Andre Russell starred on his comeback and the West Indies’ conveyor belt of six-hitters sent England tumbling to a four-wicket defeat in Barbados in the first of five T20s.
Russell took a format-best three for 19 in his first international since the 2021 T20 World Cup to help induce an England collapse from 117 for two in the 11th over to 171 all out, with three balls unused.
England disintegrated at the back end, losing their final five wickets for six runs in 15 balls, before the West Indies reeled in their target and completed their highest successful run chase at venue, with 11 balls to spare. The run chase was helped by clearing the rope 14 times.
The Windies looked to be in strife after slipping to 123 for six, but Russell with a 14-ball 29, and captain Rovman Powell with a 15-ball 31, put on an unbroken 49 in 21 deliveries to get them home.
Scores: England 171 all out (19.3 overs); West Indies 172-6 (18.1 overs)
Adil Rashid became the first English man to take 100 T20 wickets on his 100th appearance – he was given his cap by Andrew Flintoff – while fellow leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed collected three for 39.
But despite a switch of format following a miserable World Cup and ODI series defeat against their hosts, England suffered another setback and must regroup quickly for the second T20 in Grenada.
They were on for a 200-plus total following a 77-run opening stand in the powerplay, led by Phil Salt’s freewheeling 40 off 20 balls but never recovered the momentum after he was dismissed by Russell.
Salt edged his second ball past slip off Akeal Hosein for four after England were sent in on the pitch used in the final ODI, but he settled with two more conventional strokes to the rope.
Buttler was in his Lancashire team-mate’s slipstream but brought up England’s 50 with a six off Russell after finally connecting with a ramp at the third attempt.
Joseph leaked 25 in an introductory over spanning nine balls, where he was sent the distance by Salt and saw a wide slip through the legs of wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran en route to the boundary.
It was inevitably Russell who made the breakthrough immediately after the powerplay as Salt tried to muscle over deep midwicket only to be caught by a juggling Shimron Hetmyer.
But Joseph’s nightmare start continued after back-to-back sixes off Jacks, compounding the second by overstepping and conceding 37 off his first seven legitimate balls.
Joseph’s bold decision to take pace off was rewarded as Jacks sent another booming swing straight up in the air and departed for 17 while Buttler, who had never really hit his stride at a venue where he made a golden duck on Saturday, holed out for 39 off 31 deliveries.
At 117 for three, England were in the driving seat, but wickets tumbled from then on as Brook tickled behind off Jason Holder while Duckett got into a tangle attempting a scoop off a much wider delivery from Romario Shepherd than anticipated, instead reverse ramping to short third.
Liam Livingstone briefly sparkled as he thrashed Holder for successive sixes in the 17th over but then chopped on to his stumps for 27, too early on an off-cutter from Russell, who then snared Rehan Ahmed.
Joseph accounted for Rashid and Tymal Mills as England failed to bat out their overs and they were on the back foot in reply after leaking 30 in the first two overs.
Brandon King started the rout with 16 off Sam Curran but added just six more before being dismissed after an outstretched catch from Duckett, who dropped a similar chance to reprieve Kyle Mayers on 17.
Mayers had already put Will Jacks and Tymal Mills on to the Greenidge and Haynes Stand roof and cleared the ropes twice in Ahmed’s opening gambit before perishing for 35, falling metres short of a fifth six from Rashid’s first delivery.
Having amassed 78 in the first seven overs, the Windies found post-powerplay scoring as difficult as England, adding just 39 more in the next seven, which included Ahmed taking a return catch off Pooran and Hetmyer picking out Duckett in the deep to give Rashid his landmark wicket.
Shai Hope belted his third six but perished immediately afterwards for 36 when he targeted Ahmed again while the teenager had two in two when Romario Shepherd – England’s nemesis in the 2-1 ODI loss – edged to slip.
The Windies needed 43 off the last 26 balls but Powell turned the tide with two monster hits off Livingstone while Russell got a top-edge all the way in the next over off Mills.
England’s last roll of the dice was Rashid but he was smeared high over the leg-side boundary by Russell, who fittingly sealed a 1-0 lead for the Windies by hitting Curran for four.
Phil Salt’s freewheeling 40 off 20 balls helped England off to a flyer but they were pegged back by an Andre Russell-inspired West Indies in the series-opening T20 in Barbados.
Salt edged his second ball past slip but took two more fours in the opening over off Akeal Hosein in a rollicking start as he put on 77 in 6.1 overs with captain Jos Buttler (39 off 31 deliveries).
A 200-plus total looked to be there for the taking but they lost their way after Buttler holed out, collapsing to 171 all out in 19.3 overs after losing their last eight wickets for just 54 runs.
It was particularly gruesome at the back end as England lost their last five wickets for six runs in 15 balls.
The Windies’ fightback was led by Andre Russell, who marked his first international since the T20 World Cup with format-best figures of three for 19, including the wicket of Salt, caught on the boundary.
Jacks whacked back-to-back sixes off the expensive Alzarri Joseph, who conceded 54 in 3.3 overs including 26 in a nine-ball first over, but went for one hit too many and departed for 17 off nine.
Buttler never really got going before he was caught in the deep and England, who lost the ODI series 2-1, never really recovered. Their last 10 overs contained four boundaries and just 59 runs.
Liam Livingstone contributed 27 off 19 but chopped Russell’s slower ball on to his stumps while Adil Rashid, making his 100th T20 appearance, saw his off-stump taken out by Joseph, who finished with two in two and a three-wicket haul overall after Tymal Mills nicked off.
Relieved Stevenage boss Steve Evans praised his side’s character after beating Port Vale on penalties to progress into the third round of the FA Cup.
Battling Boro overcame 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to set up a trip to minnows Maidstone.
Ben Garrity’s brace put Vale two goals to the good before late efforts from Harvey White and Kane Hemmings, in the sixth minute of stoppage time, sent the game to extra time.
Ryan Loft scored a first Vale goal in the 115th minute but Nathan Thompson forced penalties and Stevenage stopper Taye Ashby-Hammond was the shootout hero as he saved spot-kicks from scorers Garrity and Loft.
Evans reflected: “We don’t do things the easy way.
“First things first, if you’ve come to the stadium as a neutral then this is a fantastic cup tie. You must be on the edge of your seat at both ends.
“When we get into the game and Harvey gets a goal I think we’re totally, totally dominant.
“When it goes 2-2 we know extra time’s coming but we think there’s only one winner because we had a lot of chances.
“To have the character the group has got to come back and score again to take the game to penalties is incredible.
“For the first 60 minutes we didn’t look like we wanted to be in the FA Cup, but for the last half-hour plus extra time we did.”
Vale boss Andy Crosby insisted his side only had themselves to blame after they crashed out.
After seeing his side crumble from 2-0 and 3-2 up, Crosby admitted: “We’ve thrown the game away twice. To concede a last-minute equaliser in normal time and then exactly the same thing happens in extra time, that makes it very tough to take.
“To go 2-0 up against a team who are third or fourth in our league was pleasing, but then we lost control of the game a bit and they can do that to you.
“The game wasn’t over at full-time, there were 30 minutes left. We go back in front again and look at the clock and think ‘we need to see this out now’. We’ve got to defend our box better than we did.
“The guys have given everything but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve only got ourselves to blame.
“It takes bravery to take a penalty in any situation in a shootout. Those guys have stood up, penalties get missed. It is what it is.
“Life is tough at times, you take the hits and you have to get up again and move forward.”
Napoli put an end to a jittery start under new coach Walter Mazzarri as their 2-0 victory over Braga confirmed their place in the Champions League knockout stage.
Three successive defeats since Mazzarri took over from Rudi Garcia may have knocked confidence but the hosts knew they needed only a draw to prevent their opponents snatching second place in Group C from them.
They could even have afforded a one-goal defeat, as their head-to-head record was superior courtesy of the 2-1 win in Portugal, but a ninth-minute Serdar Saatci own goal was the perfect morale boost for a side which had won just once in the last six games.
A quickly-taken throw allowed Matteo Politano to break into the right side of the penalty area and his low cut-back was intended for Victor Osimhen.
However, Saatci’s awkward attempted to block the cross only diverted the ball into the ground, up onto the underside of the crossbar and down over the line.
Stung by the early goal Ricardo Horta forced Alex Meret to tip a shot onto the crossbar, while Braga goalkeeper Matheus Magalhaes also denied Piotr Zielinski at his near post.
Osimhen had flown in from Morocco, where he had won African Player of the Year, and he celebrated beating Mohamed Salah to the award by adding Napoli’s second in the 33rd minute.
Natan, a centre-back filling in on the left, surged forward and having found space in the penalty area crossed for the Nigeria international.
The ball was behind Osimhen but his attempted drag-back diverted it goalwards via his standing leg from six yards and although Matheus got a hand to it he could not prevent it crossing the line.
Braga’s goalkeeper was the busier as he tipped over Politano’s left-footed curler and denied Osimhen a second.
Horta hit the foot of a post with 11 minutes to go but with Real Madrid coming back to beat Union Berlin late on, Braga’s consolation prize was a place in the Europa League.
Erik ten Hag told his Manchester United players to make sure they get straight back into the Champions League next season after a dismal European campaign ended in an early exit at the hands of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.
Kingsley Coman’s 70th-minute goal, laid on by Harry Kane, gave the Germans a 1-0 win and ensured United finished bottom of Group A – beaten to second place by FC Copenhagen, operating on a fraction of their budget, and to third and the consolation of Europa League football by Galatasaray.
The final whistle was greeted with boos at Old Trafford, where United lost for the seventh time this season – having now lost more games in all competitions, 12, than they have won, 11.
Ten Hag’s side are out of Europe, out of the League Cup, and sixth in the Premier League going into Sunday’s visit to leaders Liverpool. Defeat also came at a cost, with both Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw picking up injuries before half-time.
“There are still many things to play for now, we can focus on the Premier League,” Ten Hag said.
“This is the level we want to play, the Champions League, so we have to give every effort to get into the top four so next year we are back in the Champions League – and of course there is the FA Cup so there are still many things to play for.”
In a match they needed to win, United mustered only one shot on target, a Shaw effort that never really troubled Manuel Neuer. A much better chance fell to Bruno Fernandes early in the second half but the captain blazed over.
Bayern, already assured of top spot in the group, barely needed to get out of second gear but Ten Hag insisted his side performed well.
“I think the game was like this, both sides had less chances but I think there was a good intensity from our side,” the Dutchman said.
“We brought Bayern out of their rhythm, the defending organisation we did quite well if not very well, especially the first part of second half. Also we had a very good chance from Bruno, so we had our moments but didn’t take them.”
Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel, who bounced back from Saturday’s 5-1 humbling away to Eintracht Frankfurt, admitted he had expected United to progress from Group A and had sympathy for Ten Hag’s position – pointing to United’s long list of absentees.
“I think you could see it’s not an easy time for them. I’m pretty sure he knows what to do next, how to influence his team and he doesn’t need any advice from me,” Tuchel said. “He is experienced enough to go through it.”
Kane set up Coman’s goal with a perfectly placed pass with the outside of his boot and the man United coveted for so long was a constant menace as he linked up Bayern’s attacking play and sent a late header narrowly wide.
“Harry is a difference maker, 100 per cent,” Tuchel said of the England captain. “His personality, his calmness.
“The team knows anything can happen any minute with Harry up front. He can always assist, he can always score.”
New Oxford head coach Des Buckingham is not concerned that, after the 1-1 draw at local rivals Reading, he has now failed in four attempts to gain his first League One victory.
Both goals came shortly before the interval, with defender Ciaron Brown giving Oxford the lead in the 39th minute with a stooping header – only for former United loanee Sam Smith to equalise four minutes later.
Buckingham, who replaced the departed Liam Manning last month, said: “I’ve only been here [at the club] for a few weeks.
“We’ve played two of the top teams in Peterborough and Bolton and I’ve really had only about three training sessions with the group.
“That’s all I’ve had…and that’s not passing the buck there!
“And tonight, we’ve got a good result with a very different team. So it’s not really a concern to me right now.
“I think that we’ll come good, it just needs a bit of time.
“It was a good derby game but we were missing a good few key players so we had to make some changes tonight, a lot of them enforced.
“I changed a few things that we’ve done in the last two weeks and I thought that we deserved to win the game.
“At the end, we just couldn’t convert the chances, but we’ll take a point.”
Oxford had close to 3,000 fans at the SCL Stadium.
Buckingham added: “We had unbelievable support. We know they travel in their numbers but it’s a derby and it has been a long time since this one has been on the cards.
“They were absolutely wonderful tonight. It was a really good, strong atmosphere.”
Reading are now four points off safety near the foot of the table.
“A point is a point and we will take it,” Ruben Selles, the Reading manager, said.
“It was a competitive game and, at times, we showed that we could control it and we could score. We also defended well.
“We came back from 1-0 down and then at the end, especially from a couple of set-plays, we would have lost the game three or four weeks ago.
“But the team is in a good moment and in a good spirit. I was also very happy with the effort we put in.
“So I will happily take that point and we move forward.
“We started the game well, we had the ball and we made the right decisions so that we created certain situations.
“We have no depth yet when we can dominate for 95 or 100 minutes.
“But the good thing about the second half was that we managed to stay in the game.
“We had to adapt and adjust and we did not concede another goal. This is all part of the game.”
Sunderland caretaker Mike Dodds believes Jobe Bellingham can emerge from his superstar brother’s shadow and go “to the very top” himself after the teenager’s late winner ended Leeds’ seven-game unbeaten run.
The 18-year-old headed his fourth career goal in the 78th minute to secure a 1-0 EFL Championship win over the third-placed Whites on the same night his elder sibling and England international Jude was helping Real Madrid to victory over Union Berlin in the Champions League.
Dodds admitted it is “really difficult” for young Bellingham as he strives to make his way in a sport where his 20-year-old brother is regarded as one of the best on the planet, but he believes he has all the attributes to make a name for himself.
“Both brothers have a very similar mindset in terms of their relentless pursuit of where they want to get to,” said Dodds.
“He made a really brave and tough decision to leave Birmingham, the club he supported all his life. Thankfully from my perspective, it looks like he’s made the right decision and I’m sure he would reiterate that.
“But it is tough for him, it is tough for him. And it will only get easier as he gets credit in the bank for himself.
“I think it speaks volumes for Jobe that as an 18-year-old boy in the Championship, he could play as a nine against West Brom on Saturday and then a 10 against Leeds tonight.
“That shows what quality and class he has and just highlights what a fantastic talent he is regardless of the name on the back of his shirt.
“I think he can go to the very top. I’ve worked with a lot of young players and he would be up there with the very best I’ve worked with.”
Dodds was “over the moon” after he made it back-to-back home wins over West Brom and Leeds since taking the reins after the sacking of Tony Mowbray last week. Reims manager Will Still is currently the favourite to take over but Dodds expects to be in charge for Saturday’s trip to Bristol City.
“I’ve not had enough time to process what’s actually happened,” he said. “It’s been a whirlwind since last Tuesday. I knew how much effort I’d have to put in to prepare for these games and I’m tired.
“I’ve got a day off tomorrow and I’m going to spend the day Christmas shopping and trying to switch off. Then Thursday will be business as usual in terms of preparing for Saturday.”
Leeds boss Daniel Farke was loathe to criticise his team after they had won six of their previous seven matches.
“Congratulations to Sunderland for a great defensive effort,” he said.
“In general, I’m struggling to criticise my lads too much. It was a difficult away game and I thought we dominated for many periods but we didn’t find the cutting edge today.
“And credit to Sunderland, they tried to park the bus and they did really well. They gave their life in order to defend everything.”
Proud Scarborough boss Jonathan Greening hailed his players’ fortitude after they pushed EFL outfit Forest Green all the way again in a third meeting of the teams in this season’s FA Cup.
The first-round tie was ordered to be replayed after Forest Green had been found guilty of failing to inform the FA they had received permission to play a loan player against the National League North outfit.
Scarborough were only denied victory in the original tie by a stoppage-time equaliser, before going down 5-2 at Forest Green in the replay.
But this latest contest – a one-off rematch in North Yorkshire – saw Scarborough take an early lead and later reduce the deficit to 3-2 courtesy of a Luca Colville effort before sub Matty Stevens wrapped up a 4-2 triumph.
Greening said: “They came up here the day before and stayed in a hotel, whereas our players were up at 7am for work this morning and only got here an hour before kick-off, so that’s the difference in preparation for the game.
“But I thought the lads put in another really strong performance. We deservedly took the lead and we hit the post and could have had a penalty before we had them rocking at 3-2.
“Unfortunately, one mistake meant we ended up losing 4-2. Over the course of the three games, though, we have played five really good halves of football against a strong League Two team. There was only the first half at their place when we were 3-1 down that needed to be better.”
Forest Green boss David Horseman was pleased with his team’s clinical display, having failed to net in five of their previous six games, discounting the two expunged cup contests.
“It’s no secret that we need to score more goals, so I’m delighted to get four,” he declared.
“It helped having Matty Stevens back off the bench and Callum Morton on the pitch. We know they will score goals, but they’ve just not been available to us.
“I don’t actually think we created lots of chances tonight and Scarborough have given us three really tough games, but we were clinical which is what we’ve been missing for most of the season.”
Ryan Lowe described his side’s performance as “different class from start to finish” as Preston returned to winning ways with a 3-1 Championship victory at Huddersfield.
Goals from captain Alan Browne, Will Keane and Ben Whiteman earned North End a first win in five games, leaving Town still one place above the relegation zone.
“Every single individual and collectively as a team, we were fantastic,” said Lowe. “And the goals were well worked.
“When you win away from home and score three goals you would be foolish not to be happy.
“The plan was to get after them early doors. We knew we would have large parts of possession and the game plan was a lot different (to Norwich last Saturday).
“The lads executed the game plan to a tee. So, credit to them. They went out and performed.
“I have always had faith in the lads, some people may not and have doubts. That is fine.
“But what we are and what we are trying to do is obviously pleasing. And when you get a win like that the relief is massive.
“We have to believe in ourselves and believe in the group.
“We said at half-time 2-0 is a tough scoreline and I am disappointed with the goal.
“We had to get a foothold in the game again with the third one – it took the stuffing out of them.”
Huddersfield’s defeat was their first in five games and manager Darren Moore admitted: “We were not good enough.
“The performance wasn’t what we wanted or expected.
“If the performance isn’t there, you can’t expect to win games.
“It serves as a reminder for us that we cannot perform like that and expect to get anything out of the game. That is me as a manager being honest.
“We know at Huddersfield Town we can’t approach any games and be off the pace or the tempo.
“We know in order to win games and get results then we have got to get everything right.”
Moore made three changes at half-time to try and bring Town back into the game and Danny Ward’s first of the season gave the Terriers hope.
But he admitted: “We felt to get some impetus I could have made some changes after 20 minutes but I waited until half-time.
“That’s probably the most animated you have seen me to keep the team in the game and on the front foot.
“But we will look back and see how we could have put the wrongs right because we are consistently learning together as a group.”
New boss Matt Taylor says he is still learning about his players after Bristol Rovers endured some tricky second-half moments in a 4-2 FA Cup second-round victory at Crewe.
Taylor secured his first win in his third game since taking charge of the Pirates at the beginning of the month, but what looked like an easy canter to a third-round trip to Norwich faded in a jittery closing period at Gresty Road when the home side halved a four-goal deficit.
John Marquis, James Wilson and Anthony Evans all scored in the first half and Ryan Cooney’s own goal made it 4-0 before Elliott Nevitt and Aaron Rowe got the the League Two side back into the contest.
Taylor said: “It is not about me, but about the team winning games of football.
“I am learning about this group of players and the first 70 minutes was really positive.
“Crewe have had good home form, so to be 3-0 up at half-time was excellent. We have now got to work as hard as we did for the first 70 minutes of that game.
“I’ve watched a lot of footage and that is the best I’ve seen from us. We won the ball high up the pitch when we were able to get pressure on the opposition and we have got players of a certain talent that can put the ball in the back of the net.
“But while we were excellent in parts, we were not in other parts and a few things went against us which I was not happy with. We could have been 5-0 up and probably should have been with a penalty decision and the game would have been dead and buried.
“But they broke away and put the ball into the back of the net and we had a little bit of a stagger in the second half. There’s a little bit of learning we have to take from that, but considering Crewe got two goals back with a bit of time left I am pleased it didn’t materialise into something else.”
Crewe manager Lee Bell was frustrated with how his side started the game.
“We have too good a group of players to allow things like that to happen,” he said.
“There’s a lot to learn from as the goals we conceded were unacceptable and if we continue that trend then we are not going to be successful.
“Bristol sat deep and we got in behind a number of times in the first half, but the decisions we took were the wrong ones.
“We have got to get better and get better, but we have got players who are coming back to fitness and hopefully we’ll have a full squad to pick from in the next week or two.
“Our crowd have been brilliant and we wanted to make it as exciting as we could for them – I thought we could have pinched one more as well – and hopefully they won’t see too many performances like that or see us let goals like that in again.”
Rotherham’s new head coach Leam Richardson said he knows the size of the challenge he has taken on following their 2-0 defeat to West Brom.
Second-half goals from Grady Diangana and Jed Wallace were the difference as the Millers’ winless run extended to nine games stretching back to October.
Richardson, who was officially appointed on Monday to replace Matt Taylor, is looking forward to the challenge but is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing rock-bottom Rotherham.
He said: “It is exactly the same challenge as I thought it was when I came in. It’s one of the top leagues in Europe. West Brom will be right up there.
“They have had two shots on target and they have both gone in. We are in a really challenging league.
“The first goal was a mistake and a technical error, which happens. We won’t dwell on it. We have a group of staff and players who want to get better.
“The work was already done (before this match). You can only commend the effort and endeavour out there.
“There are always areas where we want to improve. Collectively we can get better.
“I have only been here minutes so it’s important that you listen and don’t only talk.
“We are where we are. We don’t look at the past.
“I’ve got ideas about how I want to play. That won’t happen overnight. It will also take one or two transfer windows.”
Early chances fell for both sides, with Darnell Furlong poking wide from a West Brom corner and then Jordan Hugill heading straight at Alex Palmer.
But the game settled into a lull leading into the break with neither goalkeeper remotely troubled.
West Brom badly needed to inject some life into their attacks in the second period and one paid off after 54 minutes.
Jayson Molumby’s cross was only partially cleared by Dexter Lembikisa and Diangana took full advantage with his low shot deflected beyond the grasp of keeper Viktor Johansson.
The Baggies then sealed the points in the final minute with Wallace’s perfect free-kick from the edge of the box.
West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan was pleased to see his side bounce back from successive losses.
He said: “I knew how tough this game would be in its competitiveness.
“We knew they would play long balls to create individual duels and challenges. We needed to be strong on the set-pieces. They are strong and they have the size.
“I watched Leeds’ game here when they drew and Swansea won here by one goal against 10 men for 70 minutes. I knew how uncomfortable the game would be.
“I think what’s important is that the team found better solutions from the situation.”
Alfreton boss Billy Heath said he was “so proud” of his players despite the non-league side bowing out of the FA Cup in a narrow 1-0 second-round replay defeat at Walsall.
Mat Sadler’s Saddlers scraped past the National League North side to nervously book a third-round trip to Southampton in January.
But Heath could not have been happier with the way his side matched up the team from 42 places above them in the English football pyramid.
He said: “We’ve had two really good games between two really honest teams.
“We gave them a real game at our place last week and in the second half tonight I actually thought we were the better team.”
Over 180 minutes of football, after last Tuesday night’s 0-0 draw, it took just one goal to separate the two sides – and Walsall got it six minutes in through Jamille Matt.
Douglas James-Taylor’s menacing run down the left opened up the non-league side’s defence, skipper Donervon Daniels’ miscued shot fell kindly and Matt kept his cool to score from close range – the injury-hit striker’s first goal of the season on only his fourth start.
“Even that one goal was a bit lucky,” said Heath. “It was just a deflection that fell kindly for them.”
But there was no further breakthrough as Alfreton keeper George Willis made solid saves to deny Brandon Comley, Tom Knowles, Ryan Stirk and a James-Taylor header, while Matt twice should have done better in one-on-ones.
In a game of 10 bookings, including one for visiting boss Heath, the visitors were starting to threaten a lot more as half-time approached. And they stepped it up after the break.
Walsall had chances to seal it a bit more comfortably as James-Taylor hit a post with a wide angled chip, while Liam Gordon went close with a left-foot shot.
But the closest either side came was a blocked shot from visiting skipper Shaun Brisley which span up over the bar – to ensure that it is the Saddlers who go to St Mary’s.
“I enjoyed it from lots and lots of perspectives,” said Walsall boss Sadler. “But especially from a team perspective.
“Those are the sort of games you really like to win when you know every player has had to contribute to get you a result.
“The work that they have had to put in to help us win the game against a very tough Alfreton team gives you a good feeling.
“And I was delighted that it was Jamille Matt who got the goal as it topped off a very good performance from him and will do him the world of good.”
Jon Dahl Tomasson saluted his Blackburn side for “digging in” to secure a 2-1 win over Bristol City.
Rovers were in control after Arnor Sigurdsson’s first goal since October finished off a well-worked 35th-minute move, and Scott Wharton’s second-half header from his brother Adam’s delivery put Rovers two up.
But City fought back and after Mark Sykes slotted home on the hour they dominated proceedings but could not find a way past the outstanding Leo Wahlstedt.
Blackburn move up to eighth and Tomasson was pleased despite admitting it was not his side’s best performance.
He said: “I think the first half we weren’t brave enough. We turned a lot of opportunities down to play forward.
“I know that Bristol were defending really well and kept the pitch compact but we should have played more forward.
“We scored an excellent goal. An extremely clinical finish, what we’ve been missing in the last weeks.
“It was a great goal and a great pass that hurt. We spoke at half-time that we need to do that more. Don’t turn those passes down.
“I think we started extremely well in the second half, scored a well-worked corner. Great to see the whole Wharton family, not only the two boys involved in that goal but also the whole family in the stand.
“When we conceded that goal, it gets a bit nervous and you can see the squad is a bit stretched. The boys were digging in. When you’re not playing that well, it’s always great to get three points.”
Bristol City are winless in four but Liam Manning said they should have taken something from the encounter.
He said: “Obviously the (first) goal knocked us a bit. We got a little emotional after that, felt sorry for ourselves.
“Then to be fair, disappointing to concede off a corner. Subs came on, we scored straight away and I thought actually the last 25-30 showed what we need to be about which is that fight, togetherness, that spirit, intensity in how we work. Just gave ourselves too big a challenge to overcome.
“I think the scoreline takes away some of the context in terms of whether they become a little more passive because they were two ahead.
“I think overall if you were to go on chances, there wasn’t a lot in it for me in terms of areas we got into, chances we created, shots on goal were quite similar, if not we had more on target I believe.
“So yes, I’m always going to sit here and say maybe we should get something out of the game.”
Goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond was the hero as Stevenage secured their place in the third round of the FA Cup with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory at Port Vale.
After a 1-1 draw at Boro last time, another 120 minutes could not separate the two sides in the replay at Vale Park as they drew 3-3 after extra time.
Ben Garrity scored either side of half-time to put Andy Crosby’s hosts two goals ahead.
He opened the scoring after just six minutes as he tapped home from close range before he hammered in a second after Alfie Devine nodded a cross into his path 10 minutes after the restart.
Harvey White’s unstoppable near-post strike pulled one back before Kane Hemmings sent the game to extra time in the sixth minute of additional time.
Ryan Loft’s first goal for the club, in the 114th minute, again seemingly sent Vale through before Nathan Thompson sent the game to penalties.
It was then a painful penalty shoot-out for the hosts as scorers Garrity and Loft saw their spot-kicks saved by an inspired Ashby-Hammond, either side of Luther Wildin smashing his over.
Steve Evans’ side now have a trip to non-league Maidstone, who are playing in the third round for the first time since they reformed in 1992.
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