Football: McGoldrick seals move to City

Nationwide round-up

Eddie McGoldrick takes his place in Manchester City's otherwise unchanged squad for their home game against Norwich after Steve Coppell paid Arsenal pounds 300,000 yesterday to make his loan move permanent.

In-form Norwich City, who, in second, are 17 places above their hosts, welcome back Andy Johnson, who missed Wednesday's 2-0 defeat of Oldham. That was the Canaries' third successive victory, but they have won only once in their last 20 visits to Maine Road.

For their visit to Charlton, the leaders Bolton retain the side that beat Tranmere, but the home side are hoping that Anthony Barness recovers from an ankle injury. Ricky Otto will be making his final appearance on loan from Birmingham.

There is no change either for Crystal Palace as they welcome Swindon to Selhurst Park. Their captain, Ray Houghton, is still out with a calf strain and George Ndah is absent with a thigh injury.

Swindon's midfielder Scott Leitch is expected to recover from his groin strain, which has restricted his training as the Robins seek their first win at Selhurst Park since the 1955-56 season.

Bradford City, whose former England player Chris Waddle was in scintillating form at Queen's Park Rangers on Wednesday, hope to receive clearance to play the Portuguese midfielder Humberto, who has joined his compatriot Sergio Pinto at Valley Parade, against Barnsley, who have Clint Marcelle back in contention after a month out with a calf injury. Barnsley have gone four games without victory after winning their first five matches of the season.

Steve Bull goes into the match against Port Vale aiming to prolong Wolves' run of fine form and hoping to move closer to becoming the most prolific marksman in the history of West Midlands football.

His two goals in Tuesday's 2-0 victory at Portsmouth put him level on 279 career goals with the former West Bromwich Albion striker Tony Brown, who once coached Bull at The Hawthorns. He scored three times for Albion before moving to Wolves in November 1986.

"Beating Tony's record is always something I said I could achieve," said the 31-year-old, who has scored at least 15 goals in each of the last 10 seasons and has eight so far this term. "To be honest I've been a bit disappointed with my goal tally this time after setting my sights on 30 at the least. But I still think I can get to the 300 mark by the end of the season."