Manchester United crush Bradford
Associated Press

London, January 14: Manchester United, after being held for much of the match, flattered itself with three goals in the final 18 minutes to win 3-0 at Bradford, keeping an 11-point lead yesterday atop the English premier league. United got goals from Teddy Sheringham (72nd), Ryan Giggs (75th) and Luke Chadwick (87th). Sheringham’s goal, which demoralised Bradford and sparked the winners, came off a missed clearance by Bradford ’keeper Gary Walsh.

The big winner yesterday was Sunderland, which won 2-0 at West Ham to jump over Arsenal into second place. England’s new coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, on hand to watch a pack of young players at West Ham - led 19-year-old midfielder Joe Cole - probably went away without taking many positive notes.

Arsenal slipped into third place, 13 points behind the runaway leaders, after a 1-1 home draw against London rivals Chelsea. Robert Pires scored after only three minutes for the Gunners with John Terry equalising in the 62nd. Liverpool may have had the most impressive day. The northern side won 3-0 at Aston Villa to improve to 39 points.

Fan killed in riot

Lagos: Lagos police shot dead a soccer fan at a match between Nigeria and Zambia after a scramble to grab tee-shirts being handed out by the match sponsors, reports said today. The shooting of the man before the start of the African Nations Cup qualifier led to a mini-riot, the newspaper Punch reported, showing pictures of the dead man. One policeman was stabbed and a police vehicle damaged. Police used tear-gas and baton charges to bring the crowd under control. At the end of the match, fans invaded the pitch and mobbed the players, one of them attempting to steal the necklace of Nigerian skipper Sunday Oliseh.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.