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{ Alan Irvine has been dismissed as manager of Sheffield Wednesday. Photograph: Craig Brough/Action Images

The Sheffield Wednesday chairman, Milan Mandaric, has confirmed the club's manager, Alan Irvine, has been sacked after just over a year in charge at Hillsborough. The former Preston North End manager, 52, has been axed by the League One club following a six-game winless run which culminated in a 5-3 defeat at Peterborough on Tuesday.

Mandaric said: "It is unfortunate, but this had to take place. The decision has been made on what is in the best interests of the club. We will be making further announcements in due course."

The Owls' defeat at Peterborough left them 12th in the table, eight points adrift of the play-offs and five above the relegation zone. Irvine, who held crisis talks with Mandaric yesterday after the heavy loss at London Road, had been backed by his chairman during the January transfer window.

Reda Johnson, Michael Morrison, Mark Reynolds, Gary Madine and Isaiah Osbourne have all arrived at Hillsborough in recent weeks.

The former Wednesday player Gary Megson and the ex-Crystal Palace, Coventry City and Hull City manager Iain Dowie have emerged as early candidates to succeed Irvine, who signed a three-and-a-half-year contract when he replaced Brian Laws as manager in January 2010.

The assistant manager, Rob Kelly, and the coach Billy Barr will take charge until a successor for Irvine is found.

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Labels: Guardian, Irvine, manager, Sheffield, Wednesday

{ Cesc Fábregas will not face action over claims he abused match officials. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images

Cesc Fábregas will not face disciplinary action over claims that he abused match officials during half-time of Arsenal's 2-1 win over Everton.

The Everton manager, David Moyes, claimed after the match that Fábregas should have been shown a red card for the comments, but the referee, Lee Mason, made no mention of the alleged incident in his post-match report.

Arsène Wenger later denied that Fábregas had even spoken to the officials, and the Football Association has now confirmed that it received no extraordinary incident report from Mason regarding any confrontation with Fábregas.

Fábregas, meanwhile, said the battling 2-1 victory proves Arsenal have the character needed to push Manchester United all the way in the race for the Premier League title.

Arsenal rallied after going behind to what looked an offside goal from Louis Saha, scoring twice in the space of five minutes during the second half.

The victory kept them five points behind Manchester United, who extended their unbeaten run this season to 24 league matches after a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Fábregas said: "We were not up for it at the start against Everton and we were very sloppy. We know that we could have paid for it, but fortunately the team stepped up.

"We realised that if we kept playing like that, we would be going nowhere. It is a very inspiring comeback and maybe we needed something like that to lift us and see that even with injuries and suspensions, we can still have a really strong squad.

"Now we have three days to recover for what will be a big game on Saturday [at Newcastle]."

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Labels: abused, claims, clear, Fbregas, Guardian, match, officials

{ Bernie Ecclestone is struggling to find a free weekend in which to hold the just postponed Bahrain grand prix. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP

Bahrain's crown prince is coming to terms with the fact his country may be unable to stage a grand prix this season. Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa called off next month's season opener following talks with the Formula One commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, in response to the recent anti-government demonstrations which have resulted in six deaths. But hopes of shoe-horning another date into an already crowded calendar near the end of the season are receding.

There is a blank weekend on 20 November, between the penultimate race in Abu Dhabi on 13 November and the climax to the season in Brazil on 27 November. But that would mean three races in as many weeks and would meet with strong objections from drivers and teams, particularly if it came at the end of a close season with both world championships undecided.

Race officials in Abu Dhabi would also resist any move to follow their race with a thunder-stealer in their backyard. They are already smarting after losing the kudos of staging the last race of the season, which they held last year.

Brazil, it is understood, has paid extra money to regain that honour and nor would it welcome its race being put back a week, for it would clash with the climax to the domestic football season. The only alternative would be to stage the Bahrain race during the mid-season break in August, but the heat would be almost unbearable then.

Ecclestone said: "We're looking to see how we can slot it in. We don't know. I'm disappointed that it has now been postponed, but if you look at the way that part of the world is at the moment, it is the only thing anyone could do." Ecclestone is not out of pocket since it was Bahrain which called off the race.

Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal, joined the support for the decision, saying: "The cancellation of any grand prix is always a disappointment for all concerned but, bearing in mind the situation in the Middle East at present, we fully support the Crown Prince's decision."

The Formula One season will now start in Melbourne on March 27.

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Labels: Bahrain, faces, Grand, Guardian, likely, means, season

{ Olympic velodrome. Britain's cycling team ride during the opening of the first venue ready for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Five years and eight months after London was awarded the Olympic Games, organisers reached a milestone on Tuesday when the first venue on the site was opened and immediately acclaimed as the "best in the world".

But there is also widespread agreement that the Olympic velodrome, opened on time and on budget, is likely to be the organisers' smoothest ride, with trickier handovers ahead including the overbudget aquatics centre and the controversial main stadium.

Constructed over a period of 23 months, the £94m velodrome – dubbed the Pringle because its curving roof resembles a crisp – will provide an intense focal point for British hopes in 2012 and will seat 6,000 spectators per session for those lucky enough to get a ticket when applications open on 15 March.

It was praised by Team GB cyclists including Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, as well as Olympic organisers and politicians, for combining state-of-the-art facilities with a long-planned legacy that will see Lee Valley Park Authority taking ownership in 2013 and turning it into a community cycling hub.

By contrast, there are fears that a legacy operator for the £269m Zaha Hadid-designed aquatics centre, which will house 17,500 spectators during the Games but become a 2,500-seat facility afterwards, will be hard to find due to difficulties in making it pay.

And despite the recent decision to award the £486m Olympic stadium to West Ham and Newham council after the Games, there remain concerns over whether athletics, football, community events and other sports can co-exist.

John Armitt, the Olympic Delivery Authority chairman, said the opening of the velodrome was "the biggest milestone to date" for the body charged with spending £8.1bn of public money constructing the 2012 venues.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee (Locog), said it was "a stunning venue built for champions", while the ODA has long believed it will be the "unsung hero" of the Olympic Park.

Coe said: "There's a massive amount of work still to do. This is a completed venue in construction terms, but the mountain of technology, technical equipment, broadcasting, back of house, merchandising, catering … it's a long, long way from being the theatre.

"But when you're charged with delivering 26 simultaneous world championships, it's nice to start ticking them off."

The velodrome, its sweeping curves clad in cedarwood on the exterior and using 56km of Siberian pine on the heavily banked track inside, has been designed to be the fastest in the world.

Hoy, who helped choose the designers and was one of 10 sprinters to test it on Tuesday, said: "It feels fast. If it's warm and the air pressure is not too high, combined with the fact athletes are going to be in the best shape of their lives at the Olympic Games, you will see world records go."

The Scot, who led Team GB's haul of eight cycling gold medals in 2008, said his advice included making sure toilets for cyclists were close to the track, ensuring consistent atmospheric conditions, maximising natural light and having seating all the way around to create a "gladiatorial atmosphere".

Dave Brailsford, the British Cycling performance director, said the velodrome was the "best in the world" and praised the attention to detail.

"There can be problems with having a high temperature in the velodrome because people watching from the top row can faint in the heat," he said. "There's a clever solution here with split air conditioning that can make it warmer at track level than in the grandstands."

Pendleton, who could target up to three gold medals in London, said the focus on the velodrome was testament to the explosion in the sport's popularity and success in recent years.

The escalating cost of the aquatics centre, originally put at £73m, was justified on the basis that in a sea of otherwise mostly functional designs it would provide the architectural "wow" factor. But as the "water wings" – temporary stands which lift the capacity to 17,500 for the Games – have sprung up either side, some have begun to question whether they spoil the curves of the original design.

Armitt argued that the Hadid design would still look impressive – after the Games, at least. "When you look at that building in legacy it is going to look so good. And once you get inside during the Games, it will be a totally different feel from the one you get outside at the moment," he promised.The Olympic Park Legacy Company recently put the operation of the centre, which will house two 50-metre pools and a diving pool and fills a long-standing gap in the provision of Olympic sized facilities in the capital, out to tender. But an early decision not to provide for leisure facilities to be added at a later date means some believe it will be difficult to attract the 800,000 visitors a year the OPLC forecasts. Regardless, it is likely to require significant ongoing subsidy.

Olympic Stadium (Cost £486m)

Structurally complete with roof and 80,000 seats installed. Turf about to be laid. On target to be handed over before 15 July, the date by which all sporting venues are due to be finished.

Aquatics Centre, above (£269m)

Permanent structure and wave-shaped roof in place; diving pool and two 50m pools being tiled; temporary "wings" to take capacity to 17,500 under construction. Recent National Audit Office report said the planned completion date of June, which has already slipped from April, would be "tight".

Handball (£43m)

The 7,000-capacity arena will become a multi-sport venue after games. Structure, seating and flooring complete – due to be finished ahead of July deadline.

Basketball (£42m)

The temporary cube-shaped basketball venue is due to be finished early. Situated near the velodrome, the white structure will be dramatically lit at Games-time.

Olympic Village (£709m)

More than three-quarters of plots are structurally complete, with nearby school also nearly finished. Will house 17,000 athletes and officials during the games, before being converted into 2,818 apartments. On target for January 2012 handover.

Broadcast and press centres (£301m)

Structures of both cavernous buildings complete but finding a no legacy tenant could be challenging. On target for July 2011 completion.

Agences de presses

Labels: aposbest, budget, Guardian, Olympic, opens, velodrome, worldapos

{ Netherlands 96-2T L W Cooper 31 , R N ten Doeschate 20Over 2222nd over: Netherlands 96-2 (Cooper 31, ten Doeschate 20) This is masterful stuff from Swann, who is bowling as much with wickets in mind as economy. Figures of 6-0-14-1 represent the best of both worlds. "So both teams have a lot of Saffers in their sides," says Ken Danbury. "They can't both choke though, can they?" Two runs needed for victory off the final ball, and the last man is stumped off a wide?

Current batsmen Overs Current bowlers Last man Last wicket


Agences de presses

Labels: England, first, Guardian, Netherlands, Round

{ Netherlands beat England in the World Twenty20 at Lord's in 2009. The sides meet again in the 50-over World Cup in Nagpur on Tuesday. Photograph: Gareth Copley/PA

We are still waiting for a close game in the World Cup and England will be fervently hoping that this pattern remains. On Tuesday they take on the Netherlands in one of those matches that the professionals dread. Victory is expected, but never applauded. Defeat would be a calamity. The usual truism on these occasions is that the minnows have "nothing to lose" and therefore they have the luxury of a pressure-free game.

This is not quite the case on Tuesday.. There has already been much debate and considerable opposition to the fact that the next World Cup will comprise 10 teams rather than 14. The associate sides feel locked out. The Netherlands coach, Peter Drinnen, has explained their position. "The gains of playing against full members are significant. It is so important that we keep getting those opportunities as that only enhances our development and increases our progress."

To justify playing in the World Cup, however, the matches have to be competitive. So far Kenya and Canada have been thrashed so decisively that the games have offered a dreadful spectacle, albeit a brief one in Chennai where New Zealand beat Kenya with 252 balls to spare. So, curiously, there is an unusual pressure on the Netherlands for this game: to fly the flag for the little teams.

An alternative view – and apparently a minority one, which happens to be mine – is that the World Cup, a tournament whose attractions have withered over the past decade, is so diminished by so many one-sided contests that its very existence is jeopardised. Cricket cannot afford many more of these mis-matches.

The Twenty20 World Cup is a more appropriate place for associate sides to play the big boys and that is what is planned. Moreover, an arrangement that required the full member countries to play a certain number of 50-over games against associates would be a much better way of giving the minnows experience.

Andrew Strauss, speaking at the out-of-town stadium, which is expected to be very sparsely populatedfor the match, stressed that his side will give the Netherlands "due attention and respect. We will take nothing for granted".

For these games the backroom analysts earn their corn. The England players will know a bit about Ryan ten Doeschate of Essex and Alexei Kervezee of Worcestershire; Tom Cooper has one-day experience – and success for South Australia. Peter Borren and Wesley Barresi have full time contracts with the Netherlands. Otherwise, the opposition are amateurs. Those analysts may not dwell too long on the fact that the Netherlands famously defeated England at Lord's in the first match of the World Twenty20 in 2009, an outcome that is much more likely the shorter the game.

Strauss was determinedly upbeat ahead of the game, despite the recent exertions of his team. "We are very excited. The World Cup is one of those events that capture the imagination, especially in India. And arriving in a new country is a good way of refreshing."

Strauss has a new opening partner in Kevin Pietersen. "We have been thinking about that idea for a while, especially in the subcontinent," he said. "He did not need any persuading to do it; in fact he was very keen."

Another key player for England over the next six weeks should be Graeme Swann, who arrived in India on Sunday after witnessing the birth of his first child, Wilfred. "He's a bit jetlagged – and elated – and like everyone else is available for selection," said Strauss.

England are eager for the penetration that Swann might bring to the middle overs on pitches around India and Bangladesh that are bound to favour spinners. It would be very surprising if Swann were not pitched into the team straightaway for two good reasons: he needs the practice and England need his flair.

Strauss has one dilemma when selecting his best team. He must choose between the doughty Michael Yardy and the flighty Ravi Bopara. It is an interesting choice, leaving aside the different attributes of the two. Does he go for the archetypal, gritty old pro, who is solidly dependable, or the more gifted, but more wayward Bopara? It should not make much difference against the Netherlands, but it might later in the tournament.

Agences de presses

Labels: aiming, associates, belong, England, Guardian, Netherlands, prove, World

{ Manchester United fans asking former Basingstoke Town star Sergio Torres for his autograph. Maybe they think it's Fernando. Welcome to live coverage of Manchester United's bye into the quarter finals of the FA Cup. It's United's third easy draw in a row, after a fourth-round tie at third-division Southampton, and a third-round match against a team selected by Roy Hodgson. This time they play Crawley Town of the Blue Square Premier League, and understandably confident of victory, so much so this time that they've picked Bebe.

Having said all this, United did draw 0-0 at Old Trafford with non-league Exeter City in 2005, and Wes Brown was on the pitch that day as well. So you never know. Except we do sort of know.

Manchester United: Lindegaard, Rafael, O'Shea, Brown, Fabio, Gibson, Carrick, Anderson, Bebe, Hernandez, Obertan.
Subs: Rooney, Smalling, Fletcher, Kuszczak, King, Pogba, Tunnicliffe.

Crawley Town: Kuipers, Hunt, Mills, McFadzean, Howell, Gibson, Smith, Bulman, Torres, Tubbs, McAllister.
Subs: Shearer, Rusk, Rents, Wilson, Cook, Napper, Brodie.

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)

Kick off: 5.15pm.

The teams are out. Not a peep of that preposterous new anthem featuring Richie. That's got to be good news, yes? United are in their red shirts and white shorts, you knew this, while Crawley are in their white shirts and red shorts. There's nice. There are 9,000 Crawley fans in the crowd, 8,985 more than their usual away support.

And we're off! And it's a really confident start by the away side, McAllister tearing down the left and sending in a cross that skims off the top of Gibson's head. Let's hope that's not them shot their bolt already.

2 min: A couple of corners to United down the right. The first is hacked away by Hunt, the second sees Obertan fly a low ball right across the face of the six-yard box from the right-hand edge of the area. Any touch of that, by either attacker or defender, and we'd have seen the opener. A nice open start, but then did anybody expect anything else?

5 min: No other scares for Crawley yet, though. United are knocking it around at the back a lot, Crawley chasing after shadows. Eventually a long ball's pumped down the inside-left channel, catching Hernandez offside. "By all accounts the best advice to Crawley Town's players is simply to go out there and enjoy themselves," says Gary Naylor, who has scraped himself off the ceiling after Everton's win at Chelsea. "So will they take out some comfy chairs, plenty of beers, get some takeaways delivered to the centre-circle, try out Call of Duty Black Ops, perhaps a few hands of poker, before settling down with some racy DVDs on the wide screen TV towards the end of the evening?" Yes, this is what you've got planned tonight, isn't it? Shamelessly transparent.

8 min: Obertan flies down the left wing, looking extremely dangerous until he knocks the ball a wee bit too far ahead of him. McFadzean is over quickly from a central position to whip the ball off his toe and high into the stands. Great anticipation. "Hope Bebe doesn't embarrass us," writes United fan Gerry Nicholson. "I am very relaxed, so much so that I don't mind if Crawley win (mmm not sure I mean that), the FA Cup should supply some romance. Or Bebe gets a hatrick, ha ha I am in the groove today." A Bebe hat-trick? That's not so much in the groove as being lead trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra horn section.

11 min: A fantastic effort by Crawley's Gibson, who volleys towards the top-right corner of the United net from 25 yards out on the left! His dipping effort isn't too far away, either, floating just wide right, though Lindegaard had it covered were it on target.

14 min: Anderson slips Hernandez clear down the inside-right channel, but the striker's offside by inches. That's a slice of luck for Crawley, doubly so because McFadzean was all over Hernandez like a bad suit.

17 min: Crawley are looking to knock it around when they can. Smith, Torres and Gibson ping a couple of pretty triangles near the centre circle, but the cream rises, Carrick gliding in and making off with the ball. Gibson slides in and upends the Manchester United man in unceremonious fashion, and is probably lucky to escape a booking, showing studs as he was.

21 min: Smith, eight yards out, nearly gets his outstretched leg to a long throw from the left. United break through Obertan, but he's eventually harried in midfield and his pass out right to Hernandez removes all momentum from the attack. Crawley will be very pleased with themselves so far. Here's Linda Howard, who was in a wee bit of a hot funk at the state of Everton's stripy socks earlier this afternoon. "I'm still fixated on the darned socks," she begins, quipping furiously. "Crawley's red and white striped ones strike me as very Where's Waldo, which of course would indicate a tendency to disappear in a crowd. Or are they candy canes which means - wait for it - they will get licked? I need to get a life."

24 min: United, on the other hand, won't be particularly pleased. Crawley are getting decent ball time, McAllister in particular enjoying plenty of it. At one point he evades three challenges down the left, albeit heading in the wrong direction. Then he heads goalwards from ten yards, without much power, but still.

26 min: A corner from United's Gibson down the left. He can't clear the first man, for goodness sake, but gets another chance to deliver as the ball's shuttled back to him. This time he knocks in a dangerous ball to the far post, forcing Mills to turn the ball straight behind for another corner. This one's wasted, though there's a sense United have suddenly turned up the gas.

28 min: GOAL!!! Manchester United 1-0- Crawley Town. A beautiful ball from Darron Gibson, down the inside-left channel, frees Hernandez in the area. The striker pauses, the ball clanking between his feet, and allows McFadzean to poke behind for a corner. From which comes the first goal: after a bit of faffing around down the left, Gibson sends an inswinger into the heart of the box, Brown gently flicking the ball on, into the bottom-right corner, keeper Kuipers rooted to the spot. Well done, plucky United!

32 min: Old Trafford is very quiet, despite the breakthrough. "Shall we sing a song for you?" chant the away support. A fair point, made confidently in the knowledge that criticising the single-figure crowd Crawley took to Wrexham recently isn't as easily done via the medium of popular song.

34 min: Darron Gibson has been United's best player by a distance. Now he curls a lovely low pass down the inside-left channel to release Fabio. The full-back really should score, but clumsily flicks an effort well wide left.

37 min: Fabio's barged over in the area by McFadzean, who really is no nonsense. The referee's having none of it. A minute or so later, Fabio scoots down the left, his low cross poked wide by the lunging Hernandez. United are given a corner for free, and waste it.

38 min: Obertan bombs down the left, cuts inside, and belabours a shot straight at Kuipers. It's parried well. Then Darron Gibson has another dig from long range; the keeper's behind that one too.

40 min: Hernandez is caught 20 yards offside. Dear Lord. But he makes up for it a minute later with a lovely figure-of-eight spin down the left, his fizzing cross evading everyone in the middle. The ball breaks on the other side to Gibson, who sends the ball back in for Obertan to miscontrol while six yards out. "I for one think Bebe has done remarkably well for Man United if that picture of him is anything to go by," writes Sean Moore. "Give the lad a break - he's only got one foot, for heaven's sake."

43 min: Run of the match for Crawley by Howell, who zips down the left and sends a decent-ish cross into the centre. If McAllister was nine feet tall, he'd have got a head on that. Has Howell been watching Bebe?

44 min: Crawley are finishing the half strongly. First Torres steals the ball in midfield and feeds Gibson, who has half a chance to shoot from the edge of the United D but hesitates and lays a momentum-extracting pass out to the right. Then Smith isn't far away at all from clipping a reverse ball down the inside-right channel to set Tubbs free. Some nice football there.

HALF TIME: Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town. Well, Crawley have done pretty well there, you would have to say. They're not out of the cup yet! Well, they sort of are, but you know what I mean.

And we're off again! A change by Manchester United, and one that's very flattering to the non-league side: Anderson is replaced by Wayne Rooney. The home side set the ball rolling again.

46 min: Rooney immediately bales down the right and lumps a cross into the side netting. A statement of intent.

47 min: This has started in end-to-end fashion. A couple of positive sorties by Crawley, Bulman and Smith causing some bother down the left, then a long throw into the box that O'Shea has to deal with using base skills. Then, up the other end, Obertan zips down the left and hits a low cross into the centre. Mills hacks clear before Rooney can get close.

49 min: The ball drops from the sky on the edge of the United area. Smith has time to hit a volley - though not much time, as Brown is right by him to block what looked a goalbound effort.

51 min: Gibson and Hunt combine well down the right, the cross swung in only just evading Tubbs in the centre. Then O'Shea and Tubbs come together in the United box as they chase a ball down the inside-left channel. A lot of cries from the away section, but that's never a penalty.

54 min: Torres steams down the middle of the park but lets the ball run too far ahead of him and clatters into Rafael as he lunges. He's in the book. It's the last act of the day for Rafael - he's not injured, he was going off anyway - as he's replaced by Smalling.

56 min: Fabio shoots from 25 yards, cutting in from the left. Kuipers is well behind it.

57 min: "You're supposed to be at home," crow the Crawley support, baiting an otherwise silent Old Trafford.

59 min: Bebe is still on the pitch, let's remember. Here he hits one of his special crosses, clubbing a dismal effort in the vague direction of the box. Kuipers wanders off his line to claim with no Manchester United player anywhere near.

61 min: Rooney drops a shoulder, 25 yards from goal, nudges the ball to the right and goes for the top-left corner. The effort's miles over the bar. United haven't done very much in the second half so far.

63 min: Richard Brodie, who cost Crawley £300,000, comes on for McAllister.

65 min: The Crawley crowd are really enjoying themselves now. Their team string a five-pass move together. It's not quite Leeds v Southampton from 1972, but the travelling 9,000 don't give a flying one, and start up with the '¡Olé!s. A slightly embarrassed home crowd spark up a chant of "Red army", but you can sense their heart's not really in it today.

69 min: Fabio goes off, Fletcher comes on. Meanwhile Willie Gibson departs, to be replaced by Jamie Cook - an ex-professional golfer.

71 min: Crawley's best move of the match. Tubbs creates space with a brilliant turn down the left. He sends Brodie away along the wing. When the big man reaches the byline, he sends a superb cross into the centre, where Hunt, standing on the penalty spot, steers a poor volley wide left. Finish apart, that was lovely football from the non-leaguers.

74 min: CRAWLEY OPPORTUNITY SPURNED! Cook twists and turns O'Shea down the right. That's very embarrassing for the United defender. He stands the ball up to the far post, where Brodie half-wins a header. The ball flies back into the centre, Tubbs bicycle-kicking over the bar from six yards. For a nanosecond, that looked for all the world like an equaliser. This is all Crawley at the moment!

77 min: FC Barcelona Crawley Town spend the best part of a minute stroking it around in the United half, the home side sitting - or are they being pushed? - back. Eventually Brodie finds space down the right, though his cross is too close to Lindegaard. They're enjoying themselves here.

78 min: A free kick for Crawley, 25 yards out on the right. Howell is charged with taking a potshot at goal, but sends his big chance of glory high into the stand behind. He even slips over as he kicks, sliding along the turf on his buttocks, a student of the John Terry school of dead-ball striking. Oh dear.

81 min: One last change for Crawley, Simon Rusk for Ben Smith. "This United performance is the equivalent of petrol station flowers on Valentine's Day," writes Niall Mullen, at the end of what may have been a bad week for him. "Just doing the bare minimum to get through a day of forced and ersatz romance."

83 min: Brown suffers the humiliation of slipping over with the ball at his feet, then being forced to handle the ball as he's on the floor, Brodie lurking with a view to running off towards goal. He's booked for his trouble. Tubbs hits the free kick like a thunderbolt, nearly 30 yards out, but can't keep it down. The ball's still rising.

85 min: United can hardly get hold of the ball here! I'd be interested to see the possession stats for the last 20 minutes or so.

86 min: Bebe breaks free down the inside-right channel and into the area. He rounds Kuipers on the outside, but misses the empty net, rolling the ball wide left. Luckily for everyone concerned, he was miles offside anyway.

88 min: Rooney is booked for a thoroughly frustrated shove in the small of McFadzean's back, one that sends the big defender tumbling.

90 min: There will be four added minutes of this.

90 min +2: CRAWLEY HIT THE BAR!!! Cook tears down the left. Smalling blocks the ball out for a throw. From the long throw, a McFadzean prod is deflected out for a corner. And from that, sent in from the left, Brodie loops a slow-motion header onto the bar from six yards with Lindegaard flapping! What a finish! The striker's shoulders fall, he knows what a chance has been spurned there.

90 min +3: Hunt curls a deep cross into the United area from the right. McFadzean gets his head on it, 12 yards out, but the effort is well high and wide right.

FULL TIME: Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town. Well, United are through, but look at that scoreline. Everyone's happy, sort of, to some extent at least, except Steve Evans, who is dancing up and down the touchline in the hottest of funks, pointing at his watch. Who's he picked that up from?

Agences de presses

Labels: Crawley, Guardian, Manchester, United

{ Crawley Town captain, Pablo Mills, leads his players in applauding the fans after their 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Manchester United. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

What a week. There has never been anything like it in those 24 years: being asked to talk to a radio station in New Zealand, nonstop work, and by the time I had finished yesterday's match preview, about 10,000 words written on Crawley in seven days.

When the fifth-round draw was made, there were supporters in the club bar who had followed the club through thin and thinner for more than 30 years. There was more elation at the pairing with Manchester United than there had been 24 hours earlier after the fourth-round win at Torquay United.

It really has been nonstop. My paper, the Argus, is based in Brighton and has had the home-town club's exploits to report, too. We did a 20-page "FA Cup Fever" special on Saturday, covering both Sussex sides (it's the first time two from the county have made it this far) and we could easily have filled a 40-page supplement. It is strangely gratifying when you go into Tesco and see people devouring every word. It is a story that gathers its own momentum very quickly, though it can still upset some readers. The front-page splash the day after the draw was all about Crawley's £2m game, yet a few Brighton fans rang up to complain about unbalanced coverage.

This week was always going to be busy, but there was also a league game at Wrexham on Tuesday to fit in. The match ended 0-0 and fortunately there were no "injury heartache" stories – just a nice line instead about Sir Alex Ferguson being there on a spying mission. "A lot of people are talking about these boys – I thought I'd take a look for myself," he said.

We got back to Crawley at 2.30am on Wednesday and later in the day it was time to field a dozen or so calls from journalists from the national press asking for information and phone numbers. Then the news desk needed help tracking down fans from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the US and Canada who were coming over for the game.

Thursday was the club's press day and nearly 60 journalists, radio and TV crews, and photographers turned up. The players looked overwhelmed and who can blame them? Normally there are three of us covering the club home and away. But they seemed to revel in it, especially Ben Smith when he was asked to compare the cars the Crawley players drove with those of their United counterparts. The club organised it well and have coped with the past three weeks superbly, selling 9,000 tickets, shedloads of merchandise, organising 27 supporters' coaches and dealing with worldwide media interest. All with a full-time staff of four.

The Sun have their name on the shirts and enjoyed more access to the team as a result, but speaking to Steve Evans and the players throughout the past couple of weeks has never been a problem. When all the fuss is over, it will be back to the usual suspects watching Southport at home on Tuesday night.

And so to the big day. I get there way too early and feel a bit like a tourist wandering around Old Trafford for an hour before we can get into the ground. It is surreal watching players I am used to seeing perform in far more humble surroundings on one of the biggest stages in world football and playing with more belief than a few Premier League teams have at Old Trafford this season. The final whistle blows and reality bites: six pages to fill. Next away trip: Kidderminster two weeks on Tuesday.

Bruce Talbot is the Crawley Town correspondent for the Argus, Brighton

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Labels: after, Crawley, Guardian, Manchester, Southport, United

{ Manchester United's Gabriel Obertan and Crawley Town's David Hunt tussle for possession in the FA Cup tie at Old Trafford. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport

Wayne Rooney scored the goal of his life last week in the Manchester derby but was brought back down to earth by non-League opponents in the Cup. As were Manchester United, who even allowing for wholesale changes were embarrassingly ordinary.

Rooney was sent on for the second half in an attempt to beef up an anaemic showing from the home attacking players in the first period but, though he rescued the City game from near anonymity, he was unable to do anything with this one. He made little or no difference, becoming increasingly frustrated at his impotence, and ended up being booked for a petulant and unnecessary foul on Kyle McFadzean. United were massively grateful that Richard Brodie could only head against the bar in stoppage time, for a Crawley equaliser would not been undeserved.

In the end the Premier League side scraped through by virtue of the only goal of the game, from a defender at a set piece. It was hardly what had been imagined, and if this outcome was an impressive advertisement for Conference standards it was a dismal one for United's strength in depth.

The first half-hour was short on incident, but there was no suggestion the romance had disappeared from the FA Cup. The idea that United's reserves could roll over a Conference team with ease was exposed as a complete fairytale for a start. For quite a long time both teams looked equally undistinguished, with Gabriel Obertan and Bébé barely making a case for being let loose on Premier League opponents any time soon, and though Crawley were not exactly making the United defence sweat either they at least managed a couple of credible goal attempts, through Ben Smith and Craig McAllister, before the home side scored.

Michael Kuipers in the Crawley goal had not really been required to do anything up to that point, though he had been grateful to see McFadzean smother a Javier Hernández chance to concede the corner that led to the goal. Darron Gibson played it short to Obertan, received the return and sent over a cross from the left, and Wes Brown rose unhampered to glance a header into the far corner.

That eased the pressure that had quietly been building on United – the 9,000 travelling fans were not slow to let the home crowd know what they thought of their lack of noise – and the Premier League team could have scored again before the interval when Fábio Da Silva put a shot narrowly wide and a stinging drive from Obertan brought a good save from Kuipers. On the pitch at half-time Matthew Hatton, brother of Ricky, predicted the floodgates would open in the second half. The jeers from the Crawley end indicated United might have to bring Rooney on first.

The England striker duly appeared for the second half in place of the ineffective Anderson, Sir Alex Ferguson either feeling that Crawley's supporters deserved something more memorable for their money or that he needed to reciprocate Steve Evans's gesture in spending more than £1,000 from his own pocket on a bottle of red to present to his fellow Scot. Unless he was simply appalled at the feebleness of his side's first half attacking efforts and concerned that Crawley might come back into the tie.

Rooney was soon into action, combining well with Obertan to bring a low cross that Pablo Mills did well to intercept, even if his overall influence on the game was negligible. United made another substitution shortly afterwards, Chris Smalling coming on for Rafael and immediately using his pace to snuff out a promising run from Matt Tubbs.

Crawley enjoyed themselves winning individual battles all over the pitch, Jamie Cook making John O'Shea look quite silly on one memorable occasion, though the sum of their efforts was a David Hunt shot that went narrowly wide and an attempted overhead kick from Tubbs that flew over Anders Lindegaard's bar and was anyway deemed dangerous play by the officials. That seemed a tad harsh, considering Rooney had scored in exactly the same way at the same end last week, and it was only the fact that Brown tried to get to the ball, whereas City defenders in the derby had stood and watched, that marked one incident as different from the other. It is never easy being underdogs, though Brodie really should have done better in the closing seconds with Crawley's best chance of the game.

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Labels: Guardian, Manchester, United

{ Arsène Wenger embraces Robin van Persie after the striker had scored Arsenal's equaliser against Barcelona at the Emirates. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Arsène Wenger has said Arsenal can make history this season by completing a clean sweep of major trophies, lifting the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the Carling Cup.

It has been more than five years since Wenger last delivered silverware – the 2005 FA Cup – but he is convinced that this season Arsenal could mark the end of that trophy famine with an unprecedented feast. "I believe we can go to the end of every competition," Wenger said. "But we can also stop very quickly. It's just down to how much we believe and how much commitment we show."

Wenger's confidence is fuelled by the fact that several of the obstacles that have undermined previous campaigns appear to have been overcome this season. First, with the Belgian centre-back Thomas Vermaelen the only major enforced absence, Arsenal are approaching the business end of the season with almost all of their key players available. Second, Wenger believes his team have matured and shed the mental frailties that cost them in the past – he identified the midweek win over Barcelona and December's 3-1 Premier League home victory over Chelsea as crucial milestones in his team's development.

Third, the manager's own strategy has changed. Wenger has tended to neglect the domestic cup competitions in order to concentrate on the Premier League and the Champions League but this season he has fielded strong teams both in the Carling Cup and in the FA Cup, seemingly reckoning that progressing in those tournaments would boost morale and momentum.

At the end of this month that approach will be vindicated if Arsenal terminate their trophy wait by beating Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final. Emphasising how much his approach has altered Wenger also indicated that rather than drain his players, playing in every competition helps keep his squad buoyant, since the pile-up of matches means no squad member is left on the sidelines for too long.

"What I am convinced of is that we have the hunger, we have some talent and we are all committed to going as far as we can," Wenger said.

"Our destiny will be made by how much we can get focus every time, how much we can mobilise our resources in every single game, how much the whole squad is concerned by what is going on. So for us the intelligent attitude and behaviour is to just worry about the next game. My job is to get the team as far as it can and we do not choose to drop any competition. That would be silly."

That is perhaps bad news for Leyton Orient, who host Arsenal in the last 16 of the FA Cup on Sunday. If Orient's manager, Russell Slade, is hoping the opposition would arrive at Brisbane Road with their heads still in the clouds after Wednesday's win over Barcelona, he is likely to be disappointed to hear that Wenger spent Friday studying a DVD of Orient's recent 3-2 victory over MK Dons and poring over scouting reports that, according to Wenger, identified left-back Charlie Daniels and striker Alex Revell as the League One team's most dangerous players.

"Between now and the end of the season we have to become stronger in every single game – that is where our destiny lies," Wenger said. "The media give more importance to some games than others but we have to take our distance from that and be capable of switching from one competition to the other with exactly the same commitment. We must show we can deal with that. I think we can gain more respect from everybody if we turn up on Sunday with absolutely full commitment and then people will say: 'Oh, maybe this team really is ready to have a real go and not just choose their competitions or games.'"

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Labels: advance, Arsenalaposs, Arsne, fronts, Guardian, plots, Wenger

{ • Non-league side play league leaders in FA Cup on Saturday
• 'We know it will be tough, but we can dream of winning'

Sachin Nakrani The Guardian, Friday 18 February 2011 It's not quite Old Trafford, but Broadfield Stadium is home to Crawley Town, who are second in the Blue Square Premier League and are pictured before their departure for Manchester. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian

The Crawley Town manager, Steve Evans, has somewhat undermined his insistence that his team will go into their FA Cup fifth-round tie against Manchester United on Saturday with the serious intention of winning by taking them on a visitors' tour of Old Trafford.

Players and staff took in the sights and sounds of United's stadium on Thursday, shortly after arriving in Manchester. That Crawley, who sit second in the Blue Square Premier League, should prepare for their first game against Sir Alex Ferguson's men with a tourist excursion will only strengthen the belief that they are not genuinely geared up to cause what would arguably be the greatest FA Cup shock of all time.

However, Evans was adamant that the Sussex-based club are focused on testing the 11-times winners of the competition. "We are one of the teams that could go and get a positive result [against Manchester United]," said Evans, who took over at Crawley in May 2007. "We know it's going to be a tough afternoon, but we can dream of winning."

Crawley, who are 35-1 to overcome United, beat Derby County and Torquay United en route to becoming only the sixth non-league side to reach the FA Cup fifth round since the second world war.

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Labels: Before, Crawley, enjoy, Guardian, Manchester, Trafford, United

{ Liverpool's former owners Tom Hicks, left, and George Gillett have been prevented from proceeding with their claim in Dallas, or anywhere outside England. Photograph: Dave Thompson/AP

The claims by Liverpool's former owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, that they were "swindled" out of "millions of dollars" when the club was sold in October, will be heard in London, probably next year, following a decision in the high court. The judge, Mr Justice Floyd, maintained a ban on the pair pursuing a court action in Dallas, Texas, where they had argued the sale was "an epic swindle" and "conspiracy" against them.

In his 17-page judgment, Mr Justice Floyd severely criticised Hicks and Gillett for taking their case to Dallas on the same day, 13 October, that they were prevented in the high court in London from blocking the sale. Describing that attempt as "vexatious" and "unconscionable", the judge said the pair had "misled" their own lawyer in Texas, who in turn misled the Dallas court, about the proceedings in London.

Mr Justice Floyd ruled in October that Liverpool's former chairman Sir Martin Broughton and two fellow Liverpool directors, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, did have the right to sell the club to John Henry's New England Sports Ventures (now Fenway Sports Group), for the price of repaying the club's £200m debts to Royal Bank of Scotland. In their claim in Dallas, Hicks and Gillett argued the sale was "an epic swindle at the hands of rogue corporate directors, Broughton, Ayre and Purslow [who] … conspired to sell the iconic Liverpool Football Club … at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value".

The high court here responded by awarding those Liverpool directors, RBS and Fenway an "anti-suit injunction", preventing Hicks and Gillett from proceeding with their claim in Dallas, or anywhere outside England. The former owners sought this month to have that overturned, and to proceed in Dallas, but Mr Justice Floyd upheld it, ruling that any action must take place here, because Hicks and Gillett agreed to that when Broughton was appointed chairman in April 2010.

Detailing their attempt to bring the case in Dallas in October, the judge said Hicks and Gillett had not told their own lawyer in Texas that they had just lost in the English court. Their lawyer also told the Dallas judge that they could not seek their injunction, to block the sale, in London because "the courts were closed".

That was untrue, said Mr Justice Floyd. He concluded there was "a strong case" that "the former owners decided to withhold information from [their] Texan counsel and from the Texan court, and indeed fed him with incorrect information". Floyd said he found it "difficult to accept" that the pair were not being "vexatious", by making that application in Dallas.

"I granted [the anti-suit] injunction on the basis of what appeared to me the unconscionable conduct of the former owners in seeking to undermine the English proceedings," he said.

The anti-suit injunction was upheld, meaning Hicks's and Gillett's version of the Liverpool sale must be heard in London. Broughton and RBS have themselves asked the court to declare that they conducted the sale properly and honestly. RBS is seeking a declaration that it was not part of "an actionable conspiracy"; Broughton that he "is not liable to [Hicks and Gillett] for breach of any duty as a director".

Representatives here and in the US of Hicks, who has taken the lead in the court proceedings, did not respond to the Guardian's requests for comment, but Hicks and Gillett are expected to mount arguments in court similar to their blocked Dallas claim. Liverpool sources indicated the case is likely to be finally decided next year.

Liverpool said in a statement: "We are delighted that the anti-suit injunction prohibiting the former owners from commencing legal actions outside the EU has been upheld. Sir Martin, RBS and [Fenway] continue to maintain there is no basis to challenge the propriety or validity of any actions by them in the sale of the club."

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Labels: aposepic, claim, George, Gillett, Guardian, Hicks, swindleapos

{ Hugh Robertson, the minister of sport, said he would look at the issue of reserving the so-called 'crown jewels' of sporting events for free-to-air television after digital switchover in 2012. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Fifa and Uefa have failed in a bid to force the British government to scrap legislation that reserves the whole of the World Cup and European Championship for free-to-air television.

The governing bodies had wanted the freedom to sell certain matches within the tournaments to the highest bidder and have long argued that not all games can be considered to be "events of major importance for the public". They challenged legislation in Britain and Belgium that reserves both tournaments – the rights to which are major money-spinners – for free-to-air broadcasters. In the UK, the BBC and ITV have tended to share the rights.

But the general court of the European Union ruled that both tournaments could legitimately be classified by national governments as "single events" that could be protected with free-to-air legislation.

The court said that it could not be predicted which games would be important for which country. "It cannot be specified in advance – at the time when the national lists are drawn up or broadcasting rights acquired – which matches will actually be decisive for the subsequent stages of those competitions or which ones may affect the fate of a given national team," it ruled.

The contentious issue of the so-called "crown jewels" list of events reserved for free-to-air TV was the subject of an independent review by the former FA executive director David Davies last year, but his recommendations were shelved by the incoming coalition government.

The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said he would look again at the issue after digital switchover in 2012 but was inclined towards further deregulation as long as profits were protected for grassroots sport.

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "We welcome the decision from the EU and continue to support the principle of protecting major sports events for free-to-air coverage."

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Labels: aposcrown, court, Guardian, jewelsapos, legislation, UKaposs

{ Wakefield Trinity Wildcats' head coach John Kear is optimistic the club can punch its weight in the Super League. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images

Wakefield Trinity have finally emerged from administration under new ownership and rejecting suggestions that they will be cannon fodder both in the Super League this season and in the battle for a licence from 2012. Trinity have lost three senior players from what was already the thinnest squad in the competition because of delays in the negotiations between the administrators and Andrew Glover, who completed his takeover on Thursday afternoon.

They are likely to be deducted at least four points after a Rugby Football League board meeting on Friday, and the uncertainty over their plans to develop a new stadium, which have been called in for a public inquiry, has also left them as the most obviously vulnerable of the 14 Super League clubs, at least one of whom will be demoted when a new batch of three-year licences are awarded in July.

But Glover and John Kear, who will be staying on as coach contrary to suggestions that he had been made redundant, have come out fighting. "Wakefield needs a Super League club, and we will definitely be bidding for a licence," Glover said. "There's three of us in this fight – us, Castleford and Salford – and we have stable finances, which is a big plus."

Kear has already completed deals for four new players, all of them from the fringe of other Super League squads – Josh Griffin and Greg Johnson on permanent transfers from Huddersfield, and loan deals for Kyle Amor from Leeds, and Craig Harvey from Warrington. Glover confirmed that funds will be made available for further signings, almost certainly including Jordan Tansey, the full-back who was recently sacked by Hull for disciplinary reasons.

None of the new players will be available for Saturday's game against the Catalans Dragons, and Kear had only 18 available to fly to Perpignan on Friday morning after the loss of Sam Obst to Hull, Dale Ferguson to Huddersfield, Daryl Millard to the Catalans, and Matt Blaymire for at least eight weeks with a broken hand.

But the four new signings will all be in contention for Wakefield's first home game of the season against Salford on Sunday week, when Kear also hopes that the Maori half-back Jeremy Smith will have received a visa to face his former club, and the young prop Ben Gledhill should also be fit.

Salford's coach Shaun McRae has enough problems of his own ahead of Friday night's home game against St Helens after a 42-12 thrashing by the Crusaders in Cardiff last weekend. Wayne Godwin has achieved the unusual distinction of being suspended twice already this season – once for a spear tackle in a trial match against Wigan, and now for two matches after being dismissed for punching at the Millennium Stadium – forcing McRae to switch the former Saints scrum-half Matty Smith to hooker.

Saints also have injury problems, with Leon Pryce, Gary Wheeler and James Graham definitely out, and Paul Wellens doubtful, but the Australian forward Chris Flannery will make his first appearance of the season after missing their draw against Wigan in Cardiff with a knee injury. Hull remain hopeful that Obst will be cleared to make his debut in their televised home game against Leeds.

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Labels: Guardian, insist, league, Super, Trinity, Wakefield, whipping

{ • Tottenham manager weighs up transfer gains and losses
• 'We have not had goals from our front players this year'

Mike McGrath guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 February 2011 22.29 GMT Harry Redknapp was at a loss to explain a move for Blackpool's Charlie Adam with only 20 minutes of the window left open. Photograph: Geoff Caddick/EPA

Harry Redknapp fears that Tottenham Hotspur's chances of Champions League qualification are under threat after missed opportunities in the transfer market.

The Spurs manager made it clear he did not wish to criticise his chairman, Daniel Levy, yet would not disagree with the Everton manager, David Moyes, who described a £500,000 bid for Phil Neville as "insulting". "It was a pretty low offer for a good player," Redknapp said. "I couldn't argue with David on it."

Redknapp was also at a loss to explain why a move for the Blackpool midfielder Charlie Adam came with 20 minutes of the window left open. "I don't know. Pass," the manager said. "At 10.40pm I'm ready to go to the hotel back to bed, suddenly we're going to sign Charlie Adam and I thought: 'We haven't got a lot of time here.' And we ran out of time."

Redknapp snapped up Rafael van der Vaart on deadline day of the first window of this season. But this time around he was watching rolling news on television while one of his previous targets, Andy Carroll, moved to Liverpool. "It was funny watching it on Sky, Newcastle were pushing the price up by the minute and they were probably doing cartwheels in the boardroom," Redknapp said.

The arrival of Carroll and Luis Suárez at Liverpool means Redknapp expects them to be a direct threat for a Champions League place, while Chelsea are now title contenders again after signing Fernando Torres and David Luiz. "At the start of the month, before the window, I felt the championship was up for grabs," Redknapp said. "It's going to get harder because the other teams are looking stronger with the strength of their squads.

"People were talking about Chelsea dropping out of the top four but by signing Fernando Torres Roman Abramovich has said: 'I don't think so.' I can see them being close to winning the league. Liverpool are still contenders for a top-four spot. Andy Carroll is a talent. He is a big, powerful centre-forward who could be a great hit at that club."

Redknapp was thought to be undecided on some of his targets, such as the Holland midfielder Mark van Bommel, and £140,000-a-week wages for Diego Forlán prevented him from recruiting the Uruguay striker. Signing a forward was a high priority after six league goals from Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko this season but Spurs missed out on Carroll, Forlán, Giuseppe Rossi and Sergio Agüero.

"I think if we found the right player we would have done something," Redknapp said. "I don't know what offers we made for these players. We have not had goals from our front players this year. It has been a problem."

There are problems in defence, too, for Redknapp and he confirmed that Ledley King requires surgery to cure his groin injury. Younes Kaboul will also need an operation following knee problems. Michael Dawson is suspended for tonight's trip to Blackburn, so Jonathan Woodgate could make his first appearance for 14 months after his groin injury. "He will be involved somewhere but I have it in my mind to throw him in at the deep end," Redknapp said. "He could start."

Redknapp admitted that Bongani Khumalo, one of two pieces of business Spurs managed in January, was not ready to play in the Premier League after his move from the South African team Supersport United. "Adapting? It's not adapting, it's whether you're good enough," Redknapp said. "He wants to be a player. He is a young kid really with loads to learn but he wants to learn and has the raw talent."

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Labels: Chelsea, fears, Guardian, Harry, Liverpool, Redknapp, reinforced, topfour

{ Everton's Louis Saha, centre, guides the ball past the Arsenal goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, to put his side one up. Photograph: Tom Hevezi/AP

A night of forgettable football may just be remembered for years to come. Arsenal, of all teams, sustained their challenge for the title by winning ugly. They even capped their recovery from 1-0 down by scoring from a Robin van Persie corner, as Laurent Koscielny headed beyond Tim Howard in the 75th minute. The pressure was applied late and Everton could not quite resist it.

The victors had often been pedestrian, even if the goal they conceded was contentious. Samir Nasri, who has a hamstring injury, was missed terribly. A dependence has developed on a player who has been outstanding this season.

Still Arsène Wenger's men stuck together and weathered a long stretch of ineffectiveness before the substitute Andrey Arshavin equalised. It has to be assumed that the attrition took its toll of David Moyes's team later in the game after they allowed themselves to be pinned down. Although Louis Saha scored, the restricted menace in Everton's squad means that they are likely to be dominated eventually by such opponents as these.

No suggestions of that sort can be made regarding Manchester United, who still hold a five-point lead in the table, and when they come to the Emirates on 30 April Arsenal will have to be sure of themselves in every element of the game. This was a chastening fixture for even a prodigy such as Jack Wilshere, who was taken off because too much was at stake for a teenager to be left on the pitch in the hope that he would muddle through.

As challengers Arsenal have reached the stage where there are hopes, if not assumptions, and the level of stress climbs. Just as Wenger's side were settling down here, they suffered the loss of an unusual goal. In the 22nd minute Koscielny, who was the last defender, stretched a leg and deliberately made contact with a pass from Seamus Coleman. That touch nudged the ball on to Saha, who was behind him. The forward took his opportunity impeccably and no flag was raised.

The referee, Lee Mason, seemed to review the episode on the screen at the Emirates; he then consulted an assistant, Stephen Child. The offside law can be tortuous in its modern form and, unusually, both managers agreed afterwards that the goal ought not to have stood. Unsettling as it was for Arsenal, there had been more fundamental difficulties for them in the sluggish start they had made to the match. They might have had superior means to Everton but the hosts were conscious of one absentee.

With Nasri unavailable, Wenger could have been racking his brains over who could possibly assume the Frenchman's responsibilities. The manager might have asked himself if that chap Cesc Fábregas could compensate for the loss of Nasri. Flippancy aside, the Arsenal captain is the club's one player most capable of increasing his contribution and so helping to make this a season of real achievement for the club.

He has scored only three Premier League goals in the current campaign and his marksmanship was dubious here when he pulled a shot wide after he had been set up by a back-heel from Van Persie in the 17th minute. Fábregas is unlikely to come anywhere close to last season's tally of 15 goals in the league alone, which he reached despite having his club season ended by a leg fracture in March.

There was a hint of another sort of impact in this match when he set up Van Persie but the centre-forward could not keep his balance and his attempt went high in the 37th minute. At that point Wenger's men had not subdued the visitors and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov had to be denied by the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, although the angle was tight.

Bookings for Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky gave the impression that the concentration levels of the Arsenal players were dubious. Everton, with an hour gone, had stopped their opponents from showing the normal grace. The visitors, indeed, were not always pinned down around their own penalty area.

Arshavin took over from Rosicky in the 62nd minute and he levelled the score eight minutes later. Arshavin was standing behind Jack Rodwell but it was the midfielder's header from a chipped pass by Fábregas that set him up to equalise. Belatedly Arsenal were on course for a result that they will find curiously satisfying.

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Labels: Arsenal, Everton, Guardian, Koscielny, Laurent, rescue, tables

{ Jessica Ennis is not concerned about expectation levels on her ahead of London 2012. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

Jessica Ennis wrinkles up her face and laughs at the suggestion that she is the poster girl for London 2012. "I don't even really know what that means," she says. "It just kind of started sprouting up everywhere, that phrase, I suppose after the two good years I've had." The 25-year-old heptathlete who, juggernaut-like, won three major titles – world indoor and outdoor champion and European champion – in just 18 months following her return from a horrific career-threatening injury in 2008, is typically understated.

"It's not just me on my own doing the Olympics," she says with a squirm, "there are so many other people – Tom Daley and Rebecca Adlington – all those people who did brilliant things in the last Olympics and I think next year that's when all those faces will start getting thrown around and everyone will start looking at different people more. So although right now it's quite hyped up I don't think it will be that way next year. I hope."

With 2012 just around the corner Ennis is asked the same questions nearly every week – does she feel pressure? How will she cope? What is it like to be the face of these historic Games? She shrugs. Ennis, the girl next door from Sheffield, is not one to dwell on such things.

Still, doesn't she sometimes wish that Britain's only other world champion athlete – triple jumper Phillips Idowu who actually hails from Hackney, one of the five Olympic boroughs – would share the load as the face of the Games? "Yeah, come on Phil!" says Ennis, giggling, "pull your finger out! Get that face plastered round a bit more! Actually it's really weird," she says. "We've virtually achieved the same things – in fact he's achieved more than me with a silver medal at the Olympics."

Idowu's silver medal was won in Beijing, and it is easy to forget that Ennis, so accomplished and now so indelibly linked to the London Games, has never actually been to an Olympic Games before. "It is really weird. People talk to me as though I've been to an Olympics and experienced it but I haven't. It will be all new to me but I'm hoping that my experiences from other competitions, like the world championships and the Commonwealth Games will help."

Ennis was offered the chance to fly out to Beijing while recovering from the injury to her right foot, but in the end she decided not to go. "I just thought: no chance. It would have been unbearable with the injury, just to be hobbling around watching everyone else compete when I could have been a part of it so I turned that down." Instead she watched the heptathlon from her sofa at home in Sheffield, her foot in a protective boot, desperately trying not to dwell on what might have been. "I did feel upset, but I think by that point I was over it, I had moved on. There was no way I was going to be in Beijing and I'd had the whole [experience of] being upset about it already. I just wanted to watch it and then I wanted it to be over so that I could move on."

To combat the pressure of being the home favourite it has been suggested that Ennis speak to athletes who have been in a similar position such as Australia's Cathy Freeman who won 400m gold at the Sydney Games, and the Swedish heptathlon legend Carolina Kluft who won gold at the 2006 European championships in Gothenburg. Ennis hums thoughtfully at the suggestion, but although she wouldn't turn the opportunities down it is clear that she has her own ideas about how to approach a home Games.

"I think I am on my own path," she says resolutely. "It's nice to speak to people who have experiences of similar situations but at the same time I feel that I have to do it for myself, it's my own journey and I will learn from my own experiences. Of course little bits of advice help along the way, but at the end of the day I have to try and do it for myself. I have to try and get myself through it."

Her response sums up the single-mindedness of an athlete her predecessor, the heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, once dismissed with the nickname "tadpole". At five foot five inches Ennis is indeed tiny, especially when set against the enormous frame of the current Olympic champion, Nataliya Dobrynska, but her determination marks her out as unique and – so far – indomitable. Ennis appears to achieve the impossible – despite her tiny size she jointly holds the British record in the high jump at 1.95m – a whopping 30cm higher than her own height, a leap ratio which only six other high jumpers in the world have ever pulled off.

Ennis admits that she struggles to recall much about past Olympic Games. "I think I have a lot of false memories, thinking I've seen Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell run in Barcelona, when actually I've just seen videos of them later on. The first Games that I remember properly is Sydney in 2000."

By then Ennis had already begun competing in the heptathlon and, naturally, it was Denise Lewis's gold medal-winning performance in Sydney that captured her imagination. "She was taped up and really struggling and still managed to come out on top and win. I've got a real appreciation for how much mental strength she had to get through that.

"To be able to pull yourself together, push the pain to the back of your mind and go on to the next event, that's something really special. When she ran the 800m she was taped up on the start line and she just gritted her teeth and got through it, and I know how hard that event is even when you're not carrying an injury. That moment when she crosses the line and realises she's won gives me goosebumps, especially now I know what that feels like."

This year Ennis will concentrate on winning a European indoor title in March, before going on to defend her world title in Daegu, South Korea, this summer. But if Ennis had to choose between two world championship titles and an Olympic gold medal, which would she go for?

Without hesitation she answers. "The Olympic gold medal, especially with a home Olympics. It's just more special, isn't it?"

The suspense ahead of the Games must be unbearable, how will she get through the next 18 months? "Oh this year will fly by. It's going to be really busy…especially with me so preoccupied with being the face of 2012."

Ennis descends into a fit of giggles.

With that level head on her shoulders she will manage it just fine.

Agences de presses

Labels: Ennis, Guardian, Jessica, London, smiling

{ Tottenham's match winner Peter Crouch challenges Mathieu Flamini of Milan during the hot-tempered round of 16 first-leg at San Siro. Photograph: Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

Prizes come in many forms. Tottenham Hotspur, above all, have a fine prospect of stepping into the last eight of the Champions League following this first-leg result. Beyond that there is the pride in overcoming a club of Milan's renown, although the current side fell far from the standards once expected of them. The second-half winner from Peter Crouch was merited for Spurs' showing over the span of the night.

Milan took it so badly that the midfielder Gennaro Gattuso seemed to butt the Tottenham coach Joe Jordan at full-time. There was real harm done earlier, however, by a terrible two-foot challenge from Mathieu Flamini that ended Vedran Corluka's night. He had done much to bring vitality to Tottenham's play by cutting loose on the right when the contest wasstill taking shape. The referee, Stéphane Lannoy,somehow saw fit merely to book Flamini.

Even with Corluka hurt so severely, there was cause for Tottenham to be encouraged as Jonathan Woodgate emerged to make his first appearance in a competitive game since injuries engulfed him last, in November 2009. Milan were right to be wary of a team on the rise who are seeing events run to their benefit. Nobody missed even the injured Gareth Bale, who had notched a hat-trick at this ground against Internazionale in October.

The Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri understood the risk he faced and was conservative in putting the Brazilian forward Pato initially among the substitutes. His strategies still malfunctioned as Clarence Seedorf, now 34, looked too venerable for attacking midfield duties and he was necessarily substituted. Tottenham had swagger and also a blend of talents, with Sandro and Wilson Palacios adding a crucial solidity to the midfield.

Luka Modric, a couple of weeks after having his appendix removed, came off the bench eventually, but the initial line-up probably suited Tottenham for this type of encounter.

They looked settled from the outset. Crouch could not make much of Corluka's cross in the fifth minute, but he settled the outcome eventually. The winner was slick as Aaron Lennon went past Mario Yepes to set up the goal.

Milan were off-balance throughout and had distractions such as the loss of the goalkeeper Christian Abbiati after he seemed to hurt his head while challenged by Crouch for a cross. Half an hour passed without his Spurs counterpart Heurelho Gomes being involved in a notable way.

The one frisson of alarm had come when Sandro felled Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 23rd minute, but the contact was just outside the area and the referee saw no offence in any case. The inconspicuous striker did not catch the eye until putting the ball in the net only after shoving Michael Dawson in stoppage time. They did not want to be drawn into an unstable, incident-strewn game. The potential consequences of such an evening had been illustrated in Tottenham's 4-3 defeat at San Siro in the group stage. It might as well have been Inter who had been beaten that night, however. They took full points from the match, but also carried an inferiority complex with them. Harry Redknapp's side qualified ahead of them for this phase of the competition.

There is supposed to be a prize for that in the encounter with a club that could only come second in its group. In Milan's case the situation is more complex since they had been gathering momentum until now in Allegri's first season. The manager seemed to feel that Tottenham would be toppled eventually in this tie because they are an unbalanced team. There was no indication of that.

Tottenham were still in the ascendant when, four minutes from half-time, the replacement goalkeeper Marco Amelia tipped over an effort from Rafael van der Vaart. As the away side, they had also taken some precautionary measures, but briefly made a greater effort to exploit Milan.

Gomes did well to reach a header by Yepes and put it behind for a corner. Tottenham were under stress and the centre-half Yepes caused alarm more than once with aerial prowess that called for superb reactions and agility from the goalkeeper. Having commanded at times, Redknapp's men showed they also knew how to cope and eventually to prosper.

The losers were desperate, with Ibrahimovic applying a very obvious shove to Dawson before netting in stoppage time.

There are various punishments ahead for Milan. Some will now see the club's position at the head of Serie A as an indictment of Italian football. That is too extreme a conclusion to draw from a single evening at San Siro. It is enough to say that Milan fared badly when compelled to meet a keen and rising force such as Tottenham.

Agences de presses

Labels: breakaway, Crouch, Guardian, Hotspur, Milan, Peter, skids, Tottenham, under

{ Maxime Médard of France evades Ireland's Tomás O'Leary to score his side's only try in the Six Nations match in Dublin. Photograph: Warren Little/Getty Images

And then there were two. The second round of the Six Nations finished in Dublin with only France and England left to dream of a grand slam after a pulsating 80 minutes in which the French just squeezed home.

France lost the try count three to one but a couple of old heads saw them and Le Crunch at Twickenham in two weeks looks even more mouthwatering. Ireland, who head to Murrayfield hoping they might still have a say in the championship, were vastly improved compared to their display in Rome, but they have now beaten France only once in 10 matches.

After a lacklustre autumn and that feeble victory over Italy, Ireland promised fire and brimstone from the start. But no one really expected them to be seven points up within five minutes, with France barely getting a sniff. Brian O'Driscoll played a perfect runaround with Jonathan Sexton from a Paul O'Connell lineout take and Luke Fitzgerald was in at the corner in under two minutes – only for the referee, Dave Pearson, to spot a forward pass.

It looked as though France would weather the storm. They even tried to run the ball off the back of the subsequent scrum, but after Yoann Huget and Damien Traille got the move off to a smooth start but the full-back, Clément Poitrenaud, dropped the ball. A ball bouncing free five metres out was just what Ireland fancied and the wing Fergus McFadden went over close enough to the posts to make Sexton's conversion easy.

Ireland even won a penalty off the France scrum – Nicolas Mas being adjudged to have dropped it – to wipe out a penalty for offside that had been kicked by Morgan Parra. But then the first signs of a French fightback began to show. Fast hands put Huget up the right, Maxime Médard sent Poitrenaud up the left and Parra kicked a couple of penalties to make it 10-9. The French pack then got a nudge on for the first time, Donncha O'Callaghan was caught not rolling away and the Parra kicked his fourth penalty to put France in the lead for the first time, after 26 minutes.

Ireland bounced back and within 10 minutes their scrum-half, Tomás O'Leary, who had been a real doubt with back spasms, and the prop Mike Ross threw themselves at the line. The French held out against the short-range battering and when Sexton fumbled it appeared that an overlap on the left might have been wasted. But O'Leary was on hand a second time, the scrum-half scrambling to the line with Mas clinging to his back to give Ireland a three-point half-time lead.

Parra pulled that back when the centre Gordon D'Arcy was caught failing to release in the tackle, but exasperation in the French camp was becoming more obvious as the replacements warmed up. One more front-row indiscretion saw the prop Thomas Domingo, a hero last week when Scotland were pushed all over Paris, replaced by Sylvain Marconnet and another veteran, Vincent Clerc, came on for the erratic Poitrenaud.

Fingers are often pointed when Marc Lièvremont empties his bench, but this time the travelling French got some reward for their head coach's tinkering. Barely had Dimitri Yachvili replaced Parra at scrum-half than France had scored their first and only try, a simple affair off the back of a solid scrum. The ball went right, Aurélien Rougerie battered a hole in the Irish defence and Médard cruised up on the outside for a score that Yachvili converted with ease.

The Biarritz scrum half missed with a long-range penalty but then landed a more difficult shot from wide on the right. All of a sudden the French had a 10-point lead, with 18 minutes to go.

Again, Ireland came back. Declan Kidney threw on the veteran fly-half Ronan O'Gara and the new chemistry brought immediate rewards, if not necessarily in the way intended. O'Gara's 67th-minute chip looked to be going nowhere but David Wallace did what a good flanker does and cleaned up, leaving the No8 Jamie Heaslip with a dive for the corner.

The theatre continued with O'Gara, Ireland's saviour in Rome, converting the try with the help of the left upright, but this time there was no rabbit to be plucked from the hat.

Agences de presses

Labels: France, Guardian, Ireland, muchimproved, Nations

{ Daniel Sturridge of Bolton Wanderers celebrates scoring his team's second goal against Everton. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images That Owen Coyle's a crafty character. Bolton were the early front-runners for this season's Media Darling award, wowing neutrals with their carefree approach, Coyle getting his side playing a brand of free-flowing football that was extremely easy on the eye. In December, Bolton were sixth and were even in with a sniff of a Champions League place. Johan Elmander was doing something Johan Elmander hadn't done since 1983 and was scoring goals, including a sublime, solo goal-of-the-season contender during a 3-2 victory away to Wolves. Behind the veil though, all was not well and Bolton's chairman, cuddly Phil Gartside, admitted, with a suitably heavy heart, the world's smallest violin playing the world's saddest song in the background, that the club may have to cash in on Elmander and Gary Cahill. Since when Coyle has hit upon a novel solution to this pernickety little dilemma: Cahill has stopped doing defending, Elmander has stopped doing goals and Bolton have stopped doing wins. In their last home game, they lost 4-0 to Chelsea and what could be more embarrassing than that these days? The January transfer window passed, Daniel Sturridge came in, and Cahill and Elmander went nowhere. Some call it wanton sabotage. Others will merely hail it as another example of Coyle's saintly managerial powers.

Of course, Coyle has done a terrific job, but his opposite number today, David Moyes, provides a pointed example of a manager who is all too aware about The Premier League's infamous glass ceiling. Smaller clubs reach sixth and then they realise they have nowhere left to go, not unlike Heroes after the excellent first series (seriously, what sort of utter buffoon creates an array of main characters who can't die? A special sort of buffoon, that's what). For years Everton pounded against the class barrier and all it's left them with is two black eyes and a sore head. Personally I find their slide down the table rather distressing, another tick in the pro column for those weighing up a lifetime of nihilism. Money, money, money. That's what it's all about these days and if you don't have it, you can forget about quaint old things like loyalty, prudence and careful team-building. Modern football, eh?

In theory, this should be an entertaining game today though. Bolton have been good to watch all season and Everton scored five goals last week. And Louis Saha scored four of them. He's bang in form, that one, with six goals in his last three games. It's a shame he's out with a hamstring injury then. His career in microcosm, a brief spurt of splendid form followed by another muscle twang. I once read in an article in Shoot Magazine that "If is a small word with a big meaning". That line seems strangely appropriate now.

Bolton (4-4-2): Jaaskelainen; Ricketts, Cahill, Knight, Robinson; Elmander, Mark Davies, Holden, Taylor; Kevin Davies, Sturridge. Subs: Bogdan, Muamba, Petrov, Klasnic, Moreno, Lee, Wheater.

Everton (4-4-1-1): Howard; Neville, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Coleman, Arteta, Fellaini, Bilyaletdinov; Cahill; Anichebe. Subs: Mucha, Hibbert, Jagielka, Beckford, Osman, Duffy, Baxter.

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)

I see Dave Jones is in the Sky hotseat again. Sundays used to so much more Super for Richard Keys. Sky keep everything, don't they? It's quite worrying to be perfectly honest, the idea that there's some embittered former colleague working their way through the archives, looking for ways to make Keys look even worse. I imagine the office dynamic was something like this (work out for yourself who's playing what role).

Some pre-match emails.

"Johan Elmander did actually score a goal a few days ago - a pretty good one at that," says Ed Rostrom. "Mind you, he does it as rarely for Sweden as he does for Bolton." It's fine if he does it now, the transfer window's not open. It's all part of the ruse.

"For years Mikkel Arteta seemed to shrug off the disappointment of being one of the most talented players never to play international football, but maybe events in South Africa last summer got to him," says Gary Naylor. "He has certainly been both quiet and tetchy this season, flitting about at the edges of games rather than bossing them. With his big contract, he owes us a big finish to the season." A bad knee injury has played its part too. They always do.

There's a bitter history located in this fixture. Back in September 1997, Bolton had a good goal disallowed against Everton when the officials failed to spot the ball going well over the line. The match finished 0-0 and at the time that didn't seem like it would have such far-reaching consequences. Until the last day of that season when Everton stayed up only on goal difference and Bolton were relegated instead of them, bringing to mind a rubbish film starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart.

Click-clack-clack-click. Out come the teams and as Martin Tyler's not commentating, there's no "AND IT'S LIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEEE!" assaulting our ears either. Why has he taken to doing that?

1 min: Off we go! Everton, attacking from right to left, which never sounds correct to me, kick off. After some mindless hoofing and so on, Taylor brings down Arteta in the centre circle. The free-kick is hoicked up to Anichebe on the edge of the area, but he's hustled out of it by Knight. It's been an English start to the game.

2 min: The first glimpse of the always lively Danny Sturridge. It was good forward play from Kevin Davies initially, holding the ball up well and laying it off to Sturridge on the right. He darted up the flank, looking for the opportunity to roll inside Distin and maraud into the area. Eventually he's overwhelmed by two Everton defenders but does excellently to win a corner with very little support from his team-mates. Taylor whips it in and Cahill heads over under pressure at the far post.

4 min: Bolton are settling now, dominating possession and keeping the ball confidently away from Everton. Ricketts dinks a pass down the inside right channel, and Davies flicks it on adeptly to Gary Cahill but his attempted turn is too cumbersome and Distin's tackle is assured.

6 min: Bolton's decent spell continues. Neville's clearance only finds Ricketts in the middle of Everton's half. He takes a few strides forward and then unleashes a piledriver ... he's a right-back.

7 min: Everton are struggling to deal with Bolton's positive and direct approach. Distin just about does enough to stop a long ball reaching Kevin Davies, but can only concede a corner in the process. Happily for Everton though, Taylor's corner is woefully overcooked and despite Gary Cahill's efforts, it drifts out for a throw-in to the visitors. A professional footballer.

8 min: Taylor's having a minor nightmare at the moment, hopelessly shanking a pass straight out for a goal-kick. Robinson gives him an earful. He gives everyone an earful to be fair.

9 min: Everton can't get out and Bolton have had 64% of the possession so far. That said, Howard hasn't had to make a save yet.

GOAL! Bolton 1-0 Everton (Gary Cahill, 10 min): Bolton have made their pressure count now! This has been a really impressive start from them and the goal is precisely what their high-octane approach merits. Everton had just about dealt with a succession of crosses from Ricketts and Taylor before this, but having defended the earlier threats, Anichebe put them straight back in trouble by conceding a free-kick on the left touchline for a foul on Robinson. Holden whipped it in right-footed and Cahill, unmarked, stole in to flick a header towards goal. It took a nick off the unfortunate Heitinga, completely wrongfooted Howard and flew in.

12 min: Everton come straight back into it and Elmander is booked for a cruncher of a tackle on Baines on the left. Not the worst challenge you'll ever see, but certainly overly forceful and, well, late. He didn't get the ball essentially. Arteta curls the free-kick in but there's to be no instant riposte from Everton. "Heitinga unlucky?" asks Gary Naylor. "He should have been challenging Cahill for the header. Has a less talented player ever played in a World Cup Final?" Fernando Torres?

15 min: On second glance, there didn't seem to be much in the free-kick that led to Bolton's goal. It didn't look like Anichebe touched Robinson; as if Bolton will give a solitary one, though. They'll just point to 1997. Revenge.

17 min: What a miss by Tim Cahill! He's no Gary. Everton have calmed the storm a little, and have started to see more and more of the ball, stroking it around encouragingly. The ball is worked out to the ever-dangerous Baines on the left and his wonderful cross dissects Bolton's gawping defence, only for Tim Cahill to sidefoot the ball past the right-hand post with the goal gaping. Why didn't he just head it?

19 min: This is a very impressive response from Everton, who are doing precisely what Bolton did to them at the moment, forcing an array of set-pieces and pressing the home side on the back foot.

20 min: It's still all Everton. Anichebe wriggles clear on the right, making his way into the area but his cutback is blocked by a Bolton defender. The ball is fired straight back into the box by Coleman but again Bolton deal with it. The final pass isn't quite there for Everton, but it's coming. "What does Elmander think he's doing in the photo?" asks Mac Millings. "He surely can't be trying to persuade us that he finds scoring goals childishly easy. Presumably, then, knowing his prowess, he has just emerged from a bucket of mammary glands."

22 min: The otherwise anonymous Bilyaletdinov suddenly finds himself clear in the Bolton area after a sneaky pass from Anichebe, but he's just offside.

23 min: Superb defending from Knight prevents Anichebe from getting a shot on goal, but Everton are really turning the screw, an equaliser surely on the way if it continues like this. Arteta is afforded far too much time and space in the centre circle to pick out a glorious pass through to Anichebe on the right, but with the goal in his sights, Knight recovers brilliantly to deflect his shot over and behind. There's a stoppage in play as Knight managed to injure himself making the challenge.

25 min: During the break in play, Sturridge and Elmander had an argument about a misplaced pass from the Swede. It got quite animated for a while; I was hoping for a Batty-Le Saux style set-to. All appears to be well in their world though, and eventually play is allowed to restart, although Baines's corner wasn't exactly worth the wait, plonked straight on to Taylor's head at the near post.

26 min: Another stoppage. Knight came back on to the pitch but no sooner had he returned, he was signalling he couldn't continue. It seems he's tweaked a knee ligament, he says thumbing through his Big Book Of Medicine For Dummies.

28 min: Bolton substitution: Knight departs on a stretcher and David Wheather, he of the witch's chin, enters the fray.

29 min: David Moyes has the radge on as Sturridge goes down under a soft challenge from Distin near the centre circle. "1997. Proof that whining stays long in the memory," says Alex May. "If anyone cares to actually look at Bolton's goal in 1997, they'll see that Nathan Blake elbowed Southall in the throat causing him to drop the ball. Debate over. The ommission of facts gives everyone the wrong impression. Their misplaced feelings of injustice could've inspired them to get a few more points in the 34 remaining games."

30 min: Ricketts lifts the ball high into the area - but too high, and Howard races off his line to claim the cross. This is typical fare from the Premier League; angry, vein-throbbing, committed, fast, intense, not very good, how would Barcelona do?

31 min: Coleman tries to trick his way past Taylor on the edge of Bolton's area. Or possibly inside. Either way there's no getting past Taylor, and despite Coleman's fall, Lee Probert ignores his plaintive and slightly half-hearted calls for a foul.

33 min: Sturridge has been a bit disappointing so far. He's struggling to get involved, and Everton's physicality is keeping him quiet for the most part. He's got plenty of potential but he hasn't done much for the last 18 months. Here he is though, skipping away from Heitinga who brings him down 25 yards from goal. A foul by Jonny Heitinga. What's new? Probert tries to play the advantage but there is none and awards the free-kick.

35 min: Taylor skims the free-kick below the wall, but it's insultingly tame and Howard saves easily. Before the free-kick, Heitinga and Sturridge had a minor disagreement over the foul, their heads coming together and harsh words, no doubt, traded. Why do footballers do that? They're forever trying to prove whose got the strongest head, ironic, really, when you consider how little tends to be in them.

36 min: This is utterly atrocious from Bilyaletdinov, who could have released either Anichebe or Baines just outside the area, but instead dithered and dallied and pondered and had a short think about whether he prefers The Sopranos and The Wire, all very pleasant for a Sunday afternoon, I'm sure you'll agree. Until Wheater stepped in and knocked the LILY-LIVERED FOREIGNER to the floor and seized possession. Bilyaledtinov was so selfish there, because what he was essentially trying to do there was work space for a shot, unforgivable when team-mates were in better positions.

39 min: Bilyaledtinov, a brave, hardy soul, dumps Elmander, A LILY-LIVERED FOREIGNER, to the floor on the right. Free-kick to Bolton BUT YOU CAN'T TOUCH ANYONE THESE DAYS, IT'S A DISGRACE.

40 min: Taylor puts the ball in the mixer, but Howard punches clear. The ball falls kindly for Everton to go on the counter again. Arteta finds Coleman on the right, but Anichebe and Fellaini are unable to make anything of his cross. Baines collects possession on the left and the it's teed up for Arteta to try a whipped shot from inside the D, but his effort is straight at Jaaskelainen.

43 min: Bolton nearly get lucky. Kevin Davies wasn't picked up between Everton's midfield and defence and tried to poke a pass through to Sturridge. He got the pass all wrong, but no matter because it caught out Everton to the extent that it ran through to Taylor on the left. With Elmander waiting at the back stick, he tried to drill the ball across goal but Neville got a vital touch on it to deflect it behind for a corner.

44 min: Distin heads Holden's corner clear, more or less. Kevin Davies resumes the attack on the right and drives a cross back into the area. It's headed away, and Mark Davies's shot is blocked after a nifty piece of skill from the midfielder earned him a smidgen of space.

45 min: From that Bolton set-piece, Everton break at pace, Arteta leading the attack. He finds Bilyaletdinov on the left, who zips forward, before stroking a pass to the right for Coleman, who's in acres of space. There's just not quite enough pace on the ball though and Coleman has to wait and check his run, allowing Wheater to get back and bundle the danger away. We'll have three more minutes of this.

45 min+2: Coleman is a constant threat for Everton on the right and nearly cuts open apart twice in quick succession. First Fellaini's piercing through ball rendered Robinson irrelevant, but Jaaskelainen hares off his line to beat Coleman to the pass, doing well not to handle outside his area. Shortly afterwards, Coleman glides into Bolton's area from the right and fires a cross across goal, the sort defenders loathe, but no Everton player is able to get a touch for what would have been a tap-in.

Peep! Peep! Lee Probert brings his whistle to his lips and the half-time whistle is blown. Bolton started at quite some pace, but since the goal, Everton have been the better side.

Half-time: Bolton 1-0 Everton.

Looking at the foul which led to Bolton's goal again, the decision to award a free-kick looks worse and worse with each viewing. If anything it should have been a free-kick to Everton.

46 min: It's raining. It's February. It's Bolton. Glamour. Andy Gray would like to see Barcelona do it in these conditions because they've never been confronted by water, after all. Bolton get us going again and the hoofing begins in earnest.

47 min: Once again, Bolton start the half well. Robinson forages forward, charging on to a loose ball from Kevin Davies's flick, but his touch lets him down and Heitinga gets it clear. It comes back to Taylor on the left and he tries to find Sturridge with a curler of a cross, but Distin is on hand to deal with it.

49 min: On the subject of the worst player to have played in a World Cup final, Rick Buur offers this compelling evidence.

50 min: Taylor can do no more here. Mark Davies played the ball out to him on the left and first-time he cracked a brilliant low cross across the face of goal. Distin did well to marshal Kevin Davies at the near post, but no other Bolton player gambled on the cross and nothing comes of it. It's astonishingly frustrating when players act in such slack-jawed fashion. Everton, by the by, are offering nothing.

52 min: Fellaini brings down Sturridge 30 yards from goal, just to the right. Sturridge does have a tendency to go down easily, but Lee Probert awards the free-kick. Taylor slams the ball into the wall, and then goes down under a non-existent tackle from Baines. This time, Probert ignores his claims.

53 min: Is there a dirtier player in the league than Marouane Fellaini? He's just flailed a stray arm into the face of Holden but, as usual, he gets away with it. He always just manages to make it look like he's being clumsy but it happens too often for it to be coincidence.

54 min: Everton wake up at last. Fellaini, ironically enough, wins a free-kick on the right. Arteta swings it in and Fellaini forces Bolton to concede a corner on the left.

55 min: It. Just. Won't. Fall. For. Everton. The corner is put into the box by Arteta from the left and Kevin Davies performs his defensive duties well with a firm header away. It comes back to Baines and again Davies gets his head in the way in the six-yard box. The ball falls to Arteta on the left and he takes the ball inside, tricks his way past one man and then completely mistimes his volleyed cutback from the angle, the ball falling feebly at the feet of a Bolton defender.

56 min: Arteta finds Anichebe in the area, but Gary Cahill stays strong and refuses to allow the striker to roll him, before blocking his screwed shot.

59 min: The pressure from Everton is incessant at the moment. Anichebe, strong and powerful, forces his way down the right flank and is fouled by the wheezing Wheater. Baines curls the ball in but no one can get a glancing header on it and Jaaskelainen catches it.

60 min: Bolton substitution: Matt Taylor goes off and the excellent Chung-Yong Lee comes on. Bolton really missed him while he was away at the Asian Cup. On Fellaini, Emily B says: "Kind of like how Ryan Shawcross always just happens to break opponents' legs, even though he's not "that kind of player"?" Well, not always. He hasn't done it for almost a year now.

61 min: A double substitution from Everton: Jermaine Beckford and Leon Osman come on for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Seamus Coleman. The Russian has been anonymous, although Coleman was menacing here and there. This should mean Everton tweak their formation, with Beckford joining Anichebe in the attack and Cahill perhaps moving into a deeper role.

62 min: Neville lumps the ball forward, leading to a spot of head tennis, Everton winning three headers in a row. The last, from Beckford, falls to Tim Cahill on the edge of the area, but after he swivels, his volley is sliced miles over.

64 min: If only Everton had Louis Saha. They've had plenty of possession in good areas, but they've lacked conviction and an end product. Anichebe is willing, but rather limited. Maybe Beckford can have an impact; he's started to look decent in recent weeks.

65 min: On the left, Osman checks back on to his right foot and curls the ball into the six-yard box but Gary Cahill heads clear. He's having a fine game. Maybe Arsenal should sign him.

66 min: The Bolton fans have been getting increasingly irritated by Probert's refusal to award them free-kicks, so there are ironic cheers as he blows for a foul by Distin on Sturridge. Ah, football fans.

GOAL! Bolton 2-0 Everton (Sturridge, 67 min): Three games, three goals. What an impact the young man has had since his loan move from Chelsea and this should - should, note - be the game. It came from another long ball into Everton's area from Wheater. Gary Cahill caused havoc with his aerial prowess and strength, refusing to allow Everton to clear their lines. The ball skewed up to the left, where Lee rose impressively above Baines, who was extremely flat-footed, and nodded the ball down to the right for the unmarked Sturridge. Ten yards from goal he thrashed a superb, swerving volley past Howard with the outside of his left boot and into the left corner of the goal. An unorthodox finish, but hey, who's quibbling?

70 min: Everton have had so many free-kicks on the right touchline. Now they have another, Kevin Davies bumping into Arteta. It's a chance for Everton to exert some pressure, but their delivery from set-pieces has been woeful all afternoon and this is no different, overhit and inaccurate. Jaaskelainen claims. That is so frustrating. Moyes, by the way, will be furious with Baines's defending for Sturridge's goal. Lee is not exactly Nikola Zigic.

72 min: "Fellaini has talent, but he has learned nothing about how to avoid fouling, curb his temperament or run late on to the ball played into the box," complains Gary Naylor. "Given how many players have improved under Moyes (Cahill, Jagielka, Baines etc), it seems obvious that this is the best Everton can expect from him - and it's not enough."

73 min: From the right, Ricketts crosses towards Kevin Davies but it's too close to Howard. Moments later, Sturridge scoots ominously through to a ball through to him, but Howard is quick off his line to smother. "Is Fellaini really the dirtiest player in the league?" asks Joe Daly. "I can't recall an injury he has caused to another player. His hand does flap about more than it should but I don't think there's anything particularly snide about it. As for getting away with it - he got 10 yellows in his first 17 games and went for a hearing with Keith Hackett on his behaviour. He was continually called on by referees for fairly innocuous challenges. I'm not defending the swinging elbow but I think he's far from the dirtiest player. I suppose it depends how we categorise 'dirty'." Well dirty in the sense of how niggly he is. He's not high-profile, but he commits an astonishing number of fouls and always seems to get away with it. He's the new Robbie Savage, although much less entertaining. He does have the hair for the part though.

75 min: Everton are getting frustrated now and Tim Cahill slides through the back of Kevin Davies on the left, 40 yards from goal. Holden takes the free-kick and Gary Cahill inadvertently diverts the ball away from the area. Holden gets another chance, but Howard manages to punch clear.

76 min: Smooth play from Fellaini sees him dodge Holden. He follows it up by sliding a pass through to Beckford, who slips as he tries to control it. Neither player is happy with the other, Beckford gesturing petulantly to Fellaini, who looks nonplussed. To be honest, neither of them covered themselves with glory today, although you'd think Beckford had scored 20 goals already this season the way he was carrying on. He hasn't.

78 min: Everton make their final change, the pedestrian Victor Anichebe replaced by Jose Baxter.

GOAL! NO, WAIT - NO GOAL! 79 min: Sturrdige skedaddles on to a flick from Kevin Davies. Having isolated Heitinga in the area, he zips past the cumbersome Dutchman, hurtling towards the goal-line. The touch was slightly heavy so he couldn't get the shot away, but with the situation seemingly hopeless, he produced a moment of sheer brilliance, backheeling the ball into the path of Holden, who sidefooted into the roof of the net from close range. However Sturridge was unable to keep the ball in play and the linesman's flag goes up - correctly (I think).

80 min: The disallowed goal probably won't matter though. Everton have more or less given up the chase and Osman's wild shot from 30 yards out does nothing to improve the situation.

83 min: Finally Jaaskelainen is forced into action. A high free-kick is nodded down by Fellaini and Arteta intelligently touches the ball delicately to Baxter on the right. Just outside the area, he turns adroitly and drags a low shot towards the bottom left corner, but Jaaskelainen tips the ball wide expertly.

84 min: Baxter has just got a little carried away after that shot and tries to replicate the Beckham-Scholes combination against Bradford in 2000 with Baines, but with predictably lamentable results. It was only one shot! Baxter's got a way to go yet before he can start doing stuff like that.

87 min: Everton should be worried about this. They've been so lethargic, completely short of ideas and lacking in any sort of end product up front. The difference has essentially been Bolton's attacking options. For Everton, Anichebe is far from good enough, Beckford is raw and Saha is injured, duh.

88 min: They probably won't go down though. There's too much rubbish down there. They'll grit it out - but I doubt Moyes will be there next season. Lee chips a cross to the edge of the area and Sturridge, buoyed by his goal, tries to hook a volley into the top-left corner, but his technique and aim are both awry. "This seems quite a low-skill match on at least one side, even though it is between two mid-table clubs," says Paul Szabo. "Seems that only the top-level clubs get past early-season inconsistency and settle into winning ways, while everyone else can grade anywhere in the B+ to D- range from game to game. Must drive a manager nuts."

89 min: Unlucky! Kevin Davies, who has been excellent in an English forward sense if not in the way I usually like to use the word 'excellent', again uses his strength to nod down for Elmander, who steps inside on the edge of the area and larrumps a fierce effort just over the angle of post and bar.

90 min: Sturridge is enjoying himself now. He's a terrific talent, you know, definitely one to watch. Everton's heads have completely gone now, and Tim Cahill plays a loose pass to Sturridge 25 yards from goal. His confidence up, he opens up his body and curls a fine first-time left-footer just past the left post. That's his last act too, as he's replaced by Fabrice Muamba.

Peep! Peep! Peep! Lee Probert blows for full-time - and I think I heard muted boos from the Everton fans who had bothered to stay to the end. All is not well. A huge victory for Bolton after just one win in six. The points here keeps them eighth, albeit back in contention for a Europa League place, just three points behind Liverpool. Everton stay three points above the relegation zone. They're not going down though ... right? Thanks for all your emails and thanks for reading. Bye.

Agences de presses

Labels: Bolton, Everton, Guardian, Wanderers