Saturday 1 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink thumps in a header at St James’ Park, but it’s for Newcastle who go on to win 2-1 and move into joint second place. Debutant Jonathan Woodgate chances a prediction: “Yes, I think we can win the title.” Juninho marks his Middlesbrough comeback with the equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Everton, who move up into the fourth Champions League spot, though David Moyes is taking it steady: “Our next target is a top-half finish.” “This match was about the players who spilt blood,” says Glenn Roeder as a Di Canio-less West Ham draw level with Bolton after beating Spurs 2-0. Hope is receding for the other two in the relegation area, though Howard talks of a “near top-drawer performance” as Sunderland slide to a late and unlucky defeat, their sixth in a row in the league, 1-0 at Fulham. West Brom lose by the same score at Southampton. Portsmouth fans, banned from visiting the New Den, miss seeing their team thrash Millwall 5-0 . Wigan go 15 points clear in the Second with 3-1 win over Chesterfield. In the Third, Hartlepool’s stately progress is slowed slightly by a 2-2 draw with local rivals Darlington. At the bottom end, Exeter stem a run of four defeats with a home point against the equally desperate Bristol Rovers.
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Saturday 1 “We will make sure it is exciting until the end of the title race,” says Arsène, as Arsenal scrape a 2-1 win over Fulham with a Robert Pires goal in the last minute. Man Utd are six points behind in second after winning 2-0 at Southampton. “We are capable of getting out of our mess,” says Gary Megson as West Brom move off the bottom after a 2-1 win at Man City. Sunderland score three goals in eight first-half minutes, but all are for Charlton, who win 3-1. “I have never been in or watched a game like it,” sighs Howard, whose team now prop up the table. Bolton put a four-point gap between themselves and the bottom three after beating Birmingham 4-2. Peter Ridsdale is barracked by Leeds fans during their 2-0 defeat at Everton but there are cheers for El Tel, who doesn’t know whether he is staying or going: “I don’t see my position clearly at the moment.” In the First, Sheffield Utd’s chances of catching Portsmouth and Leicester subside with a 1-0 defeat at Millwall, while their rivals both win. Brighton, with 43-year-old debutant Dave Beasant in goal, stay bottom with a 1-0 defeat at Walsall. Wigan are held to a goalless draw at home by bottom-place Cheltenham but still lead the Second by eight points. Boston slip back into the drop zone in the Third after conceding two goals in injury time to lose 2-1 at Bournemouth.
With their short-term existence secure, Bradford City are looking to learn from past mistakes to stop history repeating itself. Gary Rolin looks into their birthday wish
Real Madrid celebrated their centenary year by winning the European Champions League for the third time in five years. At the other end of the football scale, Bradford City’s preparations for their 100th birthday party have been boosted by Leeds High Court’s decision in February to lift the administration order that threatened the survival of the club formed in May 1903 when the Football League voted them into the Second Division.
After initial success in the Premiership, Ipswich Town now find themselves in financial turmoil. Csaba Abrahall documents their fall from grace
“So much of football is about short-term glory which leads so often to boom and bust. We’re not about that.” So said David Sheepshanks when Gavin Barber and I interviewed him for WSC 172 on the day Ipswich secured European qualification in 2001. This kind of level-headed approach had been a feature of his chairmanship and while he continued to adopt it, the club appeared to be in safe hands. Yet today it is in administration, with debts spiralling and the team a long way short of delivering financial salvation in the form of a return to the Premiership. What on earth went wrong?
Don't make players pay for failure
It has been reported that Gary Megson has taken to bringing a giant cheque, of the type normally reserved for pools winners’ photographs, into the West Brom dressing room to remind his players how much they would make in deferred bonus payments if the team stay up. It hasn’t worked – to date he has brought out the big cheque three times and the team have lost each match.