That includes, perhaps most notably, Arce - who posted a technical knockout victory over Rojas in 2007. Rojas brings a record of 32-10 with 22 knockouts to the bout.
The fight at Agua Caliente casino is on the undercard of the light welterweight clash between unbeaten Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson, for Bradley's lightly regarded World Boxing Organization title.
"I'm willing to die for that title," said Bradley, who brings a record of 24-0 (11 KOs) to the fight just outside his hometown of Palm Springs, California. "I've got to have it.
"I know I'm going to hell and back to get it because Lamont Peterson (27-0, 13 KOs) is a great fighter."
The hard-working Bradley burst to prominence in 2008 with a light welterweight title victory over Junior Witter.
He followed with a gritty decision over Kendall Holt - in which he survived two knockdowns - and an impressive display against Nate Campbell that was eventually classed a no contest because of a head-butt that caused a cut.
Armenia secured their first win in 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying thanks to Henrik Mkhitaryan's hat-trick against the Republic of Ireland, leading them to a 4-1 victory in Yerevan. 
Prior to the game, both teams had no victories, although Ireland had drawn four of their five games, an Armenia had only one point.
Mkhitaryan, who plays for Ukrainian squad Metalurh Donetsk and the Armenain national team, is one of the finest prospects in Armenian football, having scored 5 goals in 12 appearances for Donetsk.