A round-up of today's other stories in brief
St Patrick's send Rovers packing
SHAMROCK Rovers bowed out of the EA Sports Cup yesterday afternoon but Dublin rivals St Patrick's Athletic required a late equaliser and then extra-time and penalties to secure victory.
Rovers had looked on course for a place in the third round thanks to Dean Kelly’s penalty on the hour mark. St Patrick’s fought hard to force extra-time and Daniel North equalised with two minutes left, again from the penalty spot.
Neither side could make the breakthrough in extra-time and it was the Inchicore club who held their nerve in the shoot-out, winning 3-1 on penalties.
Elsewhere, Bohemians were beaten 4-2 by First Division side Shelbourne while nine-time winners Derry City booked their passage with a 2-1 win over Mervue United at the Brandywell. David McDaid and Michael McCrudden grabbed the goals for the home side.
Doyle targets return for Wolves' final two games
WOLVES striker Kevin Doyle is targeting a comeback in time for the final two games of the season.
The Republic of Ireland international has been sidelined since suffering a knee ligament injury on international duty last month.
The 27-year-old has resumed running and is now hopeful of being available to face Sunderland on May 14th and Blackburn eight days later.
Doyle, when asked if he will play again this season, said: “That’s the aim at the moment.
“I’ve had a good week with the physios running and we’re looking at me being available for the last two games.
“Hopefully that will be the case and I can have some impact on the rest of the season.”
Doyle is still confident Wolves will avoid the drop. “There’s no game we don’t think we can win away or home. That’s why we’re still so positive,” he said.
“Everyone believes we’re going to get out of it and I don’t think that’s changed.”
Twitterati give Gibson grief
AS footballers rush to join Twitter, they may want to pause and reconsider following Darron Gibsons sobering experience.
The Manchester United midfielder opened his own account at midday. The launch was greeted with much fanfare by Gibson’s captain at United, Rio Ferdinand, who tweeted: “We have a new member from the Man utd crew... @dgibbo28 has joined twitterverse show him some love tweeps!”
But two hours later the account had been shut down – seemingly because of the 23-year-old’s unwillingness to put up with the abuse he was receiving from purported United fans.
The messages included the following: “@dgibbo28 your performance on saturday was one of the worst I’ve ever seen of any utd player. scared of the ball much?
“@dgibbo28 hasn’t tweeted yet. Seems somewhat fitting after the countless anonymous performances we’ve seen from the ‘footballer’.”
Gibson decided to remove himself from the firing line shortly after.
Good news for Chelsea
CHELSEA’S faint hopes of retaining the Premier League title have been boosted by news that the injury sustained by Michael Essien against West Ham United was confirmed as only a minor muscle pull in his left leg, with the Ghanaian potentially available for Saturday’s derby against Tottenham Hotspur.
Essien had pulled up after landing awkwardly in the second half and appeared initially to grip his left knee.
Police play down Lennon complaint
STRATHCLYDE police and Celtic have played down a complaint relating to the gesture made by Neil Lennon at the end of Sunday’s Old Firm derby.
The police indicated they would not be following up the complaint as officers witnessed the Celtic manager’s gesture – cupping his ears as he left the field – and did not take any action at the time.
A spokeswoman said: “We can confirm we have received a complaint regarding Neil Lennon at the end of the Rangers-Celtic match. Strathclyde police officers were in attendance at the time and would have taken action at that time if they had deemed it appropriate.”
The Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell, said: “It is absolute nonsense. It is laughable that such a ludicrous complaint has been made given the abuse Neil received throughout the match. It tells you more about those making the complaint than it does about Neil.”
Wenger will be strengthening squad
ARSENE Wenger admits he will strengthen the Arsenal squad “where it needs” this summer in what is set to be one of the key decisions of his tenure.
The Gunners look to be heading for a sixth consecutive season without silverware after Sunday’s last-minute defeat at Bolton left them nine points behind Premier League leaders Manchester United with just four games left.
“We have the quality, that is for sure. We have to strengthen the squad where it needs and make the right decision on that front,” said Wenger.
“It [transfers] is always in my mind every day.
“The team have had an outstanding attitude and will not be rewarded because of small things, but small things cost you.
“It is frustrating because the team has produced the efforts.
“We have to be realistic that it [the title] is very unlikely now, but we have to finish as well as we can.”
McCarthy preaches calm for players
MICK McCarthy has told his players to keep calm ahead of a back-to-back away derbies which could be crucial to Wolves’ Premier League survival hopes.
Wolves take on Stoke at the Britannia Stadium tonight and then tackle Birmingham at St Andrew’s on Sunday.
But McCarthy is refusing to look upon the games as “make or break” to second from bottom Wolves’ quest to secure a third successive season of top-flight football.
“It’s all about having one more goal, one more point, being better than three other teams, come May 22nd, and we stay up,” he said.
“It would be seriously helpful to get points out of the next two games but I am not going to make it make or break.
“It might be the last game we need something and we might get it. The message is keep calm and keep playing.”
