Little's week goes from bad to worse

Nationwide Round-Up

John Wile, the West Bromwich Albion chief executive, was forced to issue an apology to an Ipswich Town steward on Saturday after he was injured when trying to separate two feuding Albion players during their post-match warm-down.

John Wile, the West Bromwich Albion chief executive, was forced to issue an apology to an Ipswich Town steward on Saturday after he was injured when trying to separate two feuding Albion players during their post-match warm-down.

"The police will be taking no further action and no one has been charged," Wile said. "Internal club disciplinary action will be taken against the players." The incident capped a bad week for the Albion manager, Brian Little, who had watched his side go down 3-1 at Portman Road. With Kevin Kilbane sold to Sunderland without Little's knowledge and chairman Tony Hale having resigned the day before Saturday's game, Litle watched Ipswich win with goals from David Johnson, James Scowcroft and Neil Midgley. To add insult to injury, Larus Sigurdsson and Matt Carbon were both sent off, with the only consolation coming from Fabian De Freitas's late strike.

Barnsley, who beat Walsall 3-2, still trail the league leaders, Huddersfield Town, by seven points after Steve Bruce's side secured a 3-1 victory over Grimsby at the McAlpine Stadium. "We certainly didn't set the place on fire," Bruce said. "But the players dug in when they were not performing well and ground out a result."

Manchester City remain hot on Huddersfield's heels as goals from Jamie Pollock, Robert Taylor and Shaun Goater completed a 3-0 win against bottom-placed Swindon and ended a run of three successive league defeats.

Stockport remain in the thick of the play-off hunt as Tony Dinning's goal after sixty minutes was enough to beat Bolton, while the Nottingham Forest striker Stern John eased the pressure on the under-fire manager David Platt with the only goal of the game against Crewe at the City Ground.