Preston out to stun United

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Preston North End manager Simon Grayson has already masterminded a famous FA Cup victory against Manchester United and will hope to do it again when they visit his League One side in the fifth round.


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London - Preston North End manager Simon Grayson has already masterminded a famous FA Cup victory against Manchester United and will hope to do it again when they visit his League One side in the fifth round.


Grayson was in charge of Leeds United, then a third tier side themselves, when they won 1-0 at Old Trafford in 2010 to become the first lower league opposition to beat an Alex Ferguson-led United team in the third round.


After a fourth round in which the FA Cup rekindled its old magic with the exits of the Premier League leaders Chelsea and champions Manchester City to lower league opponents, the Preston boss wants to use his previous experience of conquering 11-times winners United to do it again.


A win for his third tier side, who won the FA Cup in 1889 - when they won also won the Double in the first season of the Football League - and again in 1938 when they beat Sunderland with a penalty in the last minute of extra time, would end Louis van Gaal's best hope of his first trophy as United manager, with the league seemingly out of reach.


Preston and United were regular opponents until 1961 when Preston lost their top flight status and Grayson hopes their first meeting since United beat Preston in the FA Cup 43 years ago will be as memorable for him as that victory over Leeds was five years ago.


FANTASTIC OCCASION


“It was a fantastic occasion that day,” Grayson said. “This is a different United team but one we will look forward to playing.


“The football club deserves it, because we have not had any ties like this over the last few years.


“I'm sure Deepdale will be full and it's a massive boost for us. The profile of the game makes it a fantastic attraction.” – Reuters






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News sport : What in the heck is going on with the San Francisco 49ers?

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From the time Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers “mutually” parted ways right after the season ended, two things happened.


Pretty much nobody believed that it was truly “mutual,” and people started wondering what in the heck was going on with the 49ers.


Over the past few days San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami, who has been harsh on the 49ers brass of owner Jed York and general manager Trent Baalke, has put that “What in the heck is going on with the 49ers?” question in clearer contest.


To sum up his interview with Harbaugh and a follow-up story, Kawakami writes that the 49ers planned to get rid of Harbaugh for all of 2014, they leaked stories that said he wouldn't be back in 2015 (those two things seemed fairly clear already), in Kawakami’s words the 49ers brass “torched the 2014 season in the process,” and then botched hiring Adam Gase as Harbaugh’s replacement when at the last minute they told him Jim Tomsula would have to be his defensive coordinator if he wanted the job. Gase refused. Tomsula went from defensive line coach to Harbaugh’s replacement.


It all adds up to a really weird situation (not that replacing one of the best coaches in the NFL for a defensive line coach wasn't already strange) and a bad way for the 49ers to start off 2015.


First, Harbaugh claimed that he was told with two games left in the season that he wouldn’t be the 49ers coach in 2015.



“I didn’t leave the 49ers. I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me,” was Harbaugh’s money quote to Kawakami.



Mutual? Hmm. The rest of the interview is illuminating. Harbaugh avoids answering questions about where certain leaks during the 2014 season came from but it's pretty clear he believes they came from within the organization, particularly those about Tomsula being his potential replacement.



"Those are good questions for him and the 49er hierarchy. And we’ll leave it at that," Harbaugh said.



Then came what happened after Harbaugh was let go. Kawakami said that the 49ers had all but agreed with Gase, then the Denver Broncos offensive coordinator, to be their head coach. They approved his coordinator choices, and Tomsula's name didn't come up. Then the next day he was told that Tomsula would have to be his defensive coordinator if he wanted the job. Gase passed. Tomsula was hired. Then, Kawakami wrote, Tomsula asked Gase if he wanted to be his offensive coordinator. That was predictably shot down by Gase, who went to the Chicago Bears to run their offense.


The first three years Harbaugh was the 49ers coach, the franchise went from one of the worst in the NFL to one of the best. They made three straight NFC championship games and came very close to winning a Super Bowl. Last season was a bit of a mess, with an 8-8 finish, and all of the backroom battles as Harbaugh and the 49ers brass clashed is one reason for what happened last season.


The new coaching staff, starting at the top, has a lot to prove. If they can't replicate the success Harbaugh had, and it won't be easy to put together a record like 44-19-1 as Harbaugh did, the 49ers will have a lot of questions to answer. The workplace environment with the unpredictable Harbaugh might be calmer with him off to the University of Michigan, but it's hard to see at this point how the 49ers will be more successful on the field.


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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : New Alabama State coach Brian Jenkins subject of abuse allegations

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Former Bethune-Cookman coach Brian Jenkins is under fire after players and former assistant coaches said his program violated multiple NCAA rules and perpetuated an environment of abuse.


Jenkins was named the new head coach at Alabama State University in December, but the allegations from his former program have raised question about his current employment status.


According to the Montgomery Advertiser, who spoke with more than a dozen former players and four former coaches, allegation leveled against Jenkins include:


Improper benefits provided to players;

Improper housing arrangements;

Continued and extensive violations of the NCAA weekly practice time limits;

Failure to pay three assistant coaches that resulted in a federal lawsuit;

And, bullying of staff and players with retaliation against those who spoke up.

Bethune-Cookman assistant athletic director Tony O'Neal told the paper that any of the allegations that needed to reported were reported the NCAA.


Among those allegations, players said Jenkins threated linebacker Rahdeese Alcutt and defensive end Brandin Hudson with a steak knife during a pregame meal.


According to a letter Alcutt provided at the request of Bethune-Cookman officials as part of the investigation, a teammate accidentally spilled a drink and Alcutt began laughing. Because Jenkins doesn't allow talking at the pre-game meals, the commotion irked the head coach, Alcutt said.

"At this time, Brian Jenkins walked over to me and picked up a knife and pointed it at me and (Hudson) saying, 'Do I have to cut your (expletive) throats to get you to be quiet?" Alcutt wrote in the letter. Jenkins then stared at the two players for several seconds, he said.

The paper also noted three former assistants said Jenkins violated the number of practice hours allowed by the NCAA and the permissible number of days with contact.


NCAA rules mandate no more than 20 practice hours per week and no more than four hours per day. Players also must have at least one day off per week.


Former Bethune-Cookman offensive lineman Blake Pritchard told the paper the team was practicing 26 to 28 hours per week. And former tight end Isaac Virgin and Pritchard said the team would have two-a-day practices during the fall that would last, in total, up to eight hours.


But in fall camp in 2013, two weeks prior to Bethune-Cookman's first game, things finally came to a head, the players and coaches said.

After Jenkins surprised the team with a 1 a.m. practice — its third practice in 18 hours — there was a mutiny, the assistant coaches said. According to Pritchard, Alcutt and seven other players, the entire Bethune-Cookman team refused to leave the locker room for the next day's practice.

"We just had enough," former receiver Justin Henderson said. "People just don't understand how bad it was. I know it's football and everybody's supposed to be tough and all that, but man, this was a damn three-a-day we just had. That's just crazy."

Following the refusal to practice, the players said Jenkins locked the weight room and locker room and wouldn't allow anyone in for the next two days.

Several players also told the paper they were left without housing for parts of the year because the university only paid rent through May, leaving many players to sleep on the floors of the houses of teammates and one player claimed he slept in his truck.


While many assistant coaches interviewed said the housing issue was more about the university than Jenkins, several players blamed Jenkins for not doing more or speaking up to the university about the housing problems.


Alabama State interim athletic director Melvin Hines said he knew about the allegations and that he made ASU trustees and ASU president Gwendolyn Boyd aware of the allegations before Jenkins’ hiring on Dec. 16. But board members and trustees told the Montgomery Advertiser they were not aware of the allegations.


Jenkins was 46-14 during his five seasons at Bethune-Cookman and was named Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times. His contract with Alabama State was approved following a Feb. 5 board meeting.


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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!


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News sport : Watch 7,670 pieces of underwear fly during ECHL team's 'Undie Sunday' event (Video)

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The Teddy Bear Toss is our favorite minor league promotion ever, and while many teams now hold a Toss Night every season, the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors put a twist on that theme.


The Condors lost to the Alaska Aces on Sunday 6-4, but the bigger happening was that it was “Undie Sunday.” Like the Teddy Bear Toss, when the Condors scored their first goal of the game, fans tossed various undergarments to the ice in celebration.


When Sebastien Sylvestre made it 1-0 for the home side at 7:26 of the first period, Condors fans went to work:



Here’s what the aftermath looked like from ice level:



In the end, 7,670 undergarments rained down to the ice inside Rabobank Arena, according to the team. That broke last year’s total, which ended up around 6,000 pieces of underwear.


The brand new “bras, underwear, t-shirts, socks, boxers, diapers, etc,” as the Condors asked for, will be donated to several local non-profits in the Bakersfield area.


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News sport : Michigan's Devin Funchess shows off leaping ability with NBA-caliber dunk (Video)

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After hauling in 62 catches as a junior for Michigan, Devin Funchess declared for the NFL and has been preparing for the combine down in Florida at IMG Academy.


On Sunday, Funchess took a break from his football drills to show off his incredible leaping ability on the basketball court.



That dunk would have earned him high marks at the NBA Dunk Contest over the weekend.


At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Funchess has the size that NFL scouts are looking for. His size combined with the insane athleticism on display here could vault him into a high-round draft pick.


For more Michigan news, visit TheWolverine.com.


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News sport : Conference USA becomes latest conference to offer cost-of-attendance scholarships

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Marshall's Deon-Tay McManus runs onto the field just before the Conference USA championship NCAA college football game against Louisiana Teach in Huntington, W.Va., Saturday Dec. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley) Conference USA is the latest Group of Five conference to agree to provide cost-of-attendance scholarships to its student athletes.


The conference’s 14 athletic directors decided on the move during its winter meetings a couple weeks ago, but only now are the individiual schools beginning to announce whether they plan to participate.


“What we did in Conference USA is we voted that each institution will give cost of attendance, but you don’t have to do it,” Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick told the Herald-Dispatch. “You can do it to the max or you can do it for some sports, but not other sports. What we at Marshall have chosen to do to be competitive in all sports is to provide our student-athletes, starting with the 2015-16 year, with cost of attendance. We estimate it will cost us approximately $700,000.”


During the NCAA's annual convention in January, the NCAA’s Power Five conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — voted to redefine the athletic scholarship so that it covered more than tuition, room, board, books and fees. Now, additional money has been added to scholarships to cover things such as transportation and personal expenses.


Hamrick told the Herald-Dispatch that each Conference USA school could decide how much it was willing to offer student-athletes.


“Each individual school’s financial aid office determines what the cost of attendance is, based upon a federal financial aid formula, so all the schools are different,” Hamrick said. “One school can give this amount and one can give another. It’s just based on where they live. We haven’t gotten the final range at Marshall per athlete, but it will be anywhere from $2,700 to $3,000 per year.”


All of the other conferences in the Group of Five — American Athletic, Mid-America, Mountain West and Sun Belt — all have said they will allow cost-of-attendance scholarships, but like Conference USA, will allow individual schools to determine how to dole them out and how much to pay.


Group of Five conferences were not mandated to add cost-of-attendance scholarships, but realized it had to do so in order to stay competitive with the bigger institutions.


“If another school is going to give a kid extra money and we’re not, there isn’t a chance that we’ll get him,” Hamrick told the Herald-Dispatch. “Recruits ask ‘Do you provide cost-of-attendance?’ Do you think if (coach) Doc Holliday says no, he’s going to get some of the players that he got in that recruiting class? For some of those kids coming from difficult backgrounds, that extra money per year is huge, so they can live while on campus.”


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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!


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News sport : 3.5 months after broken leg, Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell is running (Video)

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Ole Miss star wideout Laquon Treadwell suffered a gruesome leg injury as he headed toward the goal line against Auburn on Nov. 1.


Instead of what could have been a game-winning score, Treadwell fumbled just before the goal line and fractured his fibula and dislocated his ankle in the process.


Only three-and-a-half months later, the 6-foot-2, 229-pound Treadwell is back on his feet, as he displayed in a video posted on Instagram.



That’s Treadwell on the left running along with Rebels’ linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche, who broke his ankle the week before against LSU on Oct. 25.


The video is a seriously good sign for Ole Miss as the Rebels head into spring practice. While it’s unclear if Treadwell, who caught 48 passes for 632 yards and five touchdowns before the injury, will be cleared to participate in spring drills, it looks like he could be good to go by the time the season rolls around in August.


Ole Miss will have a new starting quarterback in 2015 and a healthy Treadwell will certainly help the team’s new signal caller.


For more Ole Miss news, visit RebelGrove.com.


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News sport : Creighton's Ricky Kreklow makes one of the year's best hustle plays

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One of the bright spots in a rare season to forget for Creighton is a hustle play worth remembering.


Late in the first half of mostly meaningless game between two teams fighting to stay out of last place in the Big East, Creighton senior Ricky Kreklow dove across the baseline and skidded out of bounds to save an errant pass. Kreklow then quickly got up, sprinted to the corner and buried a wide-open 3-pointer to help the Bluejays post a 77-70 victory over visiting Marquette on Saturday.


The effort Kreklow showed is a sign it probably won't be long before Creighton gets back to performing at the level it has become accustomed to.


The Bluejays are still doing all the little things it takes to win the way they have previously. They just simply don't have the talent necessary to win in the Big East after losing a vaunted senior class featuring national player of the year Doug McDermott and fellow standouts Ethan Wragge, Grant Gibbs and Jahenns Manigat.


Creighton (12-14, 3-10) is shooting only 41.1 percent from the field as a team and has nobody averaging more than 10.3 points per game, but coach Greg McDermott told reporters in Omaha that Kreklow's attitude has helped keep the Bluejays upbeat and working hard.


The journeyman who previously played for Missouri and Cal turned down scholarship offers from other name-brand programs to walk on at Creighton as a graduate transfer. He has averaged 7.7 points per game and made a huge impact with his outside shooting against Marquette, scoring a team-high 19 points and sinking six threes.


"Ricky has been incredible," McDermott said. "I'm not sure how our locker room would have survived without him. I think those guys would have continued to move forward, but he's got such a positive spirit about him that he's kind of uplifting in that way.


"He decided to walk on here and we're having a tough year, yet he approaches practice every day like he's having the time of his life. He's loving every minute of it. It's a great lesson for all of us to learn when we start feeling sorry for ourselves."


Kreklow's work ethic and attitude was on display Saturday — and he received a loud ovation from the 17,000 fans in attendance.


It was a great hustle play under any circumstances. It was even more impressive coming at the end of a lost season.


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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : 2015 is not a banner year for paint schemes in the Cup Series

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If you're a NASCAR fan, one of the best parts of the approaching season is the unveiling of cars' paint schemes.


Through announcements and the first days of cars being on track at Daytona, we've gotten a glimpse of what most rides will look like in 2015. And, well, it's underwhelming.


We're admitted simpletons when it comes to paint schemes. The simpler and cleaner the better. Some cars in the Cup Series have that look going on. Some definitely don't.


Let's start with a couple of the cars we like. Nationwide's paint scheme for Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the best new design of the season.




It's a contender up against Brad Keselowski's No. 2 for best-looking car. Props to Team Penske for keeping the white look.




Carl Edwards' new No. 19 isn't bad, though the red numbers on the side seem to blend in a bit against the orange background.




We don't mind the black and red combination of Kurt Busch's car, but the diagonal side-stripe makes the car look a bit like a Texas Tech-themed Tetris puzzle.




They get worse from here. Denny Hamlin's FedEx schemes over the past couple years weren't bad. The addition of purple with orange trim are obviously for company colors, but the utilization is suspect. Especially with the purple roof.




Greg Biffle's Ortho car looks kind of like a red-faced anteater. Though given the sponsor's products, maybe that was the objective?




Danica Patrick's car may be the ugliest main paint scheme of the year. We've discussed our dislike of the combination in this space previously, but the car looks so 1990s that it's worth mentioning again.




What happened to the crispness of Patrick's 2013 car?




What schemes do you like or dislike? Drop us a line at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : North Carolina paid Duke over $27,000 for spray paint damages

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The North Carolina Tar Heels paint the victory bell after defeating the Duke Blue Devils 45-20 at Wallace Wade Stadium on November 20, 2014 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) As part of the rivalry between North Carolina and Duke, it is tradition for the winner of the annual football game to spray paint the Victory Bell trophy in their school color. The Tar Heels apparently took things a bit too far.


North Carolina paid Duke $27,170.44 for damages done with spray paint to the Blue Devils’ facilities following the Tar Heels’ 45-20 win on Nov. 20.


According to the News & Observer, $22,028.44 of the money went to replacing the carpet in Duke’s visitor’s locker room.


Per an open records request obtained by the News & Observer, Duke associate athletic director Gerald Harrison told UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham in an email that much of the carpet was not able to be cleaned.



According to an email sent from Gerald Harrison, the Duke associate athletic director who oversees football, to UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham, 60 carpet tiles were spray painted, and they weren’t able to be cleaned. That required a full carpet replacement throughout the facility, Harrison wrote.



Additional money was used to remove spray paint from Duke’s practice field and to paint the practice facility and “three panels in Wallace Wade Stadium.” In these instances, North Carolina players spray-painted “U-N-C” on the walls.


Cunningham and UNC head coach Larry Fedora originally apologized to Duke in a statement issued Nov. 24. Cunningham said he called Duke AD Kevin White, while Fedora reached out to Duke coach David Cutcliffe. Cutcliffe apparently never called Fedora back.


From the News & Observer:



In a formal apology letter to Duke athletic director Kevin White on Feb. 3, Cunningham said he was disappointed that Duke football coach David Cutcliffe never returned UNC coach Larry Fedora’s apology call, which came the Friday following the game.



Additionally, at the end of his letter to Duke, Cunningham decided to include a photo of spray paint damage to UNC’s South Building where “four pillars were tagged with the letters D-U-K-E on Feb. 19, 2014, before the Duke-UNC basketball game.”



“The University of North Carolina bore the cost of sandblasting these pillars and did not make public comments of the transgression. I acknowledge we have no idea who did this, but I simply included it to demonstrate that all fans, teams, coaches, students, etc. need to appreciate and respect the rivalry.”



Cunningham and Fedora split the costs with each sending personal checks for $13,585.22 to Duke in January while the UNC players completed community service.


For more North Carolina news, visit TarHeelIllustrated.com.


For more Duke news, visit DevilsIllustrated.com.


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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Young Ohio State fan thinks Ezekiel Elliott should win Nobel Peace Prize

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One young Ohio State fan thinks Buckeyes running back Ezekiel Elliott should win the Nobel Peace Prize.


That’s what eight-year-old Jacob Taylor, a Buckeyes fan from Florida, wrote in a letter to Elliott late last week. Luckily for us, Jacob’s mother shared the letter on Twitter. Take a look.



Elliott ran for 696 yards in the postseason for the Buckeyes – including a 246-yard, four-touchdown performance in the national championship that earned him game MVP honors.


Clearly Jacob was impressed.


For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.


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Sherwood determined to keep Villa up

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Tim Sherwood inspired Aston Villa to a 2-1 FA Cup fifth round win over Leicester City and appeared equally upbeat when he met the media on Monday - his first official day as the club's new manager.


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Tim Sherwood inspired Aston Villa to a 2-1 FA Cup fifth round win over Leicester City on Saturday and appeared equally upbeat when he met the media on Monday - his first official day as the club's new manager.


Sherwood, watching Villa labour in a drab first half at Villa Park, went into the dressing room at the break and was punching the air in delight as Scott Sinclair's late strike put them 2-0 ahead after an improved second half performance.


Their run to the FA Cup quarter-finals has been Villa's one respite from a terrible league campaign which has seen them plummet after being second in mid-September.


Manager Paul Lambert paid the price for that slump when he was sacked on Wednesday with Villa 18th in the 20-team league, deep in relegation trouble with 13 matches to play.


Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Sherwood told reporters: “I know how to win matches in this league. I know how to galvanise players and get the best out of them - all I can do is prepare the team to the best of my ability.


“It's all about winning 13 cup finals now, and hopefully 14 if we do get to the Cup final itself.”


Sherwood, 46, said the squad was good enough to survive and he hoped that Belgium striker Christian Benteke, who has scored just three goals all season, will start finding the net again.


“He just needs a goal to restore his confidence. But you've got to try to win football matches. We've got good players who can play off the cuff,” he said.


“I remember playing against Christian Benteke as a manager and I know what a handful he can be. We need to get him back to that. There are a lot of big names in that squad and none of them want to get relegated.


“No-one at this football club does and it will hurt them to drop into the Championship. We have to make sure that does not happen.”


Villa have scored 12 League goals all season and have lost their last five league matches. They have not won in the league since another 2-1 win over Leicester on December 7 and Sherwood is only concentrating on survival.


“We are not in the position we are in for no reason.


“I believe in giving youth an opportunity but don't expect too many Under-18 players on Saturday - that's a long-term plan. For the short term, its all about winning, nothing else.”


Sherwood managed Spurs for the second half of last season and had been linked with the managerial posts at several clubs since leaving White Hart Lane in May. – Reuters






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Chiefs gave the ball away too much

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Kaizer Chiefs scored in injury time to beat Township Rollers of Botswana in their CAF Champions League preliminary first-leg clash.


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It was not pretty. But it got the result all right! And now Kaizer Chiefs will do their best to protect “that” goal against a Township Rollers side that is sure to believe they can pull the rug from underneath the feet of their more illustrious opponents.


Amakhosi’s 2-1 Caf Champions League preliminary round, first leg victory courtesy of a Tefu Mashamaite injury-time goal saved the Absa Premiership leaders some blushes in what was arguably their worst performance of the season.


“I’ve never seen our central midfield give the ball away as much as we did,” coach Stuart Baxter lamented after the match played at the FNB Stadium on Saturday night. “We gave them so much opportunity to counter (attack) us, it’s a miracle that they did not score. But I can’t envisage us giving the ball away so badly in the second leg.”


Yet he will do well to ensure his team are much more jealous in protecting the ball, Rollers showing themselves to be a very useful side in possession and going forward.


“We’ll gladly take the goal to Botswana and we will defend it fiercely.”


And they should given that Rollers now need only beat them 1-0 to progress to the first round via the away goal rule. “We always say it takes just one second to score. And I am happy we did so to win this match.”


Chiefs will thus need to be alert for the entire match when the two sides meet in Gaborone in two weeks making sure there’s no lapse of concentration for a second.


After all Rollers, who clearly came here in awe of their opponents, have now got the impression Chiefs are not as great a side as they thought them to be.


“We’ll be ready for Chiefs when they come to Gaborone,” said coach Madinda Ndlovu at the post-match conference “The boys are very sorry that they could not at least get a draw, but there’s smiles on their faces and a belief that they can make it.


“While my boys gave Chiefs too much respect in the first few minutes, we should have gone into the break at 1-1 but we missed a sitter. In the second half we played well and that’s why we got the equaliser.


“But then we lacked concentration in the last five minutes and that’s why we conceded from a set piece.”


Valuable lessons picked up from the first leg by both sides then to make for a fascinating second clash that promises to be tactically intense as Chiefs will strive to protect their lead while hoping to get that crucial away goal and Rollers go out for a win on home soil.


While the showing by Chiefs can well be termed an episode in the club’s fascinating 2014/15 drama best forgotten, Rollers will rewind the tape and watch it with some pride – the Botswana champions having managed to get behind the Chiefs rearguard on so many occasions they should have scored more than the one goal by Segolame Boy.


They were swift on the counter-attack as Chiefs looked out-of-sorts in midfield and their inter-passing impressed. In front of their home crowd in Gaborone they are sure to be even much sprightly and much more confident.


Chiefs will want Matthew Rusike to be much more clinical and quicker in his decision-making in the box than he was here.


Though he scored the opener on six minutes, the Zimbawean striker was good for a hat-trick on the night but fluffed a couple of good chances.


Not that Baxter was complaining.


After all, his team got the victory in the end. - The Star






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Lack of pace is United’s problem

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The problem with Manchester United - and the reason they are underperforming - is the lack of either pace or height in the strike force.


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The first thing we need to deal with - and put out of the way - is the long-ball question, because it is a red herring and utterly irrelevant to any conversation about Manchester United.


Sam Allardyce tried a few fun and games last week when he accused United of being a long-ball team but I was surprised that Louis van Gaal even responded by producing reams of charts at his press conference on Tuesday. All you are doing is legitimising what Allardyce is saying and looking like you need to justify yourself. Van Gaal didn't.


The problem with Manchester United - and the reason they are underperforming - is more subtle and tactical than that and it all flows from a critical flaw in the team: the lack of either pace or height in the strike force.


I'm not kidding you when I say that pace kills you as a central defender. If you had given me the choice as a central defender of being up against skills or a forward who can run like a whippet, I'd take the skills every day of the week. You can always use your technique to deal with them. But pace through the middle of the pitch? That does things to defenders. It makes you drop back three or four yards because that's the kind of head start you want to give yourself. And when the defence drops three or four yards, the midfield does because no side wants a gap between those two lines. It's a cardinal sin and it will lose you the game.


And here we get to the nub of it. No defence feels the need to drop those three or four important yards with the strike partnership Van Gaal has been settling on: Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao. Both are very good strikers, but neither is going to stretch a defence with his pace and get in behind.


Both want to go short for the ball. Neither does that partnership provide the big man/small man combination that will also have defences worrying and playing deep. When there is a big target man in the partnership, central defenders will worry about him getting the knock-down for the smaller striker, who can get in behind. So back they go.


There are no such worries for the teams United have been up against. The centre-halves are following Van Persie and Falcao all the way out because they are not afraid of the second man in the partnership stretching them. The knock-on effect is that the midfield is able to play a high line, pressurising United's midfielders and not allowing them the time to move the ball forward at pace. I'd say that 90 per cent of the time United pick up the ball in midfield their backs are to goal because someone is right up their arse - to describe it as we'd describe it when I was playing!


There has been a lot of talk about there being a lack of pace in this United team but you can't tell me that players are going out lacking the intention or the instructions to do things at pace, the Manchester United way. Everything is about cause and effect in football. There is a reason why they are not shifting the ball quickly. It all stems from opponents not fearing that front line.


Liverpool were having the same problem earlier this season, too. We talked about it in this column. But Brendan Rodgers put Raheem Sterling, with his pace, up front, and now has Daniel Sturridge back. Defences are going back and allowing Liverpool that time and space.


So United need a different combination at the top of that team. Either James Wilson, their striker with pace, and Van Persie. Or Wilson with Wayne Rooney. Or Van Persie with Marouane Fellaini - creating that big man/little man combination I've mentioned, with Van Persie picking up the knock-downs. You only had to see the chaos Burnley caused United on Wednesday, with Danny Ings' pace stretching the defence continually and - as United retreated to deal with it - Michael Kightly, Ashley Barnes and George Boyd having so much time on the ball in the space created.


There have already been hints of what the kind of changes I'm talking about can do. Watch United's 3-0 win over Liverpool again and you'll see the way the threat of Wilson's pace forced Liverpool to play deep last December, even though he hardly had a touch early on. Fellaini's arrival at Upton Park in an advanced role also forced West Ham deeper. These are the equations which explain United's problems. A long-ball reputation is the last thing Van Gaal should be preoccupied about. – The Independent






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Wenger lauds Giroud

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Arsene Wenger paid tribute to his FA Cup match winner Olivier Giroud, recognising how the Frenchman has improved.


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London - Arsene Wenger paid tribute to his FA Cup match winner Olivier Giroud, recognising how the Frenchman has improved and become a more complete striker in his three years in London.


Giroud again demonstrated the quality which persuaded Cup holders Arsenal to pay around 10 million pounds ($15.42 million) for his services as he scored both goals in a decisive two-minute spell to sink Middlesbrough 2-0 in the fifth round.


The player who has not always convinced at Arsenal, despite that peacock strut about him, is these days properly showing off the feathers, this brace taking his tally for the season to 10 goals, even though he missed nearly three months of the campaign with a broken foot.


It was a year ago that Giroud's future at the club seemed up in the air after he apologised for taking a female companion back to the team hotel.


Yet even with Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck having subsequently taken the spotlight from him, Giroud's huge and growing importance to Arsenal was again underlined by Wenger, who explained why his number 12 actually remained the club's most natural number nine.


“I believe that he is a different player today than the guy who arrived here,” said Wenger of the 28-year-old, who seems tougher and more industrious than when he joined the club.


“He understands what top level football demands, works with a great concentration in training and he has improved tremendously on his mobility, his technical quality. And, of course, his body is very strong. He uses it very well.”


Giroud's first goal came straight out of the Arsenal manual of beautiful team goals, a neat first-time finish to end some bewilderingly fine interplay involving all the players.


The second was the sharpest of instant volleys from Alexis Sanchez's corner. “A consequence of intelligence and technique,” said Wenger.


While Sanchez and Welbeck buzz around, there remains only one job for Giroud.


“I believe Welbeck's doing extremely well. He can play central striker like he did for a long time but the most natural centre forward we have is Giroud,” said Wenger.


“All the strikers we have can play in different positions. The only one who can only play centre forward is Giroud, so when Giroud plays the others have to move out wide.”


It seems simple enough; feed the peacock and he will score. – Reuters






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