The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 46

30 SPORTING LIFE www.smh.com.au MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1999 United's youngsters say farewell with slaying of the Knights NSL Table A Pts Sth Melbourne 13 5 3 40 22 44 Sydney United 13 3 6 40 28 42 Perth Glory 12 3 6 46 25 39 Northern Spirit 12 2 8 30 29 38 Sydney Olympic 10 5 7 37 27 35 Adelaide City 10 4 7 34 23 34 Marconi 10 3 8 39 40 33 Brisbane 9 5 7 30 31 32 Carlton 9 4 8 42 32 31 Newcastle 7 6 8 21 28 27 Wollongong 6 6 9 32 38 24 Adelaide Sh 5 6 10 31 36 21 Gippsland 5 5 11 14 36 20 Melb Knights 4 5 12 23 35 17 Canberra 2 2 17 15 43 8 faked a shot on goal, Marcus Phillips chipped the ball into Kris Trajanov-ski in the box, who set up Maloney for a clean right-foot strike. Chad Gibson put the visitors back in front four minutes later when he easily headed home a Renaud cross. The Sharks came out with renewed purpose after half-time and again looked the better side in the opening 15 minutes, levelling the scores through substitute Joel Porter. But Maloney again scored against the flow of play 27 minutes into the half with a superb individual goal. In Brisbane, former Young Socceroo defender Matt Bell breathed life back into the Brisbane Strikers' finals hopes by giving the home side a 1-0 over Wollongong Wolves.

AAP cross for MacNicol to head home. Culina made an immediate change bringing on Leo Carle as an additional striker, but Gippsland survived Olympic's onslaught In Adelaide, two goals by captain Brad Maloney gave Marconi a 3-2 away win against the Adelaide Sharks at Hindmarsh Stadium, taking the Stallions to within one point of sixth-placed Adelaide City. Marconi looked shaky for the opening 15 minutes, with Adelaide's Alex Castro having an excellent shot on goal in the opening 30 seconds, set up by a quality long ball. The Sharks continued to attack until Corey Artone scored with a brilliant 25m strike in the 11th minute. But Maloney levelled in the 24th minute after a well-executed set piece from a free kick.

Brendon Renaud the top two to earn the double chance in the finals. Coach Branko Culina blasted his players, saying a number of them did not earn their pay packet on the night "We went from out-playing the best team in the country in last week's match against South Melbourne to losing against one of the worst sides in the league playing with 10 men for over 50 minutes," he said. Gippsland lost Marko Perinovic five minutes before half-time after the striker committed two bookable offences in two minutes. It left the Falcons with lone striker Brian MacNicol up front, and having to contend with wave after wave of Olympic attacks in the second half. But in a swift breakaway in the 65th minute, Will Hastie made ground down the right and supplied a pinpoint this goal when he found the running Steve Berry, who put Griffiths in the clear to angle the ball into the goal.

The revival was a complete change to the first 20 minutes when the Knights frequently caught the United defence out of position but were unable to finish off their chances. United had several second-half opportunities and Mitchell was critical after the game of the finishing efforts, saying his strikers had to be more clinical. Berry ran free into the penalty area but had his attempt deflected for a corner and substitute Danny Town-send met a similar result when his header was blocked. Sydney Olympic's hopes suffered a severe dent when they lost 1-0 to a 10-man Gippsland Falcons at Mobil Park last night Mike Gibson, with Zeljko Susa netting the rebound. "We were making it tough for ourselves and the Knights made it difficult," United coach David Mitchell said.

"They could have been a couple of goals up before we scored. Griffiths and Sterjovski made all the running and Mitchell will have major problems finding replacements for them during their probable seven-week absence. Defender David Barrett started the move which led to the equaliser when he found Sterjovski on the left, whose shot across the goal was picked up by the unmarked Griffiths. The 19-year-old speedster made sure of his attempt and was on the spot four minutes before half-time to put United in front. Sterjovski was the instigator for NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER SYDNEY UTD 2 MELBOURNE KNIGHTS 1 Young Socceroo Joel Griffiths snatched the perfect tour present I when his two goals in eight minutes gave Sydney United a 2-1 win over Melbourne Knights at Edensor Park yesterday.

Griffiths and striking partner Mile Sterjovski leave next week with the Australian team for the world under-20 championships in Nigeria. The goals were timely for United, who had struggled against a fiery Knights. Melbourne took the lead in 1 the seventh minute. Midfielder Alex Kiratzoglou slipped a pass to Ante Deak whose shot was spilled by United keeper The defeat dropped Olympic down a spot in the table to fifth and virtually ended their hopes of making Venables's $10m deal revealed I T3 ft 1 v-'Vf' I 5 I i kft -r ENGLAND Shake on it, Fowler urged London: Robbie Fowler's union boss has expressed disappointment with the Liverpool striker's response to an apology by Chelsea's Graeme Le Saux over last week's bust-up between the pair at Stamford Bridge. Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor has pleaded with Fowler to make a more fulsome apology for his part in the rumpus.

The two players clashed during Chelsea's 2-1 win over Liverpool, when Le Saux appeared to elbow Fowler off the ball following alleged homosexual taunts by the Liverpool player. Fowler was at the centre of pressure from Taylor and his union to co-operate in a peace plan that would have seen both players apologise to take the heat out of a Football Association disciplinary hearing. But this has not happened. The 30-year-old Le Saux, married with a daughter, claimed the high ground on Friday with a public apology and a letter sent to Fowler, accepting he was wrong to elbow his England colleague off the ball. Taylor clearly believes the faxed response from Anfield on Friday night was not enough.

"I am disappointed with the wording of Robbie's response, but he has no doubt taken advice from people, including legal help." Agence France-Presse i SCOTLAND Saints bring Perth glory Glasgow: St Johnstone moved a step closer to their second final of the season when they reached the Scottish Cup semi-finals by beating Motherwell 2-0. The Perth club reached the League Cup final earlier in the season, only to lose to Rangers, and goals from Darren Dods and Miguel Simao on Saturday, decided the quarter-final tie at Fir Park St Johnstone finally found a way past former Scotland goalkeeper Andy Goram in the 73rd minute when Dods powered in a header from Gary Bollan's corner. Portuguese striker Simao then sealed the success by flicking the ball over Goram in the 80th minute in the only all-Premier League tie. Dundee United beat first division Clydebank 3-0 at Tannadice, thanks to a 14th-minute header from Neil Duffy and two goals from Swedish striker Kjell Olofs-son, after 62 and 65 minutes. While St Johnstone were busy on Cup duty, Kilmarnock moved ahead of them in the Premier League by taking third place on goal difference after a 0-0 draw away to Dunfermline.

Reuters London: Former Australian coach Terry Venables has been blamed for the collapse of English first-division club Crystal Palace as details of his 4 million (S 1 0.4 million) contract were leaked on Saturday. The details emerged in a letter from the club's former chief executive, Jim McAvoy, to his fellow board members outlining Venables's 750,000 tax-free salary, a 500,000 unsecured loan and a 650,000 house. Venables, who stepped down in January after just six months at the club, also received a luxury Mercedes car, a 135,000 "golden hello" payment, a 20,000 relocation allowance and another 20 million fund to buy players. The club also agreed to give him a 5 per cent bonus on how much of the players' fund was left after three years, and allowed him to continue as a consultant to Soccer Australia. Venables has denied his multi-mil-lion-pound contract was to blame for the club's financial collapse.

The details, published in several English newspapers on Saturday, came just three days after the London club was put in the hands of administrators, with debts reported to be between 9 million and 20 million. McAvoy criticised the way Venables brought new players including Australian stars Craig Moore, Craig Foster and Nick Rizzo to the club. Moore was bought from Glasgow Rangers for 800,000 and put on a weekly wage of 13,000 a sum paid only by Premier League clubs. "The way players were identified, brought to the club on trial and negotiations with agents handled was completely unprofessional and certainly not following the process laid down by the board," The Independent reported from McAvoy's letter. "The club spent more than 1 million in fees to agents." Venables said the only thing he was guilty of was "getting myself a good "Yes, I signed a tremendous contract, but what was I supposed to do?" he told The Sun.

"I have not had a penny in compensation or settlement since I left the club. How, then, can I have contributed to the downfall of the club? "There is only one direction in which to point the finger of blame. And it's certainly not at me or the players." Premier League club Aston Villa are reportedly set to offer Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Bosnich a new one-year contract worth $3.88 million nearly double his salary. Bosnich's contract with the club ends this summer and if he agrees to the new deal he would be one of the highest-paid keepers in the world, the Sunday Mirror reported. The 27-year-old is to be offered a basic wage of about $64,650 a week, which may rise by $12,930, depending on the club's success.

AAP Slip sliding away Arsenal striker Fredrik Ljungberg and Derby defender Stefano Eranio tangle for possession during the FA Cup quarter-final at Highbury. Photo by reuters PREMIER LEAGUE as Parlour's sidekick, but it was Derby who resumed the brighter, Burton taming a long ball forward from Stimac so Sturridge could try his luck from 25m. Seaman dived to field his attempt comfortably, but the visitors manifestly felt they had the measure of ArsenaL Soon they underlined their ambition, Stefan Schnoor propelling the ball more than 45 metres to the front, where Wanchope again mastered Adams and strode on, only to frustrate himself with a shot that flashed beyond Seaman but went the wrong side of the far post. For all the wiles of Bergkamp, only the slippery Marc Overmars seemed regularly to worry Derby's defence as when a shot from the winger flew across Russell Hoult's charge. His compatriot Bergkamp curled an elegant one marginally over the crossbar; Hoult, though, had it covered.

Shortly before Anelka, beautifully spoon-fed by Bergkamp, had sent a weak header into Hoult's arms, Wen-ger had decided it was time for Kanu. The Nigerian took over from the unimpressive Ljungberg, who had once more been a mere shadow of the player who tormented England in Sweden at the start of the season. This was a new test for the Derby defence, who were still seeking to adjust when Bergkamp, shielding the ball expertly, laid it back to Anelka; his left foot slapped it against a post Arsenal were getting closer and now Overmars was sacrificed for another substitute, Kaba Diawara, as the final onslaught began. AFP reports: With the day's other quarter-final between Tottenham and Barnsley at Oakwell postponed because of snow, the focus elsewhere was on the premiership relegation battle. Coventry boosted their survival hopes by recovering from a goal down and having Australian John Aloisi sent off to earn a vital 2-1 win at home to fellow strugglers Charlton.

Trond Egil Soltvedt scored the winner five minutes from time. Second-from-bottom Southampton moved to within a point of safety with a 1-0 win over visiting West Ham, thanks to a goal by Moroccan Hassan Kachloul. Steve Guppy gave Leicester City a much-needed 1-0 win at Wimbledon. The Sunday Telegraph. London Dennis Bergkamp, whose early collision with Stefano Eranio had left the Italian with a cut head, was fiercely bowled over by Lee Carsley; the Arsenal fans' disapproval was not shared by the referee, though he did proceed to caution Eranio, Jacob Laursen, Darryl Powell and Nigel Winterburn amid vigorous exchanges.

Derby gave at least as good as they got. From a long cross by Eranio, headed back into the goalmouth by Sturridge, Wanchope, nimbler than Adams, wheeled to steer a low shot just to the right of David Seaman, who did extremely well to drop on the slippery ball and hold it Arsenal, while obviously missing the promptings of Petit and Vieira, mounted a growing threat in the approach to the interval. But they needed more from Nicolas Anelka. Almost on the stroke of half-time he became involved in a scuffle with Igor Stimac, and, after the pair had been called over for a chat with Dunn, walked away with a gesture to the referee, who showed the Frenchman the fifth yellow card of the afternoon. Vivas duly appeared at the start of the second half, replacing Stephen Hughes entitled to take pride in the display of his polyglot Derby, who could have worked no harder in shutting out Arsenal for most of a tough match.

As before, Kanu began on the bench. There he was accompanied by Nelson Vivas, who must have been a candidate for a berth in Arsene Wenger's depleted midfield. In the event, Ray Parlour was switched inside to make room for Fredrik Ljungberg o'n the right. Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira were absent; injury and suspension respectively had removed Arsenal's renowned central axis. Derby were without Tony Dorigo, who has contributed much since his return from Torino in October, defender Horacio Carbonari, and midfielder Lars Bohinen, whose wife was expecting a baby.

But Smith pursued his habit of opting for an adventurous line-up with Sturridge, Deon Burton and Paulo Wanchope up front The best thing that could be said of the opening phase was that 6,500 Derby supporters at the Clock End stirred up a rousing atmosphere. Eventually it spread to the pitch where PATRICK BARCLAY in London ARSENAL 1 DERBY 0 This time Nwankwo Kanu caused a stir of a rather different sort and Arsenal went through, despite Derby's angry protests, to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. In the previous round the Nigerian, after coming on as a substitute against Sheffield United, unwittingly cheated the Yorkshire club and the match was played again. But this time his appearance midway through the second half proved a harbinger of glory, for with a couple of minutes left he scored. Derby claimed a foul as a corner fell to him, via stabs by Tony Adams and Martin Keown, but as Kanu turned on the ball and crashed it home, the referee, Steve Dunn, discerned nothing wrong.

Derby were furious and one dissenter, Dean Sturridge, was sent off for his second cautionable offence. But the goal stood. Thus Jim Smith became the last English manager to depart the Cup. For all his disappointment, he was Cain in the dark but sees the light ins BfB UnpSugg GOLF AFL Australasian Tour Final Order of Merit 1 Jarrod Moseley (WA) $330,798 2 Rod Pampling (Qld) $287,907 3 Craig Spence (Vic) $277,160 4 Peter Lonard (NSW) $223,574 5 Michael Long (NZ) $221,780 6 Craig Parry (NSW) $197,800 7 Stephen Leaney (WA) $193,832 8 Peter Senior (Qld) $187,970 9 Peter 0'Malley (NSW) $179,538 10 Marcus Cain (Qld) $140,573 bridge and wouldn't have been watching." His caddie, fellow professional Matthew Laroche, who failed to win a card at last year's tour school at Bribie Island just outside Brisbane, instructed Cain not to look at a leader-board, and he didn't But, just before he played a little wedge to the par-five last, Laroche whispered: "You can look now." Cain knew he was playing well but, to his astonishment, was two shots clear. He knocked his third shot to within a couple of metres and holed the putt He had a three-shot buffer over O'Malley, two holes behind.

O'Malley needed to finish birdie-eagle to tie, not impossible but darn near. What happened certainly wasn't in the script O'Malley encountered trees, trees and more trees, plus an unplayable lie on the last and, to cap things, he three-putted for a 10, dropping him down to a tie for 11th and costing him $42,000. Shock was Cain's initial reaction to victory, but the feeling warmed on him. He went into yesterday's final round thinking only of shooting low to boost himself into the top 10. Now he is fully exempt on the Australasian Tour for the next two years.

held the outright lead at some stage, and Moseley happened to look at the leaderboard when Pampling was top of the pile. "I thought I'd blown it," said Moseley, who would have had to finish second to retain top spot had Pampling won. "I reflected on what a good year it had been and went out on the back nine just to have a lot of fun. I was down emotionally and then it became a high again. It was weird." Moseley's goal coming into the 199899 season was to finish in the top 50 after his 90th a year earlier.

"I would have been elated if it was top 20. 1 certainly wouldn't have dreamed of finishing No 1," he said. Other award-winners at the season-ending dinner last night were Leaney for the best performer overseas, Geoff Ogilvy for rookie of the year and Pampling for the most consistent performer. Cain's win, which was worth boosted him into the top 10 and he, too, achieved his goal of three top-10 finishes tied for fifth in the Coolum Classic, fourth in the Canon Challenge and yesterday's win. Someone asked Cain whether he had telephoned his parents.

No, he said. "Mum will be at six minutes, three of them from brilliant forward Jeff Farmer, who had been well held by Matthew Nicks until that final burst. The game changed after ruck-man Greg Stafford, who has been nursed through the preseason, was rested in the forward line and replaced in the ruck by Stefan Carey. Star forward Michael O'Loughlin, who suffered a heavy collision, was cleared of major damage but required stitches to a cut above the lip, while forward Robbie Ahmat (hamstring) and recruit Andrew Bomford (rolled ankle) were the only other injury concerns. In other weekend practice matches, the West Coast Eagles were confident a knee injury suffered by young star Ben Cousins in their 24-point victory over Carlton at Optus Oval on Saturday was not serious.

Richmond's Matthew Knights made a successful return from injury in the Tigers' 24-point loss to Geelong at Kardinia Park. Young Essendon forwards Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas kicked 12 goals between them in the Bombers' 26-point victory over Brisbane. winners in 1996, were never given a chance after an even first quarter. The Power were brilliantly led by skipper Gavin Wanga-neen, while they had winners up forward in Stuart Dew and Che Cockatoo-Collins, who brought his teammates into the play with his clever disposal. At the other end Port centre half-back Darren Mead completely eclipsed key St Kilda forward Stewart Loewe, who was eventually moved to the ruck in the final quarter.

The Saints badly missed the presence of ruckman Peter Everitt as the Power dominated the midfield contests with Bray-den Lyle, Josh Francou and Nathan Eagleton all winning telling possessions. Such was the Port's dominance that St Kilda could manage only one goal between the second minute of the second quarter and the 16th minute of the last before some late goals added some respectability to the scoreline. The Hawks may be boosted next week by the return of key ruckmen Paul Salmon and Brett O'Farrell and on-baller Tony Woods, who are all suffering hamstring injuries. And injuries to Lee Walker (groin), Gavin Brown (finger), Andrew Schauble (ankle) and Gavin Crosisca (elbow) added further woe to struggling Col-lingwood after their 32-point defeat to a half-strength North Melbourne team at Victoria Park. AAP reports that Port Adelaide, having watched arch-rivals Adelaide walk away with the past two AFL premierships, will get the chance to win some silverware of their own next weekend after Saturday night's 10.11 (71) to 7.7 (49) semi-final victory over St Kilda at the MCG.

Should the Power down Hawthorn in next Saturday night's final at Waverley Park, not only will they have won a trophy in their third season in the competition but they will become only the second non-Victorian club to lift the pre-season cup. Sydney won in 1982. The Power, who had thrashed the Crows and Richmond in the first two rounds, were equally as impressive in easily disposing of a St Kilda side, which until then had created a big impression under new coach Tim Watson. But the Saints, runners-up in this competition last year and PETER STONE On the instructions of his caddie, Queenslander Marcus Cain played "in the dark" for all but two of his 65 strokes at Royal Canberra yesterday to emerge a four-shot winner of the season-ending 8500,000 Australasian Tour Championship. Cain became the ninth first-time winner in 12 tournaments this summer and, at 26 years, made it a clean sweep for players aged 30 and under.

His seven-under-par round gave him a 12-under winning tally and victory over NSWs Paul Gow, with five players Robin Byrd, Scott Laycock, Rod Pampling, Stephen Leaney and Peter Senior a further shot back tied for third. West Australian Jarrod Moseley shot a disappointing 74 to finish tied for 1 1th, but it was still good enough to snare top place on the 199899 Australasian PGA Tour and he can now plan his year ahead around three of the four majors (the US Masters excepted) and the European Tour, for which he is now exempt by virtue of his Heine-ken Classic victory in January. The order coming into the Tour Championship remained I RICHARD HINDS With places still up for grabs in the Sydney Swans team for the opening home-and-away match against Port Adelaide on March 28, much attention has been paid to the form of several young and fringe players during the pre-season. But it was the performances of a couple of veterans that was the major consolation from the Swans 9.8 (62) to 5.8 (38) loss to Melbourne in Saturday night's practice match at Albury. Wayne Schwass gathered 24 possessions in the midfield and Dale Lewis also made his most telling contribution of the preseason so far, although neither could do much to spark a Swans attack that has struggled to kick big scores in recent games.

The Swans have kicked just 10 goals in their past two games an Ansett Cup defeat to the Western Bulldogs and Saturday's game although with full-forward Tony Lockett rested this week, they were without their major attacking weapon. Saturday's match was close until the final quarter when Melbourne kicked four goals in 2BC the same, with Pampling finishing second and Australian Masters champion Craig Spence third. But Moseley experienced some anxious moments along the way. Peter O'Malley took a three-shot lead over Leaney into the final round and they were expected to fight out the tournament at the tail of the field, but overnight rain, which softened the greens, threw a spanner in the works. Target golf was on, and it was possible for someone to burst out of the pack, as Cain did.

A few others made a run at it along the way, too. Pampling, O'Malley, Cain and Senior all.