The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 70

the Observer 20 SUNDAY 5 MARCH 1995 PFA chief backs Armstrong Blackburn stay clear Wonder of Waddle Ferguson in double trouble for Everton too, in view of his remarkable goal with a shot from a seemingly impossible angle in Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win at Leeds. It seemed surprising that Rosenthal, given his chance to show what he could do in Tottenham's starting It was a similar story for Shearer and Sutton in Blackburn's 1-0 win at Aston Villa, with Hendry getting the decisive goal that kept their team three points ahead of Manchester United in the Championship race. There was another occurrence of aggro caused by fans when the Birmingham City team coach was attacked by a gang of brick-throwing youths en route to the Endsleigh League Second Division match at Hull. Four windows were broken and Birmingham's manager, Barry Fry, suffered a slight cut to his neck. Fry, typically, laughed off the iii(lhnt.

trThfv threw the hmrlrc. next two Taylor added: 'Cannabis is at the bottom end of the whole catalogue of drugs. It is a social drug and not. a performance-enhancing drug, and it would be naive to think the drug culture apparent these days is not prevalent in football. There are countries in the world who say cannabis should be legalised, so it would be wrong to criticise Chris With Palace short of scoring flair, what would they give to borrow a Cole for today's Premiership match against Chelsea, the Coca-Cola Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool on Wednesday and the FA Cup quarter-final against Wolves next weekend? A Waddle would come in handy, 0 Armstrong, the Crystal Palace striker at the centre of a new drugs controversy after testing positive for cannabis, also kept in the spotlight through a public message of support for him from.

Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers Association chief executive. Palace's manager, Alan Smith, has said that the matter of when Armstrong will be able to return to the Palace team 'is being dealt with by the club surgeon', while one report indicates that the FA have advised Palace to keep him out for a month. But Taylor, stressing that Armstrong's case is considerably different to that of Paul Merson, said: 'He has been seen by the FA's medical staff and 1 am hoping he will be back in the Top Six A Pts Blackburn ..31 21 6 4 64 26 69 ManUtd ...31 20 6 5 62 22 66 Newcastle ..31 16 9 6 52 33 57 Liverpool ..29 15 9 5 50 23 54 Nottm For .31 13 9 9 44 35 48 Tottenham 29 12 8 9 48 42 44 line-up after that remarkable FA Clip hat-trick as a substitute, did not score at Nottingham Forest but Sheringham and Calderwood did score, to give Spurs a 2-2 draw. butl just headed them But ir mi gh am play ac Mark Ward; said: Tye never seen anything like it. One fan even tried to get on to our coach I PREMIERSHIP strikers continue to stand out and, as the case of Crystal Palace's Chris Armstrong has epitomised, not always for reasons that merit applause.

For example, contrast Andy Cole's experience yesterday with that of Everton's controversial Duncan Ferguson, who was sent off for the second time in six weeks in the match at Leicester. Ferguson, who provoked a Football Association warning last week over celebrating a goal by taking off his shirt, was one of two Everton. men shown the red card; the other was Sam ways, who had been banished earlier for an off-the-ball incident involving Galloway. Everton were 2-0 ahead at the time, but Leicester then made it 2-1 and, after Ferguson had been banished for violent conduct, they equalised. Rogan Taylor at Old Trafford Manchester United 9 Keane 75, Cole 19 3765 87, Yallop 53og, Hughes 55 59, Ince 72 Ipswich Town Att.

43,804 WITHIN a quarter-mile radius of Old Trafford, the stalls with unofficial T-shirts and the fanzine sellers were doing brisk business hours before the game. Nearer the stadium, the longest queues were outside what modesdy used to be called a 'club shop'. Broad accents cut the air: it was the Manchester United Supporters Club, Icelandic branch, whose members were busy filling plastic bags with mementos. Kicking off towards the Mcgastore (also known as Scretford) End, the Premiership champions looked determined to wrap the game up quickly and wreak revenge on one of only a handful of teams to have taken three points from them this season. Within minutes, three crossess and two corners had panicked the Ipswich defence, and if Cole had not stood on a perfectly weighted ball from Keane, the first goal would have come even earlier.

Not that there was long. to wait. It was like early spring lambs to the slaughter, as a trio of goals followed within half-an-hour. Ipswich were beaten before they had chance to take breath. The last of the first-half goals Was the best of the three.

The unsettled Kanchclskis engaged his own turbo-drive down the right and crossed an awkward high ball that Hughes crashed against the bar with a stupendous overhead kick. The rebound was easy for Cole to slide home amidst a stunned and static Ipswich defence. Hughes had already made the first on the quarter-hour. Allowed to turn, wide in the six-yard box, the Welshman spurned the obvious ball inside and picked out Keane instead on the edge of the box. His low shot went in off the post.

For the second goal, Giggs had robbed Yallop on the halfway line, sprinted clear, and set up Cole with a tap-in from three yards A heavy defeat turned into a record victory for United and a rout for Ips- -wich within minutes of the re-start, as the home team began to wipe out the goal difference between themselves and Blackburn at a stroke. Hughes was at the heart of four of the six goals that followed. The Ipswich defence a pathetic ragged line inexplicably allowed him time tp play in Irwin whose cross caused sufficient confusion to cause Yallop to score in his own net. A wonderful run from Giggs followed and his wicked low cross was ferociously volleyed in by Hughes for the fifth, and the same man nodded in the sixth too. As Mexican waves rippled round the ground, Cole made it seven.

Hughes once again released McClair whose attempt rebounded off goalkeeper Forrest, leaving Cole with an easy target. Forrest was still arguing the tpss with the referee when Ince lobbed a quickly-taken free-kick into an empty net for the eighth goal already a Premiership record score. The keeper had been adjudged to have handled the ball outside his area anc he was still there when the free-kick was taken. Cole got his fourth gpal of the game and United's ninth with a wonderful turn and strike after a Giggs corner. It was magnificent attacking football, expqsihg the Premiership's worst defence and dismembering it coolly, niece by piece.

Hugfres, Giggs, McClair and, inevitably, Cole all missed chances to send the goal count into double figures. But who cares? There was joy unabated in Manchester and Iceland last night. St. a I It takes two to tangjet Liverpool's disharmony at Anfleld, where the winger Steve McManaman and Barry Venison of Newcastle are In close Magpies tumbled 2-0. Report, page 10.

Photograph by Richard Saker.