Parkes springs to Sutton's defence

Blackburn Rovers' caretaker manager, Tony Parkes, insisted yesterday that his club should not be taking flak for the manner of their late equaliser at Arsenal on Saturday, writes Alan Nixon.

The Gunners were leading 1-0 when Patrick Vieira kicked the ball into touch in injury-time following, an apparent injury to Stephen Hughes. It is one of the game's unwritten rules that possession is immediately returned to the side who held it before play was stopped, but the Blackburn striker, Chris Sutton, forced a corner from which Garry Flitcroft equalised.

Parkes' first reaction was not to support this perceived lack of sportsmanship, but yesterday he was keen to defend his men. He said: "It's quite wrong that all the blame should be laid at our door, for the situation revolving around throw-ins has gone full circle. Now there is definitely an element of time-wasting creeping in. The Arsenal player didn't have a serious injury, he had cramp.

"We threw the ball back to them and Nigel Winterburn had the chance to either control it or roll it back to his goalkeeper. He let the ball run away and Chris saw there was an opportunity to save something for us.

"The seconds were ticking away and players sometimes take things into their own hands. I concede that, if he hadn't done it, we probably wouldn't have got the equaliser but, when the ball went in, I was glad he'd done it."

Ron Atkinson is a contender to take over from Lou Macari as the manager of Stoke City. Atkinson is poised to leave his supervisory role at Coventry City at the end of the season.

Stoke's chairman, Peter Coates, will consult his board, but he is known to favour Oxford United's Denis Smith, a former Stoke defender.

Smith was a visitor to Stoke's game at the weekend, and he could be persuaded to move to the Potteries this time after turning down the job in the past.