English soccer leaders defeated

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 29

English soccer leaders defeated

NZPA-Reuter London The leader, Norwich, and the high-riding Millwall slumped to only their second defeats of the English league soccer season on Saturday as the top challengers Arsenal and Liverpool prospered without joining the action.

Norwich crashed 3-1 at Aston Villa while Millwall conceded its first home defeat at the hands of fellow Londoners, West Ham, which took all the points thanks to a firsthalf strike by Paul Ince. Norwich stayed top with 29 points from 14 matches, but Arsenal could overtake it on goal difference if it beats Liverpool today. Norwich had won five of its six previous away encounters in the league and Villa had lost its last three league games, but two goals from Kevin Gage and one from David Platt overturned the form book. Ince, who scored twice

in West Ham’s 4-1 League Cup win over Liverpool on Wednesday, maintained his sharp-shooting form, driving home in the eighteenth minute after the Millwall goalkeeper, Brian Home, had blocked a shot from Alan Dickens.

Arsenal and Liverpool did well to stay out of the Saturday action because the four other clubs in the top six all lost.

While Norwich and Millwall faltered, Coventry and Southampton, fifth and sixth overnight, each lost 2-1 away, beaten respectively by Queen’s Park Rangers and Wimbledon. The Villa defender, Gage, struck the first blow against Norwich in the twentieth minute and although Trevor Putney equalised five minutes before the interval, the leader could not respond to further thrusts by Platt and Gage in the fiftyninth and seventy-seventh minutes.

Millwall remained in third place, five points behind Norwich, while West Ham, its conqueror, was still one from the foot of the table despite its morale-boosting win.

In a dramatic encounter at the other end of London, Queen’s Park Rangers inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Coventry, which had a defender, Trevor Peake, sent off on the hour for a foul on Wayne Fereday. Q.P.R. was already 2-0 up at that stage after the former England forward, Trevor Francis, had netted his seventh goal of the season in the fortysecond minute and helped set up the second for Mark Falco in the fiftyeighth. Coventry, down to 10 men, battled back and reduced the arrears when David Speedie, pouncing, on a poor goal-kick, drove the ball back past goalkeeper David Seaman in the seventy-seventh min-

ute. Earlier Q.P.R. had lost its England defender, Paul Parker, who was stretchered off three minutes before Falco scored its second goal. Two players were sent off in the second division clash between Stoke and Chelsea — Chelsea’s Welsh international defender, Peter Nicholas, departing in the fifth minute for head-butting Simon Stainrod and Stainrod himself dismissed in the fifty-seventh minute for his second bookable offence. Chelsea, unabashed by the early expulsion, won 3-0. Manchester United rediscovered winning ways after eight draws in its last nine league games, compounding the problems of struggling Charlton with a 3-0 victory Ralph Milne opened the United tally midway through the first half, his fellow Scot, Brian McClair, added the

second 10 minutes after the interval and the Welsh striker, Mark Hughes, netted his ninth goal of the season Results. — ENGLAND Division one: Aston Villa 3, Norwich 1; Everton 1, Tottenham 0; Luton 0, Newcastle 0; Manchester United 3, Charlton 0; Millwall 0, West Ham 1; Nottingham Forest 2, Middlesbrough 2; Queen’s Park Rangers 2, Coventry 1; Sheffield Wednesday 1, Derby 1; Wimbledon 2, Southampton 1.

Playing today: Arsenal v. Liverpool. Division two: Bournemouth 2, Blackburn 1; Bradford 2, Birmingham 2; Crystal Palace 0, Manchester City 0; Hull 5, Brighton 2; Ipswich 2, Plymouth 2; Oldham 1, Leicester 1; Oxford 2, Barnsley 0; Portsmouth 0, West Bromwich 0; Shrewsbury 0, Swindon 1; Stoke 0, Chelsea 3; Sunderland 1, Watford 1; Walsall 0, Leeds 3.

Division three: Aidershot 2, Notts County 3; Brentford 3, Bolton 0; Bristol City 2, Reading 1; Bury 1, Wigan 1; Chesterfield 1, Mansfield 3;

Fulham 0, Bristol Rovers 2; Gillingham 0, Chester 2; Huddersfield 1, Blackpool 1; Preston 3, Cardiff 3; Swansea 2, Sheffield United 2. Playing today: Northampton v. Wolverhampton Division four: Burnley 0, Hartlepool 0; Darlington 3, Scunthorpe 3; Exeter 4, Colchester 2; Grimsby 2, Scarborough 1; Leyton Orient 3, Lincoln 1; Peterborough 1, Rochdale 0; Rotherham 2, Stockport 1; Wrexham 2, Carlisle 1; York 4, Hereford 1. SCOTLAND

Premier division: Aberdeen 1, Hamilton 1; Dundee 1, Hearts 1; Hibernian 2, St Mirren 0; Motherwell 1, Celtic 3; Rangers 0, Dundee United 1.

Division one: Ayr 2, Meadowbank 2; Falkirk 3, Clydebank 1; Forfar 2, Clyde I; Morton 0, Airdrieonians 2; Partick 0, Kilmarnock 1; Queen of the South 0, Raith 1; St Johnstone 0, Dunfermline 1.

Scottish Football Association (F.A.) Cup first round: Berwick 1, Alloa 1; East Fife 4, Spartans 1; East Stirling 1, Gala Fairydean 0; Inverness Thistle 0, Dumbarton 0; Montrose 2, Arbroath 0; Stranraer 2, Stirling 2.