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William Porterfield never learned to write a bike as a child – he was too busy playing cricket – but he is saddling up alongside his Ireland team mate Gary Wilson for a charity cycle ride the length of Ireland.Wilson, none too experienced on two wheels himself, although slightly less wobbly, devised the ride in memory of his mother, Iris, who died earlier this year. All funds raised will go to Cancer Research UK.Wilson and Porterfield plan to cycle 380 miles in five days, beginning at Mardyke CC in Cork and heading north through Kilkenny, Malahide, Armagh and Derry before finishing, assuming all goes well, in Wilson’s home city of Belfast. There will be a charity dinner at Stormont on the final evening..Both have until October to perfect their cycling skills as well as praying that the incessant wind and rain which has brought one of Ireland’s wettest springs on record will by then be a distant memory.”I was just one of those things that I never really rode a bicycle when I was young”, Porterfield said. “I guess it’s not the most difficult thing to do but I will be putting in a few miles between now and the off.”Wilson said: “It will be tough going. Cricket has, of course, kept us pretty fit but I think we’ll have to put in a lot more training before we set off.”Relatives and friends have been invited to accompany them on route and members of the public are also welcome to tag along..”It will be a long haul and I think we will be tested to the limit. But we have organised it that way in the hope that people will support us given the toughness of the task.”Route:October 9: Mardyke CC to Kilkenny.October 10: Kilkenny to Malahide CC.October 11: Malahide CC to Armagh.October 12: Armagh to Bready CC.October 13: Bready CC to Stormont.

Mohammad Amir, in his first comments on the spot-fixing affair that disgraced Pakistan cricket, has presented himself as a victim of a plot

David Hopps19-Mar-2012

Mohammad Amir, in his first comments on the spot-fixing affair that disgraced Pakistan cricket, has presented himself as a victim of a plot organised by his captain at the time, Salman Butt, and the agent, Mazhar Majeed, and pleaded for forgiveness.Amir was jailed for six months after pleading guilty at Southwark Crown Court last year to conspiracy to accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat at gambling after a plot was uncovered in a sting operation arranged by the now defunct UK Sunday tabloid, the , involving the bowling of deliberate no-balls in a Test against England in 2010.His guilty plea meant that unlike his co-conspirators, Butt and Mohammad Asif, his fellow fast bowler, he had no chance to tell his story, and indeed did not face the challenge of cross-examination. In a statement through his lawyer, he had ventured at Southwark Crown Court: “I want to apologise to all in Pakistan and all others to whom cricket is important. I did the wrong thing. I was trapped, because of my stupidity. I panicked.”Now he has expanded on that defence to the former England captain, Michael Atherton, on .”I ask everyone to forgive me,” he said. “I messed up… Thanks to Allah I have taught myself to distinguish between right and wrong. I have never done anything wrong. I was manipulated.”Butt was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, Asif was jailed for one year, and Majeed received a sentence of two years eight months. Butt and Amir subsequently lost appeals against the sentence.Amir told Sky that he did not admit guilt during an investigation by the ICC because “I could not find the courage.” Instead, he placed the blame firmly upon Butt, a man who he learned to view in the Pakistan Academy, before his international debut, as a rare example of a friendly senior player eager to encourage him. “I was so angry with Salman,” Amir said. “He took advantage of my friendship. And I used to respect him like an elder brother.”Amir was full of remorse during an hour-long interview that will bring the subject of his potential rehabilitation to the fore. He claimed that he bowled two deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test because Majeed and Butt called him to a car park at the Pakistan team hotel in London and duped him into believing that his phone conversations with an unidentified fixer called Ali, whose name had not been revealed in court, had been recorded by the ICC.After the calls from Ali, he said that the day before the Lord’s Test came the meeting with Butt and Majeed. “I received a call from Mazhar that I should go to the car park…when I got into the lift I bumped into Salman… All of a sudden it was as if someone had launched an attack. He told me that my calls with Ali had been recorded by the ICC. He told me I was trapped… I panicked so much it did not even occur to me how ridiculous it was.”He said he was taken to a car in the car park and that Majeed said, with Butt sitting silently in the back seat, “Do me a favour. Bowl two no-balls for me.”Amir recalled: “I said Bro I’m scared I can’t do it. I was churning inside, thinking about it. I cursed myself. I knew I was cheating cricket…Then I did it.”Phone records show that Ali tried to call Amir 40 times during the build-up to the Oval Test as the spot-fixing plot was being hatched: Amir returned the calls twice. However, he did give him his bank details. “I gave him my contact details because he was Salman’s friend,” he said. “…Twice he asked me if Salman had had a word with me. I was thinking what does he want from me? Let’s try to figure it out.”Amir’s rendition suggests that the spot-fixing plot was more sophisticated than previosuly thought. He claimed that Butt, who he knew as an “elder brother,” had first brought up the subject of rigging matches for financial gain during the early stages of the tour. “He was smiling and laughing,” Amir said. “I didn’t take it seriously. I said no bro. I said to him this is forbidden, leave it.”Amir’s formative years were spent in Changa Bangyaal near Rawalpindi. He was born into what is widely regarded as a poor family near Rawalpindi. In the interview, he displayed himself as more intelligent and quick-witted than many have presupposed.”I have support,” he said. “Good people are boosting my morals and giving me courage… is not a good place for anyone and nobody would be proud to be there.”He was 18, the forerunner in an exciting new crop of fast bowlers, as he displayed the form that made him Man of the Series in the England-Pakistan Tests.”One day I was on top of the world and the next it came crashing down,” he said. “… I was stupid. I should have told someone. But I didn’t know what was happening to me…I had never thought about this sort of thing. I thought it was a load of nonsense. This led to my downfall.”Amir told how after the sting he was visited by Majeed and given £1500* (approximately $2380). “He told me I was his little brother. He was buzzing with excitement like he had hit the jackpot… I did not even touch the money. I knew that he had made me do something wrong.”Amir was released from Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset on February 1 after serving half of a six-month sentence for his part in a spot-fixing scam.He returned to Pakistan more than three weeks later, arriving at the international airport in Lahore at dawn alongside his solicitor, Sajida Malik, and leaving through a side exit to evade the media.Amir’s mentor, Asif Bajwa, told ESPNcricinfo at the time. “He made a mistake and he admits it. He is a strong young boy and knows how to withstand pressure both in cricket and in life, so I believe he definitely will return. Now what required is his image building.”That process has begun, led not by the ICC, nor any other professional body but by a former England captain.*03.45 GMT, March 20: The article had stated £15,500. This has been corrected.

MatériaMais Notícias

O Palmeiras chegou contra o Vasco ao quinto jogo seguido sem sofrer gols, um feito raro em 2018. A última vez que havia conseguido a mesma sequência foi em março, no Paulista. Fortalecido, o time prepara-se para testar o novo estilo copeiro na quinta-feira, quando decide uma vaga na Copa do Brasil.

A atual sequência com a meta sem ser vazada é: Paraná (3 a 0, sob o comando do interino Wesley Carvalho, Bahia (0 a 0, com Paulo Turra), América-MG (0 a 0, na estreia de Felipão), Cerro Porteño (2 a 0) e Vasco (1 a 0). Ou seja, coincide com a troca no comando técnico.

Como comparação, no fim da passagem de Roger Machado, o Palmeiras sofreu sete gols nas últimas cinco rodadas do Brasileiro sob seu comando. Com o ex-técnico, o time chegou às cinco partidas sem levar gols entre os dias 8 e 24 de março: São Paulo (2 a 0), Ituano (3 a 0), Novorizontino (3 a 0), Novorizontino (5 a 0) e Santos (1 a 0).

Desde a chegada de Felipão, há a preocupação em tornar a equipe mais forte defensivamente e mentalmente. Exemplo disso foi o rápido papo entre o auxiliar Paulo Turra e Jean, depois da vitória sobre o Vasco, ainda no vestiário do Allianz Parque:

– Este é o espírito, Jean! Copeiro! Copeiro! – disse o membro da comissão técnica, como mostra o vídeo da TV Palmeiras.

A nova casca da equipe será importante daqui para frente, já que o Verdão parece dar preferência à Copa do Brasil e à Libertadores. No torneio internacional, o time tem boa vantagem, já que venceu o Cerro no Paraguai e pode até perder na volta, dia 30, no Allianz Parque.

Quinta, há a definição da Copa do Brasil. Com o 0 a 0 na Fonte Nova, se conseguir a inédita sexta partida sem vazado, o time precisará de apenas um gol para chegar à semifinal do torneio que venceu três vezes, duas delas com Felipão, em 1998 e 2012.

A primeira decisão desta passagem de Scolari está marcada para as 19h15, no Pacaembu, pois o Allianz Parque receberá nesta semana o show dos Tribalistas. Até agora, 15 mil ingressos foram vendidos de forma antecipada.

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Patrick Cummins will be itching to make an impression if he gets the chance, but “the baggy green is obviously the pinnacle” for him

Nitin Sundar28-Sep-2011At 18, Patrick Cummins is physically at least some way from reaching his peak as a fast bowler. It was a point Greg Chappell stressed when Cummins missed the A tour to Zimbabwe with a back strain, an injury that had its roots in Cummins’ propensity for extreme pace. However, Chappell had added that, while Cummins was a few years from attaining maturity as a bowler, it did not rule him out for Australia duties. Cummins has now got his chance earlier than most would have anticipated, and will tour South Africa with the national Twenty20 and ODI squads.When he spoke to ESPNcricinfo four days prior to the Australian squad announcement, Cummins believed his rigorous pre-season training would stand him in good stead for the challenges ahead. His work-out regimen had extensively focused on developing the musculature to sustain his brand of bowling and prevent potential breakdowns in the future.”In hindsight, there was a silver lining to missing the A tour to Zimbabwe,” Cummins, who is in India with the New South Wales squad for the Champions League, said. “It gave me the chance to have a great pre-season where I did a lot of weight training. I spent most of that time working on building my muscles, and I am getting stronger all the time.”The back strain has not affected Cummins’ mindset one bit, and he remains focused on generating the sort of pace and bounce that got him 11 wickets in the Big Bash, making him the tournament’s top wicket-taker. He has chosen his fast-bowling role models well; he looks up to Stuart Clark as a mentor, and idolises Brett Lee, another famed purveyor of pace from his state.”In a sense I was lucky that my injury wasn’t too serious [like a stress fracture], so it is still about going out there and giving it my all,” Cummins said. “I want to bowl as fast as I can. If you try to fiddle around too much with the approach or the pace, you might end up with a completely different action.”The pre-season training seemed to have paid dividends for Cummins when he bustled in for a lively spell in his Champions League debut. New South Wales managed only 135, but Cummins came out and hustled the Cape Cobras openers with real speed and bounce, on a track that was so sluggish that it had relegated Dale Steyn to a spell full of offcutters earlier in the day.One Cummins bouncer took off from a length, past an in-form Herschelle Gibbs, who weaved away in a hurry, and almost carried over the head of the keeper who had to leap up full length to parry it down. Another short ball harried Gibbs into top-edging a pull that carried into the stands behind fine-leg – hardly standard fare on Chepauk’s lifeless strip.Gibbs was mighty impressed with what he saw of him, but advised Cummins to work on his variety. On South Africa’s spicy wickets, he will be a handful even without the variations, especially in spells that last only four overs. Cummins will be itching to make an impression if he gets the chance in the shorter formats but he said “the baggy green is obviously the pinnacle”.

MatériaMais Notícias

Osmar Loss teve apenas um dia no comando do Corinthians antes de enfrentar o Millonarios, nesta quinta-feira. Após a derrota por 1 a 0 em sua estreia, o novo treinador do Timão disse que passará a ter “a real noção” do seu cargo. Ele era auxiliar desde o ano passado de Fábio Carille, que deixou o clube na noite da última terça rumo ao Al Wehda, da Arábia Saudita.

– A semana foi curta. De terça para quinta foram dois dias muito intensos. Faz com a que a gente reflita bastante, pense e projete. A partir do jogo de hoje vou começar a ter a real noção do que é comandar o Corinthians, do que é ter esse cargo. É muito diferente, não tenho dúvida. Antes tudo era discutido, mas as decisões eram do Fábio (Carille). Agora tenho que tomar a decisão, essa é a grande diferença – analisou Loss.

– É difícil para todos nós uma mudança. O fato de estar aqui dando entrevista coletiva já gera uma diferença. A gente sente a falta do Fábio, acredito que os jogadores sintam, mas não percebi nas ações dentro do jogo uma mudança que acarretasse em um outro resultado – disse o treinador.

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Em seu primeiro jogo no comando do Corinthians, Loss acredita que a equipe já teve a sua cara. Não pelo tempo como técnico, e sim porque ficou quase um ano como auxiliar.

– Eu acho que o que já vinha sendo feito tinha muito de Osmar Loss, porque é um futebol parecido que a gente pensa. O Fábio é um treinador que abria espaço para discussões. Tudo era passado pelos auxiliares. Era a forma de o Corinthians jogar. Mostramos a mesma competitividade, a forma de jogar que tem a cara do Corinthians, um time que não tolerar perder, mas isso não é do Osmar Loss, é do Corinthians – opinou.

Loss ainda admitiu incômodo com a derrota em casa, mas valorizou o desempenho do Corinthians nas três competições que disputa. O Timão avançou em primeiro de seu grupo na Libertadores, está nas quartas de final da Copa do Brasil e ocupa a terceira colocação no Brasileiro.

– Começa um novo campeonato a partir do mata-mata. Claro que se a gente analisar os resultados, não foram satisfatórios as duas derrotas em casa (para Millonarios e Independiente). Mas alcançamos nossos objetivos de terminar em primeiro no grupo, na Copa do Brasil também classificamos, e agora temos seis jogos no Brasileirão até a parada para a Copa do Mundo – declarou o treinador.

Após encerrar a fase de grupos da Libertadores, o Corinthians volta a pensar no Brasileirão. Neste domingo, às 16h, o Timão visita o Internacional, no Beira-Rio, pela sétima rodada.

Tudo sobre

CorinthiansOsmar Loss

After five defeats in seven games, Virender Sehwag was desperate for a win. And he wasn’t going to let a dodgy pitch come in his way. Sehwag’s genius demands a challenge in the limited-overs format, and particularly in the shortest version of the game. Saturday was one of those occasions when his batting was pitted against much more than the Kochi Tuskers bowling attack. On a pitch where a batsman was dismissed leg before when the ball zooted on to his boot in the second over of the game, Sehwag scripted one of the best IPL innings, making 80 off 47 deliveries. The next highest score in the match was 31.Delhi needed some inspiration to extricate themselves from the bottom of the points table, and there was no one better than Sehwag to provide it; especially after Sreesanth’s first delivery had barely risen above David Warner’s shin to strike off stump. Three deliveries later, a length ball rolled across the surface to strike Naman Ojha in front, on his shoelaces. Sehwag gritted his teeth at the non-striker’s end and decided that it was time for a different approach.”The wicket was not easy to bat on but I took the responsibility to bat at least 15-16 overs. I was hitting the ball very nicely but we were losing wickets as well so it was obvious that I had to bat a little longer,” Sehwag said. “If wickets would not have fallen, I could have gone after the bowling, but I told myself that if I stayed a little longer, then we could get to 120-130 which would be a good total on this wicket.”What he did not reveal was that he was head and shoulders above the others in his possession of the skill and determination required to survive and score on the unpredictable wicket. He had time to guide deliveries from off stump past point, loft inside out against the turn over extra cover, and pull deliveries that barely got up over deep midwicket.Mahela Jayawardene, the Kochi captain, acknowledged as much. “I think Viru batted very well, we knew he was very crucial for their innings and tried to get him but the way we bowled in the last 10 overs, I don’t think we had any control of things.”Sehwag blasted four fours and five sixes off his last 15 deliveries as Delhi took 94 off the last 7.2 overs to reach 157, which was way above par on the low wicket. “130-140 probably would have been a very competitive score for us to chase down, but 160 was a bit tough,” Jayawardene said. “We did not bowl in good areas at all; we were too full, we didn’t hit the deck in the last ten overs but we bowled well in the first ten overs. Viru batted well. I can’t take anything away from him, but 130 would have been a good score for us to chase down.”Jayawardene said that on such a wicket, the key was to play as straight as possible, something that was easier said than done as Parthiv Patel’s dismissal showed. “You are never sure when the low bounce is going to come so I think the best way is to bat without thinking about whether it is going to stay low. If it comes low, you can’t control it but just try and play straight. It’s tough but we have to try and adjust to these conditions all around, batsmen and bowlers, and try to fight it out.”Sehwag, who said that 120 would have been a par total, was delighted with what Delhi managed, and told his bowlers to keep it in good areas and let the wicket do the rest. “Maybe one ball would keep low or another would stop. It is difficult to chase when the ball is keeping low. All my bowlers did a fantastic job. Whenever I brought Morne [Morkel] in, he took a wicket. You can’t expect more from your bowlers when they run in every time and take wickets.”Delhi could not have expected more from their captain as well, who mastered the conditions that felled everyone else, including batsmen like Jayawardene and Brad Hodge.

MatériaMais Notícias

O que era suspeita se confirmou. O atacante Paulinho está fora do time do Vasco na decisão do Campeonato Carioca diante do Botafogo, domingo, no Maracanã. O jogador sofreu uma fratura no cotovelo esquerdo e um exame na noite desta quinta-feira confirmará o prazo para o retorno aos gramados. Paulinho, inclusive, retornou ao Rio de Janeiro mais cedo para o tratamento.

A informação foi confirmada por Marcos Teixeira, médico do Vasco, responsável por acompanhar a delegação na viagem para Minas Gerais, onde na última quarta-feira a equipe enfrentou o Cruzeiro pela segunda rodada do grupo 5 da Conmebol Libertadores. Na partida, Paulinho foi substituído no segundo tempo depois da lesão, em um lance forte. O cotovelo foi colocado no lugar ainda na ambulância dentro do Mineirão.

– Paulinho está fora da decisão. Há chance de cirurgia, vamos avaliar se houve além da luxação uma lesão no ligamento. Fará um exame nesta quinta-feira que será um divisor de águas, o qual decidirá o prazo para que retorne a campo – destacou o médico do Cruz-Maltino ainda no desembarque à tarde.

Internamente, os médicos do Vasco acreditam que Paulinho ficará fora ao menos durante três semanas. No fim da noite desta quinta-feira, a necessidade de cirurgia foi confirmada pelo clube. Ainda não há divulgação de um prazo para o seu retorno aos gramados.

Sem Paulinho, os jogadores se reapresentam na manhã desta sexta-feira, no CT das Vargens, para dar início na preparação de olho no duelo com o Botafogo. O time comandado pelo técnico Zé Ricardo tem a vantagem do empate para ser campeão do Estadual após ter vencido o jogo de ida.

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Brendon McCullum scored a blistering double-century as New Zealand Cricket XI dominated the opening day of the three-day tour game against the Pakistanis at Cobham Oval (New) in Whagarei

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jan-2011NZC XI 342 for 4 (McCullum 206, McIntosh 51) v Pakistanis
ScorecardBrendon McCullum picked up his second double century in two months•AFPBrendon McCullum scored a blistering double-century as New Zealand Cricket XI dominated the opening day of the three-day tour game against the Pakistanis at Cobham Oval (New) in Whangarei. It was his first match since missing much of the HRV Cup and the Twenty20s against Pakistan due to a back problem.The Pakistani bowlers were put to the sword as McCullum and Tim McIntosh put on 162 for the first wicket, after New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat. McCullum was the aggressor, scoring at close to a run a ball, as the Pakistani opening bowlers, Sohail Tanvir and Tanvir Ahmed struggled to contain him. Tanvir was particularly expensive, going at more than six runs an over in his 13 overs. “We [McCullum and McIntosh] are still feeling out our partnership,” McCullum, who has moved up the order to opener in Tests from the tour of India late last year, said. “We’ve had a couple of good ones, a couple not so good, so any opportunity to bank up a partnership at the top of the order has to be taken.”The Pakistanis finally had some success when Abdur Rehman dismissed McIntosh for 51. However McCullum then combined with BJ Watling to add 86 for second wicket to further torment the Pakistani bowlers. McCullum was finally dismissed in the 82nd over by Umar Gul after he made 206 off 218 balls.After a day in which not much went his side’s way, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said: “”It was hard work, a hard day for the bowlers, but that’s how it goes in test cricket. So it was good preparation.” New Zealand ended the day on 342 for 4 with James Franklin and Dean Brownlie at the crease.

If Anil Kumble and his former India team-mates win the Karnataka State Cricket Association elections, it will usher in a new era of sport administration in the state

Sharda Ugra and Sidharth Monga20-Nov-2010

February 7, 1999 is a day neither Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath nor umpire AV Jayaprakash will forget. It was when Kumble became only the second man to take all 10 wickets in a Test innings, Srinath was his teammate and Jayaprakash stood at Kumble’s end. Twelve years on, November 21, 2010 will be another day that neither Kumble, Srinath nor Jayaprakash are likely to forget.The two ex-cricketers find themselves opposite the umpire in one of the most closely-watched state cricket elections in India in a long while. Kumble is running for president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) against the incumbent, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, the former Maharaja of Mysore. Jayaprakash is no longer a neutral observer – he is up against Srinath for the post of secretary.Jayaprakash, though, does not think of himself as being in opposition to the cricketers, telling ESPNcricinfo, “I am not contesting against them. We are contesting together. It is just for the members to decide.”Of his battle for the post of secretary he says, “Of course it is one post and both of us are there, but whoever wins, we will work as a team, for the association. There is nothing like against or anything. We have nothing against each other.”The elections, Jayaprakash said, was a family matter. “It would be difficult if I had any enmity against them, or if they had any enmity against me. We are members of a family, somebody has to run it, and that’s what we have to decide. It’s like Sree [Srinath] and me are batting together, it is for the members to take one of us out. Then after the innings, we come back and work as a team.”Apart from such camaraderie, this will be a very different Indian state cricket association election. Three of Karnataka’s best cricketers – Venkatesh Prasad is contesting for the vice-president’s post – are in it as a team and another, Rahul Dravid, has voiced his support for the trio Earlier this week, just before the third Test versus New Zealand, Dravid flew down to Bangalore from Hyderabad to speak for his campaigning teammates.On Friday night, Wadiyar’s most prominent ally, business tycoon Vijay Mallya, turned up on the other side, somewhat like a safety car on a Formula 1 track, to keep the weight of the cricketers’ influence in the election up front. He declared his support for Kumble’s team, saying, “Cricketers are the biggest stakeholders in Karnataka cricket, and I think people who can take Karnataka cricket forward are those who have [cricketing] blood in their veins … We need cricketing people to give it a cricketing framework and I believe this team [Kumble’s] can do that.”What makes this election even more significant is the willingness of a cricketer of Kumble’s stature to put his reputation on the line instead of accepting a role from the current administration, a strategy the Maharaja’s group tried to pursue by entering into discussions with the cricketers. On Wednesday, S Krishna Murthy, one of the candidates for vice-president, told the media, “It is a fallacy to think that only cricketers can run administration. We do need people with financial and engineering skills too… (We) have had discussions with Kumble and Srinath and we told them to join our team, learn how administration works and then take over after a year. We did not want elections, but unfortunately the discussions fell through.”Kumble, Srinath and Prasad have all held administrative posts with the BCCI and the ICC. Kumble was named the chairman of the National Cricket Academy in September, while Srinath has been an ICC match referee since 2006. Prasad, currently the bowling coach with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, has coached the India Under-17 team and the Karnataka Ranji team and was the bowling coach of the national side for two years. He has an administration management degree from the Asian Cricket Council, and is now on assignment with the ACC to help promote the game and develop talent in countries that do not have a cricket playing tradition.The stalled discussions between the two rival groups is a reflection of the drive of Karnataka’s most contemporary cricket stalwarts to establish a new order. “We are serious about this. This is about cricket first. Recreation and everything else is second,” Srinath said. “The aim is to improve the quality of cricket in Karnataka, to continue to throw up world class talent.”Their show of commitment was strong enough to lead to KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel standing down from an association he controlled for over a decade. Wadiyar’s men will want to prove that their loyalties within the KSCA are stronger, and therefore able to counter the pull of big names, and with Mallya, big business as well.Despite Jayaprakash’s claim that the elections are a minor family affair, both sides have spent the last two weeks actively campaigning. It has involved dozens of personal meetings and hundreds of phone calls, amongst the 229 clubs and 1200 individual members who make up the KSCA vote bank. The results of one of the most anticipated of Indian cricket elections should be out on the night of November 21.

Tuesday evening sees Nottingham Forest take on Championship leaders Fulham.

Fulham’s future was sealed last week when a 3-0 win against Preston North End confirmed that they would be playing Premier League football next season.

The Cottagers need six points to wrap up the title, though, Forest’s own ambition of promotion may forbid them of all three points.

On the chalkboard

Steve Cooper would have been ecstatic with the return of the club’s second-highest goal-scorer this season when he made his return in early April against Blackpool.

The Nottingham boss has eased Lewis Grabban back into action since then, with the Jamaican international making his first start in almost two months in the 1-0 defeat against Luton Town.

Grabban made a 15-minute cameo in Forest’s last game against Peterborough and was forced off in the 89th minute with an injury blow, with both Cooper and the 34-year-old Grabban hoping it is not serious.

Zero-to-hero

The timing of Sam Surridge’s resurgence to the starting XI has coincided brilliantly for Cooper.

The 23-year-old, who has been described as “clinical” by a reporter, has bagged five goals from just 11 shots for the Reds in all competitions.

His minutes per goal metric is very similar to Grabban’s 173 MPG, evidencing his decisiveness and suitability as an adequate replacement for the 34-year-old with a stat of 170 MPG.

Surridge has gone from a bit-part player to a starter over the last two games, with goals against West Brom and Peterborough in back-to-back starts allowing him to show Cooper exactly what he is about.

With three penalties awarded this season for the £12.6k-per-week earner’s efforts in the opposition’s box, he brings more unpredictability to Forest.

Grabban’s latest setback only strengthens Surridge’s case as a starter for however long the Jamaica international is out for.

He will be hoping to get another return in Tuesday’s game against Fulham and put a delay on their title celebrations in the hopes of boosting Nottingham Forest’s promotion ambitions.

In other news: Huge blow: Forest now suffer gutting injury setback, Cooper will be fuming…