Ugly scenes at Brighton

Round-up

Geoff Brown
Sunday 09 March 1997 00:02 GMT
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Brighton's terrible season continues. In spite of their revival since the arrival of manager Steve Gritt, and the point from yesterday's 4-4 home draw with Leyton Orient, the club will come under the FA microscope again after a fan ran on to the Goldstone pitch and attacked the visitors' Scott McGleish who had just put the O's 4-3 up.

"The security was appalling," the Orient chairman Barry Hearn, said. "This is a sad day for Brighton, it could be the death knell for them but you just don't run up and punch and kick players because they are on the opposing side." A crowd of almost 10,000 saw Brighton lead 2-0 and then trail 3-2 and 4-3 before Paul McDonald's late equaliser.

The FA immediately announced a full investigation to include inquiries into players' celebrations after scoring as well as the fans' behaviour. Brighton were docked two points after a pitch invasion in October.

Meanwhile, the huge gulf between the First Division champions elect Bolton and the rest of the pack was underlined at Burnden Park where they overwhelmed Swindon Town side 7-0, defender Gudni Bergsson scoring twice, to maintain their 10-point lead. "It was embarrassing - men against boys," the visitors' manager Steve McMahon said. "After an hour I was ready for the final whistle and we were only three down then."

Steve Bull scored twice at Molineux, taking his career total to 301 goals, as Wolves beat Tranmere 3-2 to reclaim the second automatic promotion place. John Aldridge, the Tranmere player-manager, sent statisticians into a frenzy when he claimed that his 57th-minute diving header equalled Jimmy Greaves's record of 467 goals.

Maine Road's biggest crowd of the season saw Frank Clark keep his unbeaten run as Manchester City manager when Uwe Rosler's side-foot strike won a drab North-west derby with bottom club Oldham Athletic.

Dave Webb, the manager of Second Division Brentford, was barracked by fans following the 1-0 defeat at Preston, their first league loss since November, and will offer his resignation on Monday. "We are top of the league but with people like that there is no point in carrying on."

In Scotland, First Division Falkirk are in the semi-finals of the Tennents Cup after beating the Premier Division's bottom side Raith 2-0. The last time the Bairns reached the semi-finals, exactly 40 years ago, they went on to beat Kilmarnock 2-1 in a Cup final replay. Oddly enough, the Killies are also through to semis draw. Spooky, eh?

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