The Premiership club, who expect to receive official permission from the Bramall Lane board later today, were hoping to meet with Warnock to discuss personal terms as quickly as possible. The Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric is also, after three days of consideration, prepared to make an official approach to Southampton to talk to their manager, Harry Redknapp. It was the first goal for the Spain international since 10 September and Wenger said that he had brought Reyes back into the team to “help him find his confidence”.. Ars? Wenger has said he prefers to judge his players on their technique rather than the country on their passport and watching his young foreign charges overwhelm the Championship leaders last night, Highbury could only agree with his criteria.

The Reading fans may have chanted “England” in mockery but a Carling Cup victory built on goals from Jose Antonio Reyes and Robin van Persie was the ideal riposte. Both of the Championship strugglers strikers’ – Barry Hayles and Ben May – missed in the penalty shoot-out and, although Birmingham’s Jermaine Pennant was also wasteful, his team-mates, finally, did enough to reach the quarter-finals, Stan Lazaridis converting the decisive spot-kick.. A new dawn at the New Den and Millwall will just hope that it is not a false one after they twice dragged themselves level against Premiership Birmingham City, forcing this committed Carling Cup tie into extra time

That is as far as it went. The 19th-minute penalty by which they led at half-time may have given them a leg-up that Villa felt to be somewhat harsh.

But there was no arguing with Doncaster’s superiority in the second half as Paul Heffernan and Sean Thornton added to Michael McIndoe’s spot-kick to claim a second Premiership scalp for Dave Penney’s team in this season’s competition and reach the quarter-finals only two years after they were promoted from the Conference.. The Greece winger Stelios Giannakopoulos could return to the team, while Nicky Hunt (broken leg) and Henrik Pedersen (Achilles) are both approaching full fitness after injury and might be given a run-out.Allardyce expects Leicester to raise their game and is well aware they overcame promotion hopefuls Sheffield United at the weekend He said: “I will accept a 1-0 win right now Anything more will be an absolute delight I would be just glad to get through this round anyway. The Leicester players will play above themselves because they are meeting a Premiership club that is doing very well.”. We openly accept we have not got a 20-goal-a-year man but we need those who get five or six to get seven or eight.”The Senegal striker El-Hadji Diouf will miss the match after being sent off at Fulham. Far too many of our top-end players are not producing enough goals. It is all about recovering the players as best as we possibly could. The players are shoved in ice baths, then hot water and the process continues like that It’s what a player has to go through today.

If you can last two minutes in the ice baths, I will pay you myself! But they accept it as part of their recovery now. It is not very pleasant.”
Allardyce is looking for his team to get back on track today at the Reebok Stadium when they entertain the Championship side Leicester in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. He wants his side to tighten up at the back and also spread the goals around, after losing 2-1 at Fulham on Sunday.”We let ourselves down from the defensive point of view on two occasions, which cost us two goals,” Allardyce said “That was too big to recover from. We need to defend better and also stick the ball in the back of the net more often.”If I have fear about anything at the moment it is that all our goalscoring players, apart from Kevin Nolan, are down on their ratio. Allardyce said: “They needed what I would call active rest. The squad took to the water just hours after the defeat by Fulham at Craven Cottage instead of relaxing at home. Bolton Wanderers return to Cup action with the manager Sam Allardyce claiming his players can benefit from the cold snap by taking ice baths.

You need to have a look at what is going on in front of him, at the midfield and the back four.”With a place in the Uefa Cup awaiting the winners, there is plenty of incentive for the Addicks tonight. Curbishley said: “It would be dreadful to think we could go to Stamford Bridge and get that result and then not be able to follow it up with a home win.”. It is about making as many right decisions as you can, and at the moment we are making too many wrong ones and it is not happening for us.”One change Curbishley could make tomorrow would be to recall the veteran goalkeeper Dean Kiely, now fit again following a fractured finger which forced him to miss the start of the season.Although Stephan Andersen has shipped eight goals in the past four games, the Charlton manager maintains: “It is not always the goalkeeper’s fault – he is always an easy target. It is up to me to try to get them back on track.”But once they cross that line, it is all about them. One or two of them have gone off the boil, one or two of them have not been playing as well as they should be, and one or two of them have perhaps been trying a bit too hard. If you think you have arrived in this league, then you are in trouble because you have to do it week in and week out.