Search: ' Keith Curle'

Monday 1 How long do you go on waiting for results?” asks Wolves chairman Rick Hayward after sacking Dave Jones with the club 19th in the Championship. Bradford’s Dean Windass has the second yellow card shown to him during a 4-0 defeat at Luton rescinded – he had protested at the referee allegedly taunting him about the score.

Tuesday 2 “There is no need to get dramatic because we are still unbeaten in Europe,” says Arsène as the Gunners are held 1-1 at home by Panathinaikos. Pascal Cygan, now firmly established as the new Frank Sinclair, contributes an own goal for the visitors’ equaliser after the Greeks miss a penalty. Chelsea are through to the Champions League knockout stages, though, after a 1-0 win at CSKA Moscow who also squander a spot-kick. Celtic can still avoid elimination after beating Donetsk 1-0. In the Championship, managerless Wolves are only three points above the relegation zone after a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland and West Ham lose to Cardiff for the first time since 1952, 4-1 at Ninian Park. The top two, Wigan and Ipswich, both win, the latter setting a club record by scoring in their 29th consecutive game, a 5-1 victory over Sheffield United.

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A new season, a new feature: each issue we pick outa match that helps us take the temperature of the game today. Where better to start than League Two? Al Needham reports

There are three important things you need to know about Mansfield. The first important thing is that Mansfield is one of those almost mythical places – a mining town that still displays signs of life. When you make the journey by train, you can see enormous pit wheels sunk into the ground, in memoriam of former colliery sites, and fear the worst. But no – there’s a very nice retail estate directly opposite the local club’s ground, thoughtfully designed to blend in with the dull, corrugated barns that are the west and north stands of Field Mill. Imagine Southend wrenched from its moorings and planted deep into the heart of the English countryside. That’s Mansfield.

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Lincoln’s Keith Alexander, back at work after brain surgery, is one of only three black managers in the league. Grahame Lloyd asked him why he thought this was so

Keith Alexander knows he’s very lucky to be alive. Just three months after undergoing major brain surgery following a collapse at his home, the Lincoln City manager was due back in the dugout for the home derby against Boston on February 7. Alexander could hardly have chosen a more volatile atmosphere for his return but, with Lincoln’s next three matches pitching them against neighbours Scunthorpe and Hull as well as promotion rivals Huddersfield, all their games this month are high-profile and high-octane.

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Dan Brennan wonders whether a Columbian who spiced up Tyneside but is still looking for will ever return to England, either to play football or open a nightclub

Tino Asprilla will long be remembered by Newcastle fans, not least for a dazzling hat-trick against Barcelona in their team’s first Champions League campaign, coun­ter­pointed by one of the most spectacular fouls ever seen in these parts – an elbow-head­butt combination against Keith Curle in a match with Manchester City. In two years on Tyneside, the gun-toting, porn­star-fancying, moped-riding, poodle-loving Col­ombian also spiced things up off the pitch. But in 1998, his off-the-wall antics finally proved too much for Kenny Dalglish and he was sent back to Parma for £6.5 mil­lion – £1m less than Kevin Keegan had paid for him.

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Manchester City need all the help they can get. In recent matches the referees have not come to their aid. Steve Parish muses on the inconsistencies of referees – and of the TV watchdogs

Alan Wilkie’s penalty award in the Manchester FA Cup derby, and Martin Bodenham’s failure to spot Asprilla’s elbow at work when Newcastle met City at Maine Road the week after, were both well examined by Match of the Day.

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