Blackpool caretaker head coach Stephen Dobbie refused to rule himself out of the running to be the club’s permanent boss after guiding them to a excellent 1-0 victory over Norwich on the final day of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.
The Seasiders went into the game at Carrow Road with nothing but pride to play for after being relegated in their previous match, but turned in a spirited display against their mid-table opponents, with Morgan Rogers’ effort after 15 minutes enough to settle the issue.
It completed a record of three wins and three defeats since Dobbie was put in temporary charge following Mick McCarthy’s departure and the Scot is now waiting on developments behind the scenes as the Tangerines mull over the identity of their next head coach.
When asked if he was interested in the job, Dobbie replied: “It would be wrong of me to say ‘no’, but I have got to wait to see what happens above me – there are things that need to be sorted out before anything happens on that.
“All I can say at the moment is that I loved playing for this club and I have enjoyed the honour of being in charge and being in the dugout – even though it was obviously a big disappointment when we were relegated.
“We’ll just have to see on that one but it was pleasing to finish the season with a win.
“Obviously everyone felt down after relegation but we had fans travelling down today and we worked very hard to make sure we were ready for the game.
“It was a strong team, one I thought could win the game and the players were excellent out there. They deserve a lot of credit for how they played. No way were they going to slack off just because we were down.”
An entertaining encounter was settled by a well-taken effort from on-loan Manchester City youngster Rogers, his first for the club.
With just 15 minutes on the clock, Rogers latched on to a well-judged through ball from Josh Bowler and produced a deft chip to beat the advancing Angus Gunn.
Norwich had their chances to grab at least a draw, with Teemu Pukki at the centre of most of their best moments in what was his final appearance for the Canaries after scoring 88 goals in 209 appearances.
He went close on a number of occasions but was denied by a mixture of poor finishing and good saves from Daniel Grimshaw as the visitors came away with the points.
Norwich head coach David Wagner was pleased to see Pukki get a rousing farewell, even though the goal he craved would not come as they finished the season 13th in the table.
“I thought he got the reception he deserved before, during and after the game,” he said. “It was a very emotional day for him but he dealt with it well and had many opportunities to score – it’s just a shame he didn’t take one.
“Of course he will be a big miss for Norwich City.
“I know all the numbers, but the club will also lose a reliable, honest and down-to-earth individual and I wish Teemu and his family all the best for the future. He will go down in Norwich’s history as one of the club’s stand-out strikers.”
As for the game, Wagner added: “We started well enough but we weren’t clinical or ruthless enough and the second half wasn’t nearly as good as the first.
“We need to make sure we don’t have another season like this and I am excited at the challenge that lies ahead.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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