Pat Spillane has hailed 'The Gooch' as the greatest footballer he has ever seen in the famed green and gold jersey in the wake of Martin McHugh's comments on 'The Sunday Game'.

The Donegal All-Ireland winner's 'two-trick pony' description of Colm Cooper has ruffled quite a few feathers in the Kingdom, and further afield, and, speaking to RTE Sport, Spillane quipped: "It was a bit like saying the Pope isn't Catholic, the earth isn't round and Neil Armstrong didn't walk on the moon. It ranks with those three.

"I've been that soldier. He started digging and the hole was getting bigger and bigger.

"I was privileged to play with some of the greatest Kerry footballers of all time - Mikey Sheehy, Jack O'Shea, Mick O'Connell, Mick O'Dwyer - but 'the Gooch' Cooper is the greatest footballer I have ever known to come out of Kerry and probably one of the greatest of all time.

"He's a class act."

All-Ireland winning Kerry manager Jack O'Connor, meanwhile, said to the Examiner: "He (McHugh) wouldn't want to show up in Tatler Jack's pub in Killarney for a while." Tweet

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