Other soccer news in brief
Long puts Reading back in the race
Republic of Ireland international Shane Long fired Reading back into the promotion race with a controversial winner as they secured their first win in five league matches with a 2-1 victory at Hillsborough.
The Royals’ bid to go up automatically had hit the buffers in recent weeks, but Long, a 77th-minute replacement for Noel Hunt, raced onto Stephen Hunt’s pass and drilled an angled shot home for the winner four minutes later.
Sheffield Wednesday were furious West Midlands referee Andy Hall had waved play on for Michael Duberry’s foul during the build-up.
But Long kept his cool to hand Reading only their third league win this year. Wednesday were chasing a third league success on the trot and looked set to add to Reading’s woes during a tepid first period thanks to McAllister’s breakthrough on the stroke of half-time. Reading equalised through captain Kevin Doyle’s 18th goal of the season.
Allardyce takes Cahill to task
Blackburn Rovers manager, Sam Allardyce, has accused Tim Cahill of deceiving referees and believes the Everton talisman is treated leniently for someone who “most of the time plays the man before the ball”.
Everton travel to Ewood Park tonight with Cahill in search of his ninth goal of the season and Allardyce’s team desperate to continue their climb away from the Premier League’s bottom three.
Bolton Wanderers manager Phil Brown, claimed Cahill had “assaulted” his centre-halves in a defeat at Goodison Park in January.
Now Allardyce has brought the Australia international’s combative style to the attention of the referee Alan Wiley ahead of tonight’s game.
“Tim Cahill uses his body and it’s not often he concedes a free-kick, but most of the time we see him playing the man before the ball,” said the Blackburn manager.
“Every player commits fouls. It’s whether the referee sees it and sometimes they don’t.”
UL claim Premier League crown
John Tierney struck twice to put University of Limerick on the way to claiming the Colleges and Universities Premier League title with a comfortable 3-1 win over Letterkenny IT at Terryland Park yesterday.
Tierney hit the first on 30 minutes, finishing low past Liam Mailey. The second came nine minutes into the second half with a 30 yard effort. Paul Cummins added Limerick’s third on 75 minutes, before Fintan Bonner netted a consolation score for the Donegal side a minute later.
Boyd promises Rangers will not relinquish pole position easily
Kris Boyd has warned Celtic that Rangers have no intention of giving up their status as leaders of the Scottish Premier League.
Both teams are level on points, with only goal difference giving the Ibrox men the advantage. Boyd believes even being just four goals ahead of their rivals has given Walter Smith’s men a psychological edge having spent so much of the campaign trailing the champions.
“It gives you a boost,” he said. “They are the defending champions and they have to defend their crown so it’s up to them to show they are good enough to win the league.
“But we won’t be giving up, we will challenge right until the end and see what happens. You saw last season how close we came and I feel we have strengthened this season.”
Rangers are still without a trio of players ahead of tonight’s league game against Inverness.
Pedro Mendes (thigh), Nacho Novo (ankle) and Lee McCulloch (calf) are all still out of action, but could be back in contention for the weekend. Kirk Broadfoot missed training yesterday, but should be available for the visit of Caley Thistle.
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is suspended for Celtic’s game at Kilmarnock tonight (live on Setanta Ireland). The Dutch striker passed the disciplinary points total with the yellow card he picked up in the Old Firm game at Celtic Park last month and will miss the trip to Rugby Park.
Barry Robson (groin) and Shaun Maloney, Paddy McCourt and Koki Mizuno (all hamstrings) are still out and Lee Naylor, who aggravated a calf complaint against St Mirren on Saturday, is also sidelined.
Kick-off should have been delayed
Kenny Dalglish has broken his silence on the Hillsborough disaster, saying police and officials should have delayed the kick-off.
“The easiest thing to do is just to put the kick-off back a bit. That’s no problem for anybody. If the police are talking to the FA and the FA have got to make that call, there wouldn’t have been any resentment or disagreement with the people in the dressingroom, neither Brian Clough or ourselves certainly. It’s something everybody wished had never happened, but I think it’s also something nobody should forget.”
