Football Round-Up: Dicks adds to the gloom

WILL KEVIN KEEGAN and Glenn Hoddle, famous England internationals who made their mark on European football, find equal success in management? Early signs are encouraging. Both Keegan's Newcastle United and Hoddle's Swindon Town are getting the results to take an early grip on the First Division.

A crowd of almost 30,000 saw two goals in a minute on the stroke of half-time put United in charge against West Ham at St James's Park. Steve Howey and former Hammers striker David Kelly were the scorers. To add to their gloom, West Ham had skipper Julian Dicks sent off.

Swindon also took a firm first half lead against bottom club Cambridge. Goals came from Shaun Taylor and Craig Maskell, who completed his hat-trick in the second half. Maskell joined Swindon from Reading. More surprising than the result was the booking of gentle Glenn Hoddle after six minutes for hacking down Paul Raynor. Have the concerns of player-managership turned him into a hard man?

NO FEWER than five goalless draws in the First Division and two of them involved the teams who were first and second on Saturday morning - Charlton Athletic, who remain top, and Wolves, held by Luton and Oxford respectively. Leicester's good form continued when Bobby Davison's 37th minute goal beat Pompey.

IN THE Second, Ossie Ardiles's West Bromwich Albion have the only 100 per cent record; Craig Shakespeare's 83rd-minute penalty was the decisive strike in their 2-1 win over Bournemouth.

THIRD Division York beat Wrexham 4-0 to go top, moving above Barnet, who drew 1-1 at Gillingham, one of seven clubs in that division who started pointless. Chesterfield, another of the, er, pointless clubs, beat Bury 2-1, while four of them met - Torquay got the better share of five goals at Doncaster; Carlisle beat rock bottom Lincoln.

DUNDEE UNITED head the Scottish Premier after beating Falkirk. Duncan Ferguson, a striker much fancied by several English Premier League clubs, scored both their goals. But the goalscoring performance of the day belonged to Partick's George Shaw, who scored four of the six Thistle put past Dundee, who replied with three. Celtic could only draw with bottom club Airdrie, while Rangers went second by comfortably beating morning leaders Aberdeen 3-1 at Ibrox.

TOTTENHAM, bottom of the Premier, hope that attack really is the best method of defence when Teddy Sheringham, their pounds 2.1m striker from Nottingham Forest, makes his debut away to Ipswich Town this afternoon. 'I'm looking forward to teaming up with Gordon Durie because he's such a good player,' Sheringham, who scored 22 goals for Forest last season, said. 'My target is to get a goal on my debut.'

Durie could certainly do with the company. Alas, Spurs' miserable defending during their 5-0 midweek thrashing at Leeds suggests that one goal won't be enough against Ipswich but England under-21 goalkeeper Ian Walker, recovered from a back injury, is likely to replace Erik Thorstvedt behind that traditionally wobbly defence.

NOT AS momentous as the negotiations between Serbia and the rest of the world in London this week but every bit as baffling are the communications between Napoli, their disgruntled Argentinian Diego Maradona, Spanish First division club Seville, who want to sign the willing player, and FIFA who are attempting to sort out the mess.

FIFA have given the parties a deadline of 2 September to come to some agreement. Maradona, fresh out of a 15-month ban for cocaine use, refuses to return to Napoli, who hold his registration. They're miffed that, without their permission, Diego and his representatives have been discussing a deal with Seville, who are coached by his former international manager Carlos Bilardo.