SOCCER SHORTS

Today's other soccer stories in brief

In brief

READING officials have denied that they have received a €5.3 million bid for Republic of Ireland midfielder Stephen Hunt from Premier League side Wigan.

HULL City have completed the signing of England international midfielder Jimmy Bullard (30) on a four-and-a-half-year deal for a club record €5.3 million fee from Fulham.

BIRMINGHAM’S Republic of Ireland international Stephen Kelly is a doubt for next month’s World Cup qualifier against Georgia after sustaining an ankle injury.

WIGAN have signed Egypt striker Mido (25) from Middlesbrough on loan until the end of the season.

LONDON’S Wembley Stadium is set to be named by Uefa next week as the venue for the 2011 Champions League final.

NEWCASTLE United yesterday completed the signing of former Rangers forward Peter Lovenkrands (28) until the end of the season.

RUSSIA is joining the race to host the World Cup finals in 2018 or 2022, a senior official in the Russian Football Association confirmed yesterday.

Heskey reunited with O'Neill as Villa pay Wigan €3.7m

ASTON Villa last night completed the signing of England striker Emile Heskey from Wigan in a €3.7 million deal. Heskey has been reunited with his former Leicester manager Martin O’Neill after signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.

The 31-year-old put pen to paper after passing a medical and agreeing personal terms with the midlands club.

He becomes O’Neill’s first signing in the January transfer window and is set to make his debut in Tuesday’s Premier League clash at Portsmouth.

O’Neill said: “I am absolutely delighted. Emile has been a brilliant player for a number of years and this is great news. It gives us all a big boost – the football club, myself and the players.

“He has arrived at a really important time. We have got a bit of momentum going. We haven’t the largest squad in the world.

“John Carew is coming back from his back injury but is still a week or two away from being ready to return and Emile couldn’t be arriving at a more opportune moment.

“I think he could play with Gabby (Agbonlahor) and John (Carew) and I think he will give us an enormous lift. I have got no doubts that he will improve us and will help to improve Gabby and other players around him.”

The Villa manager will continue to add to his squad during the remainder of the January transfer window, with a central defender among his priorities. Captain Martin Laursen was yesterday ruled out for two months, after undergoing surgery to his troublesome knee.

Earnshaw draws parity for Forest

DERBY and Nottingham Forest face an FA Cup fourth-round replay next month after Robert Earnshaw struck against his former club to earn a 1-1 draw to deny Nigel Clough a first victory as Derby manager.

Wales international Earnshaw, who left Derby to join Forest last summer, marked his return to Pride Park with a second-half goal to cancel out Rob Hulse’s opener.

The pre-match build up had all the sub-plots of a soap opera. As if the traditional rivalry between two English midland clubs was not enough already, the legendary Brian Clough managed both clubs during his career, and his son, Nigel, is now the Derby manager despite having first supported, and then played for, Forest.

Billy Davies, the new Forest manager, was until November 2007 the boss at Derby, and he still lives in the city while he attempts to find a house in Nottingham.

The Scot was not in the dugout, instead attending to important family matters in Glasgow.

The game itself lived up to the hype with early chances at both ends before, in the 36th minute, Hulse finished off a superb Derby attack.

Earnshaw was to get on the scoresheet in the 64th minute with a Forest goal that was remarkably similar to the one they conceded.