Stewart serves rich fare for Ipswich Town

Stewart serves rich fare for Ipswich Town
Agence France Presse

London, April 3: Marcus Stewart moved to the top of the Premiership’s scoring charts as he fired a hat-trick for Ipswich Town to add to Southampton’s dressing room woes yesterday. Stewart, who becomes the first Ipswich player since Kevin Wilson in 1985 to score a hat-trick in the top English League, now has 20 league goals this season.

The 3-0 result moves George Burley’s ambitious side up two places to third, while Southampton, who remain in 10th spot, will be rueing the dropped chance to keep in with a chance of securing a spot in Europe.

The southern coast side also dramatically lost their record of not having conceded a goal in seven matches. Under former manager Glen Hoddle, they had not conceded a single Premiership goal or lost a top-flight game since January 1 at Liverpool. Southampton management, of course, are still smarting after losing Hoddle on Friday to his former club Tottenham.

But not even the awarding of an alleged $1.17 million compensation for his unannounced departure will make up for this crucial defeat.

This time, though, it was the Dell faithful who suffered as Stewart ran rampage.Stewart was a constant thorn in Southampton’s side from the outset. In the 21st minute he latched on to a volley chance but was denied by Southampton goalkeeper Paul Jones’ impressive fingertip save.

Ipswich’s wingers proved decisive, performing heroics down either flank to maintain the goal-scoring chances for Stewart, who in the 33rd minute was left alone to tap in the simplest of goalmouth passes after some good work on the left by Jamie Clapham. The second half proved as promising for Ipswich as it did worrying for Southampton as Stewart continued his threatening presence in the 18-yard box.

But it was Ipswich winger Hermann Hreidarsson who first worked wonders, dribbling easily round three of Southampton’s players on the left flank before delivering an inch-perfect cross to Stewart. Stewart headed into the goal for Ipswich’s second on the 68th minute.

When a debatable penalty award was given three minutes later, there was only going to be one player eligible. But Stewart, who must have known that England head coach Sven Goran Eriksson was in attendance at the match, went one better than blasting the ball and delivered a cheeky chip right down the middle as the goalkeeper floundered to the left.

Romario strikes
RIO DE JANEIRO: Veteran striker Romario scored his sixth goal of the Carioca Championship as Vasco da Gama beat Volta Redonda 2-1 on Monday. The 35-year-old, who scored a club record 66 goals last season, gave his side the lead from a narrow angle. Vasco wrapped up the win with a goal from full-back Jorginho Paulista after Gatao had equalised.Romario is still three goals behind the championship’s leading scorer, Edilson of Flamengo, but has not played in all of Vasco’s ten games in the competition for teams from the Rio de Janeiro state .

Vasco went level on 12 points with Fluminense and Americano at the top of the second stage, the winners of which meet first-stage winners Flamengo in the championship final.While Vasco celebrated, there was more misery for Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning captain Carlos Alberto in his new job as coach of struggling Cabofriense. After his side lost 5-1 to Fluminense in his first game in charge, Carlos Alberto watched his team go down 4-1 to Madureira on Monday.

Grudge gameBERLIN: Bayern Munich’s Champions League quarter-final with Manchester United on Tuesday is being billed by the Germans as a chance for revenge for the last-minute defeat by United in the Barcelona final of 1999. Memories of the Champions League final, when the Munich club led United 1-0 entering stoppage time but then conceded two goals to lose 2-1, are still raw among many Bayern players. “I well remember how we collapsed on the ground after losing the 1999 final. Now it’s time for us to stand up again,” striker Carsten Jancker told Bild newspaper.

Captain Stefan Effenberg, criticised after the 1999 game for sitting back when Bayern went ahead and allowing United back in the game, promised total commitment in Tuesday’s game, the first of two legs in the quarter-finals.“You will see the real Stefan Effenberg against Manchester United tonight.”

Alex is the best
LONDON: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is the best manager in the world, according to statistical analysis of the records of coaches of clubs in the leading European and South American leagues.

Ottmar Hitzfeld, the Bayern Munich manager whose team face United at Old Trafford in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday, came second in the survey reported in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.