Simon Murray starred as Ross County secured a vital 2-1 win against Hearts in Dingwall.

The former Hibernian striker scored either side of half-time to put the Staggies in a commanding position.

Despite hitting the woodwork multiple times and having one goal ruled out for offside, Hearts could only muster a single goal in response through Yutaro Oda in stoppage time.

The Staggies were hit by an early setback before a ball had even been kicked as Connor Randall – who had only returned from injury against Hibernian midweek – was forced out of the starting line-up after the warm-up, replaced by Max Sheaf.

Early on, Jordan White may have been guilty of one of the misses of the season. Murray did brilliantly on the right flank to get past his marker and send a low cross into the middle, where White stretched for the ball and somehow managed to loop it over the bar from just a yard or two out when it looked easier to score.

Hearts would create the better chances as the half went on, with Kenneth Vargas seeing his thunderous his effort crash back down off the crossbar, but it was County who would take the lead two minutes before the interval through Murray.

A wonderful ball from Yan Dhanda sent the tenacious forward through on goal and though Murray’s initial attempt was saved by Zander Clark, he responded quickly to score at the second attempt.

Murray claimed a second four minutes after the restart, smashing Josh Reid’s cross past Clark to make it 2-0.

Hearts tried to find a way back into the contest and put their hosts under considerable pressure, with Alan Forrest hitting the woodwork after fashioning just enough space to shoot inside County’s box.

The visitors thought they had one back when Stephen Kingsley scored directly from a free-kick, only for VAR to recommend a review for Lawrence Shankland standing in an offside position – with the goal then disallowed.

They finally cut the deficit in stoppage time, when Oda expertly finished past Wickens via the inside of the post.

Hearts could not find a second to equalise though, and County were able to celebrate a crucial victory to boost their survival fight.

Matt Butcher bagged a brace as Wycombe made it a hat-trick of league wins with a 2-0 victory over Northampton.

The mid-table clash looked destined to peter out into a dour draw before Butcher lit up Adams Park with his first and second league goals for the club.

Home goalkeeper Franco Ravizzoli was the first to be tested as he kept out Tony Springett’s effort low to his left.

Louie Moulden denied Freddie Potts a goal to savour from 25 yards after Gideon Kodua headed the ball into his path.

After the break, Dale Taylor was denied by the visiting keeper.

But the deadlock was broken in the 69th minute as Kieran Sadlier took a quick throw to Butcher, who drove into the box and fired into the far corner.

Down the other end, Ravizzoli kept out Kieron Bowie one-on-one.

Butcher’s second was even better as he curled home a fine strike, after being found by Sadlier again, with five minutes to go.

Rotherham ended their harrowing losing streak in the Championship by holding 10-man Huddersfield to a 0-0 draw.

The Millers avoided a 10th straight loss with the stalemate but they remain rooted to the bottom of the Championship and are 19 points adrift of safety with their last win back on Boxing Day.

The result did little to ease Huddersfield’s own relegation fears and they failed to create a golden chance in the match and will now see Sorba Thomas suspended after he picked up two yellow cards.

They remain in the bottom three with just eight league wins all season.

The first opportunity came the way of the visitors with Delano Burgzorg working hard for the ball in the final third and slipping a pass to Jack Rudoni, who fired straight at Viktor Johansson.

Rotherham were inches away from going in front when Andy Rinomhota’s curling effort rebounded off the post and Charlie Wyke’s follow-up went over the bar.

Thomas then flashed an effort across the box after a promising counter-attack.

Huddersfield have relied on their defenders to chip in with the goals and Matty Pearson headed just off target from Thomas’ free-kick.

The visitors then threatened from a corner with David Kasumu firing through a host of bodies but his effort was gathered by Johansson.

Peter Kioso’s powerful cross was then met at the back post on the volley by Seb Revan but it was off target.

Huddersfield were dealt a blow after 59 minutes with Thomas picking up a second yellow card for fouling an onrushing Ollie Rathbone.

Cafu almost added further punishment as he lashed the resulting free-kick just over the bar.

The game had become pretty open and Rudoni looked to take advantage when he latched onto a quickly taken free-kick and shot from the edge of the box, but again it was easily gathered by Johansson.

A chance fell to Rathbone on the edge of the box but his powerful effort was straight at Lee Nicholls.

Johansson was brought into action again by Burgzorg after Jaheim Headley had teed up the striker down the left side of the penalty area.

Huddersfield’s best weapon appeared to be from set-pieces and a couple of corners had to be dealt with by strong goalkeeping from Johansson.

Another corner was headed away strongly by Sean Morrison deep into added time and Tom Edwards lashed the follow-up well over the bar.

Daniel Udoh’s first-half goal secured Shrewsbury their first home win in seven league games with a 1-0 victory over rock-bottom Carlisle.

After a quiet opening 40 minutes, Shrewsbury broke the deadlock just before the interval through leading scorer Udoh.

The 27-year-old received a ball into the box and did well to hold off a defender before spinning and firing past Harry Lewis at his near post.

Shrewsbury nearly doubled their lead three minutes later when Carl Winchester struck from inside the box, but Lewis tipped the ball out for a corner.

Carlisle came close to an equaliser through Dan Butterworth just before the hour.

He won the ball high up the pitch before dancing around the Shrewsbury defence and attempting a shot from close range, but Marko Marosi did well to save and clear the danger.

Butterworth went close again soon after from a free-kick on the edge of the box, but his effort whistled past the post.

That was as close as the visitors would come and Udoh almost snatched a second late on with an effort from the edge of the box which flew over the bar.

Dan Skelton will be giving it his all to win the trainers’ championship after adding to his brilliant Cheltenham Festival with winners at both Uttoxeter and Kempton on Saturday.

Fresh from being the standout British trainer in the Cotswolds, when saddling a career-best four winners over the four days, he edged ahead of Paul Nicholls in the trainers’ standings when keeping the ball rolling across the cards on Saturday.

However, he is predicting a tough battle to end his former Ditcheat boss’ stranglehold on the trophy and is hoping he has the right horses in reserve to run at the latter end of the season.

“I will give it a good go to win it and Paul will give it a good go to defend it and it will have to be worked for,” said Skelton.

“I will give it a go, but what I won’t be doing is running horses unnecessarily. Horses like the bumper horse, Royal Infantry, it’s correct for him to finish his season now, so I won’t be asking horses it is inappropriate to do so to come out. However, those that are, will.”

Skelton saddled a double at Uttoxeter thanks to the victories of Santos Blue and Gwennie May Boy, while Boombawn made a successful return from 302 days off the track in Kempton’s Read Nicky Henderson’s Exclusive Unibet Blog Handicap Hurdle.

The progressive seven-year-old was once again showing his love for Kempton having struck in Listed company at the Sunbury track in October 2022 and after travelling with real enthusiasm in the hands of Harry Skelton, the 13-2 chance dug deep to hold off the rallying Titan Discovery at the finish.

He told Racing TV: “We had him ready for the Silver Trophy at Chepstow in the autumn, but it was an unusually wet autumn and then we had him ready two weeks later for somewhere that went soft or heavy and in the end I just sent him home to one of his owners, Sarah Faulks, and she just gave him a week off at home and freshened him up.

“We got him back around Christmas time and he’s just been aching for this bit better ground. I know it’s not officially good today, but it’s a lot better (than it has been) and he’s entitled to be progressive – what you saw at Aintree (on his last start) showed you he was going in the right direction.

“He will have Aintree, Ayr and Sandown on the last day of the season on his agenda and we might even consider going over fences with him, depending on the time of year and if there are any races we can get him in.

“If it got to May and he was beyond the rating ceiling to get into a novice chase, we could even take him to France.”

Meanwhile, Skelton is hopeful his quartet of Festival winners will be a part of his arsenal for his title challenge after providing a positive update on their wellbeing.

“They are all really good. Langer Dan just has a little infection in a leg and all the other winners are good. Langer Dan is fine by the way, it is just something that is mentionable,” Skelton added.

“Grey Dawning will probably run (again) at three miles, Protektorat will have the option of two (races) and I would love to step Langer Dan up to Grade One company. Unexpected Party will have a heap of entries and we will see what’s best.”

Massimiliano Allegri wants Juventus to get their rapidly derailing Serie A season back on track against Genoa on Sunday before the international break gives their title rivals chance to breathe.

Juve have won only one of their last seven league matches, losing three, and last weekend’s 2-2 home draw with Atalanta allowed AC Milan to take over as top side Inter’s closest challengers for the Scudetto.

Next opponents Genoa have been less than impressive away from home this term and Bianconeri head coach Allegri hopes this offers his team an opportunity to put a match to bed and make a statement before his players disappear on international duty.

He told a press conference: “We’ve had a good week, we all understand the period we’re going through.

“We’ve decided to stay together as a team for one more evening, knowing that we need to get back on track. We have goals to reach and we know tomorrow’s importance.

“In the last few games we haven’t given up many chances, but have conceded a lot of goals.

“At times that can happen. We need to improve defensively as a team, not just as individuals. There are some mistakes that we need to resolve and we’re working on it.”

On his selection issues, the Tuscan boss added: “We’re without (Arkadiusz) Milik and we’ll have to re-evaluate him after the international break, but (Mattia) Perin and (Mattia) De Sciglio are back. We have all of our forwards available, like (Moise) Kean.

“(Adrien) Rabiot doesn’t have 90 minutes in the tank just yet but just having him available is a positive.”

Genoa head to the Allianz Stadium on the back of two straight defeats, the first to Inter, while a 3-2 home defeat by Monza is still stinging a week later.

Head coach Alberto Gilardino, the former AC Milan and Parma striker, told reporters: “Allegri is a really great manager and Juve have a very strong squad full of world-class players.

“They’ve won a lot and are on an arc of improvement with lots of young stars coming through alongside plenty of experienced, quality players. They started the season among the favourites to win the title this year.

“They’re a difficult team to go up against as they have players who can change the game at any moment. But, as we saw in the first game, what counts is what we can do out on the pitch.

“We need to maintain great balance and pay even more attention to the fine details so we can maximise what the team, and the individual players, are trying to do.”

Barcelona boss Xavi said on-loan forward Joao Felix is “super motivated” for Sunday’s LaLiga clash against his parent club Atletico Madrid.

Portugal international Felix, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Chelsea, will return to the Metropolitano Stadium for the first time since joining Barca in September.

Felix has scored eight goals in all competitions for Xavi’s side, including the winner against Atletico in Barca’s home fixture in December, since arriving on a season-long loan.

Xavi told a press conference: “He likes fiery atmospheres to show his worth. Joao has a strong personality. He is not afraid and really wants to show what he can do and his character.

“He has all he needs for a great performance, just like the one from earlier in the season (when Barca beat Atletico 1-0) – he’s super motivated.”

Atletico pair Antoine Griezmann and Memphis Depay are also hoping to face their former club in a game Xavi described as a “vital one, like all the ones that remain because we need to pick up points in the league”.

Barca currently sit third in the table and are running out of chances to cut the sizeable gap to leaders Real Madrid.

Atletico, in fourth place, six points adrift of Barca, are unbeaten at home in the league in 14 matches this season.

Diego Simeone’s side bounced back from last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Cadiz by beating Inter Milan on penalties in midweek to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Xavi, whose side also progressed to the last eight of the Champions League in midweek after overcoming Napoli, added: “The game is against a Champions League rival and they showed that the other day (against Inter). It will be a really tough away game and I think both sides are in good form.

“I’m sure it will be a great game and let’s hope we can pick up three points, although I don’t think they have lost at home in the league since we won there last season (January 2023).”

Xavi said he was hopeful both Marcos Alonso and Ferran Torres can recover from injury in time to feature in his squad.

Mister Policeman ensured Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Willie Mullins and Paul Townend kept the bandwagon rolling with Grade Three glory in the Pierce Molony Memorial Novice Chase at Thurles.

The six-year-old was a winner in France before joining Mullins and he made a winning start for the yard when beating stablemate Cash Back in a Cork hurdle last April.

Switched to fences subsequently, Mister Policeman was an odds-on winner at Fairyhouse in November but let down his supporters when well held in third by Quilixios at Navan on his next start.

A six-length win at Punchestown bolstered his confidence according to jockey Paul Townend, who settled his mount in second before making his challenge with four fences to jump in his latest assignment.

The 30-100 favourite was clearly travelling best of all coming to the last and he kept on well to record a length-and-a-half victory over Thecompanysergeant.

Townend said: “He jumped fantastic for a horse that his jumping probably let him down in the past. He loved jumping and is probably getting the hang of it.

“I still think he can go out in trip, but the way he’s jumping now is getting him through. He got a lot of confidence from the last day and he’s built on that again today.

“Hopefully he can keep building, but he has a bit to go to fulfil what he was supposed to be.”

Mister Policeman was the only runner in Ireland for the Mullins-Townend team the day after another fruitful Cheltenham Festival.

Galopin Des Champs provided a perfect finale in winning the Gold Cup for a second successive year, impressing Townend with his cosy three-and-a-half-length verdict.

He said: “He won in a different way (than the previous year) and he dug in so much. We got racing at the top of the hill and on heavy ground it’s a long way home.

“They are really, really good when they can do that.”

Townend finished the week at top jockey with six winners, although he rode a couple of beaten favourites, most notably El Fabiolo who relinquished his unbeaten record in the Champion Chase.

Sent off the 2-9 favourite, El Fabiolo made a bad mistake at the fifth fence and was soon pulled up by Townend.

He added: “It was an amazing week. Obviously El Fabiolo was disappointing.

“There were a few disappointments, he was the main one, but outside that everything went great through the week.”

Wales suffered the ignominy of a first Six Nations wooden spoon since 2003 after Italy posted a 24-21 victory over them in Cardiff.

Not even George North’s farewell appearance before international retirement – he suffered an injury late in the game and was helped off – could lift a dismal Wales effort in suffering a fifth successive Six Nations defeat this season and finishing bottom of the table.

It was a thoroughly deserved Italian win and came via tries from wing Monty Ioane and full-back Lorenzo Pani, with fly-half Paolo Garbisi kicking three penalties and a conversion and Martin Page-Relo landing a late penalty.

While Wales boss Warren Gatland has pleaded for patience as he embarks on an extensive post-World Cup rebuilding job, stark statistics cannot be avoided as late tries from Elliot Dee, Will Rowlands and Mason Grady, with Ioan Lloyd kicking two conversions and Sam Costelow one, provided scant consolation.

Wales have now suffered seven successive Six Nations home reversals, two on the bounce to Italy and won just one game from 10 starts in the tournament since Gatland returned for a second stint as head coach.

Italy had propped up the table for eight campaigns in a row, but they avoided that fate this time around, and the Cardiff mood was in stark contrast to five years ago when Wales stormed to the Six Nations title and a Grand Slam by crushing Ireland.

The Azzurri, though, could reflect on a memorable campaign that also saw them defeat Scotland and draw with France in Lille.

And life is not about to get any easier for Gatland or his players. Their next game is against world champions South Africa in June, followed by a two-Test tour of Australia.

Wales monopolised early possession without making any real attacking headway, and Italy went ahead when Garbisi booted a sixth-minute penalty.

Italy comfortably absorbed continued pressure from Wales, before Garbisi doubled their lead through a second penalty after North infringed by not releasing the ball on the floor.

And Wales’ promising start soon unravelled, with North’s midfield partner Nick Tompkins dropping a pass and Italy storming upfield to post an outstanding try.

Garbisi, centre Tommaso Menoncello and lock Federico Ruzza combined superbly, setting up a strong attacking platform before Wales were unlocked defensively when Ioane sprinted through a gap and touched down.

Garbisi missed the conversion, but Italy had an 11-point advantage after 20 minutes, leaving the wooden spoon hovering closer into view for Wales.

The home side were at sixes and sevens, a situation underlined when a defensive mix-up between Sam Costelow and Cameron Winnett saw the ball knocked-on to gift Italy an attacking scrum 20 metres out.

Although the Azzurri could not capitalise, there was continued uncertainty and hesitancy from Wales, and even when they established a threatening position inside Italy’s 22, Tompkins knocked on again.

Wales looked completely fazed by the occasion, in contrast to Italy’s largely calm and assured presence, and an 11-0 interval lead confirmed a sense of control for the visitors.

It had been an opening 40 minutes for Wales as poor as the first half against Scotland in their Six Nations opener, when the Scots built up a 20-point advantage.

Italy struck again just six minutes after the restart, with Ioane heavily involved and Pani producing a blistering finish as he cut back inside Wales wing Rio Dyer. Garbisi’s conversion put them 18 points ahead, with seemingly no way back for Wales.

Gatland began ringing the changes, and a glimmer of hope was provided when Dee crashed over for a try 16 minutes from time that Costelow converted.

But Garbisi snuffed that out when he kicked a 45-metre penalty, and Page-Relo then found the target from even longer range as Wales’ abject Six Nations season reached its sorry conclusion despite late tries from Rowlands and Grady.

Jordan Nailor enjoyed one of his biggest days in the saddle when steering Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Beauport to bet365 Midlands Grand National glory at Uttoxeter.

The 25-year-old has regularly partnered the Bryan and Philippa Burrough-owned eight-year-old and was aboard when landing the Colin Parker Memorial Intermediate Chase in the autumn of 2022.

However, having been narrowly denied in the London National in December and then disappointing when last seen at Warwick in the Classic Chase in January, the duo’s triumph in the £150,000 contest was the perfect way to get back on track.

Sent off at odds of 18-1, Beauport was always handy despite hanging to his right as he was forced to chart a wide path around the Staffordshire track.

Moving into the home straight for the final time, he proved the biggest danger to Emma Lavelle’s My Silver Lining on the front end and after jumping the final obstacle locked together, they held a slim advantage with Mr Incredible and Autonomous Cloud also staying on not too far behind.

But it was the Twiston-Davies runner who had most left in reserve at the end of four and a quarter miles, staying on strongly to the line as the petrol tanks of his rivals began to empty.

It is of course not the first time the Burrough colours have been worn to National success and the gelding’s trainer hopes he could one one day follow in the footsteps of Corbiere and line up at Aintree for the Grand National itself.

“It was really brilliant and really exciting,” said Twiston-Davies.

“It’s brilliant for Jordan as he’s had a bit of a quiet season and it was great, we’re all really happy.

“Jordan has won a few big races on him before and it all went well on the day. We have no idea why he ran so bad at Warwick but it all went better for him this time.

“I hope it will be the Grand National one day. The owners had Corbiere and he will hopefully follow in his footsteps.”

Nailor told Sky Sports Racing: “He went so well and his jumping was keeping him up there, so I just sat and let him travel. It wasn’t exactly plan A.

“He’s such a nice horse and has given me some brilliant days in my career. All the thanks go to Faye who rides him out every day and Carl (Llewellyn) and the owners and I’m very, very happy.

“He tries every time and we’ve had an up-and-down season. He was good in the London National but apart from that he hasn’t been himself really. It is nice to see him win another big one.

“This horse has been with me since I was a 5lb claimer, so all the way through to now it has been a brilliant partnership. It means an awful lot.”

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil described the behaviour of Coventry counterpart Mark Robins “disgusting” after he celebrated his side’s remarkable FA Cup quarter-final win in the face of a 13-year-old ball boy.

The Championship outfit stunned their Premier League opponents with two goals in added time to seal a 3-2 victory and book a first semi-final in this competition since they won it in 1987.

It was after Haji Wright’s winner at the death that Robins showed a rare sight of emotion by celebrating in front of a ball boy, who had irked him moments before.

Robins offered an unprompted apology in his press conference after the game, but O’Neil said the teenager was left distressed.

“I was disappointed, I waited for Mark downstairs and spoke to him because I was really respectful at the end, having lost a massive game, waited for them to finish their celebrations, shook everyone’s hands, congratulated them on a real good performance, reaching Wembley and what a fantastic achievement it was,” O’Neil said.

“And he apologised, but to celebrate in a young boy’s face like that I thought was disgusting, the boy is really upset. It shouldn’t happen, but I don’t have too much to say about it because we have lost and it’s going to seem bitter.

“But I thought it was really important to speak to Mark about it because they are just kids doing a job.”

Robins was regretful afterwards and admitted to letting his emotions get the better of him.

He said: “I have an apology to make, before the winner went in, the ball boy has the ball, a young kid, so I am apologising to him, he has the ball in his hand, drops it and walks away smiling.

“It really annoyed me, but he’s a kid, at the end of the day I have reacted, we scored the goal and I went and celebrated in front of him.

“I apologise to him. I do not show emotion very often and before that happened I apologise to him, I don’t show emotion very often but that is what the FA Cup does to you. I apologise to him unreservedly to him.”

It is little surprise Robins was emotional given the manner of an unbelievable climax at Molineux.

It looked like they would be leaving with broken hearts after two goals in the final 10 minutes from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Hugo Bueno overturned Ellis Simms’ opener and seemed to set a Wembley date for Wolves.

But the Sky Blues were not done and in nine minutes of time added on they turned the last-eight tie around again, with Simms grabbing a second and then Wright earning himself folklore by grabbing the winner.

They are into just a second semi-final in this competition, with the last one coming en route to lifting the cup 37 years ago.

With some of the teams still left in this year’s edition, Robins is not overly optimistic of a repeat of that famous win over Tottenham.

Asked if he thought they could win the competition, Robins said: “Did you say win the competition? You do realise who is left in?

“Well, we have got a small chance. We are going to Wembley and we are going to enjoy that game, I don’t want to go there and just make the numbers up. We know, are not stupid, the levels go up all of the time.”

Luke Williams believed Swansea produced the “most complete performance” of his tenure so far as they claimed a 2-0 Championship victory over derby rivals Cardiff.

Liam Cullen put Swansea ahead in the 34th minute before missing a penalty six minutes into the second half.

But Jamal Lowe bagged his seventh goal of the season – in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage-time – to cap off a fine win for the Swans, who ended the Bluebirds’ four-game winning streak.

It was Swansea’s fifth win from six matches against Cardiff and went some way to avenging their 2-0 loss in the reverse fixture last September.

“We won in a really positive way, I can’t argue with the way we went about it today,” said the Swansea boss.

“I think the combination of intensity and aggression combined with calmness and clarity is something we’re all striving for.

“I think it’s fair to say we’ve seen one or the other in recent performances or we’ve seen periods where we’ve done both well.

“But today felt like the most complete performance so far.

“It’s unrealistic for us to expect to not have any pressure (against us), but we were very dominant for the majority of the game and the big chances in the game, we created all of them.”

Meanwhile, opposite number Erol Bulut admitted some of his players went “hiding” as Cardiff failed to cope with the hosts’ intensity in the first-half.

The Bluebirds failed to register a single shot on target in the opening 45 and – on the whole – flattered to deceive as they missed out on securing a first-ever league double over the Swans.

And Bulut was less than impressed with the way his players started the contest at the Swansea.com Stadium.

“With the pressing Swansea made against us, we had to keep the ball in midfield, but we didn’t ask for the ball in midfield, we were hiding too much in the midfield,” he said.

“If you are hiding, you cannot get out of the press. You have to ask for the ball, this was not there in the first half.

“That’s why in the second half I made the changes, bringing two players in and we managed it a little bit better and the rest who came in, I think it was quite good.

“We will not put our heads down and make big trouble of this because we lost.

“When we see the last weeks, how we worked and how we came back when we’ve been on the bottom, we will be back again.

“We still have eight games to play, we have the international break, we will rest well, train well and come back strong again.”

Swansea were dealt a blow as Ben Cabango missed out with a calf injury and is now poised to be unavailable for Wales’ Euro 2024 play-off campaign.

Cabango’s fellow defender Kyle Naughton was withdrawn during the derby due to a hamstring issue, with Williams stating the injury “doesn’t look good”.

Nicky Henderson is planning a quiet few days as he tries to get to the bottom of the issue that scuppered his Cheltenham Festival hopes.

With Constitution Hill ruled out of a Champion Hurdle defence the week before the fixture due to a respiratory infection, Henderson’s week got off to an inauspicious start with five of his six runners pulled up on Tuesday.

That prompted the Seven Barrows trainer to rule out a string of leading contenders, with Jonbon missing his Champion Chase date, ante-post favourite Sir Gino sidestepping the Triumph Hurdle and Shishkin ruled out of his Cheltenham Gold Cup assignment due to an unsatisfactory scope.

A handful of Henderson runners did perform with credit at Cheltenham, most notably Champion Hurdle third Luccia, and Persian Time offered a further glimmer of hope when digging deep for a neck verdict in the Try Unibet’s New Acca Boosts Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase at Kempton on Saturday.

Henderson has no entries until Spring Note at Newbury on Friday and will now attempt to establish what has troubled his recent runners.

He told Racing TV: “It has been a difficult 10 days because to be fair, I think we knew before we went there that they hadn’t been running to what you would hope for.

“It’s nice just to sort of close the whole week down, we have nothing else (running) today.

“We probably will have hardly any runners next week and let the whole thing settle down and see if we can get to the bottom of what has been ailing, although it’s difficult to say ailing as they seem to be well, everything checks out right but they certainly checked out wrong at the top of that far hill last week – they couldn’t get over the top of it.

“I think we just take the whole thing apart and try to put it back piece by piece to see if there is a piece missing anywhere. I think there is something missing – there is no doubt about that – they’ve got to keep ticking over and I’d like to go quietly for one week and just let the whole thing die down.

“Everyone has been so incredibly helpful and I really appreciate it. We have just to got to see if there is a piece of the jigsaw missing and I hope it’s as simple as that, but it’s not there in black and white.

“Normally with the blood tests and scopes you can identify a problem – there’s just no sign of an issue. I do think the horses look well, they seem to be well, their work has been good, everything checks out right but they just weren’t performing at all and at the end, we just didn’t run – you were just getting scared to run.

“We will be quiet next week, hopefully we can then kick on to Aintree and Punchestown. There’s a lot still to come and they will come back I am sure. We have got a wonderful team at home and are surrounded by great people and we will get it back on track.

“I think everyone knows what Cheltenham is to nearly all of us and to come out of there like that – we’ve just had some wonderful years but you’re never going to get complacent about it. The amazing thing was the support we have had, everybody has been fantastic and I’m very grateful.”

Persian Time was last seen when pulled up behind Ginny’s Destiny at Cheltenham’s Trials day in January, but after bouncing back to form, a trip to Ayr could now be on the agenda for the gelding, who is owned by the McNeill and Stone families.

Henderson added: “He’s been good at home. On Trials day, he didn’t really want to have a cut at his fences there, then he was much happier today. He was tanking going down to the start and you could tell after the first three fences he was a different horse today.

“He’s a nice fellow and he’s going the right way, so let’s hope we can keep it going. There will be plenty more for him this season I would hope.

“I know Ayr is their (owners) very favourite track so I would think we might be scouring the programme book to see what there is for him there. he ran very well in a novice hurdle up there last year and just got touched off by what’s turned out to be a decent horse – Ayr could be good.”