Barnsley Striker Reuben Noble-Lazarus aged 15 years and 45 days became the Football League’s youngest player when he came on in the 84th minute of Barnsley’s 3-0 defeat at Portman Road last night.

Noble-Lazarus beat the record which was held by Bradford Park Avenue’s Albert Geldard in 1929 and equalled by Wrexham’s Ken Roberts in 1951, both were 15 years and 158 days.

In the last 20 years, Millwall’s Moses Ashikodi was the youngest player to make his Football League debut. He played in 2003, aged 15 years and 240 days.

Matthew Etherington, now with Premier League side West Ham, was 15 years and 262 days when he appeared for Peterborough in 1997.

The youngest player to ever appear in a first-class game was Eammon Collins who appeared for Blackpool in the Anglo-Scottish Cup against Kilmarnock on the 9th September 1980 at the tender age of 14 years and 323 days.

Dimitar Berbatov’s first two goals for Manchester United helped secure a 3-0 win over AaB Aalborg in Champions League Group E on Tuesday.

The Bulgarian striker pounced twice in the second half after Wayne Rooney had put the holders ahead in the 22nd minute to give United their first win of the campaign.

United were hit by an injury blow to Paul Scholes who is likely to be sidelined for 10 weeks with knee ligament damage.

Villarreal are level at the top of the group with United on four points after a 1-0 win at home to Celtic with a second half goal from midfielder Marcos Senna. Celtic and Aalborg have a point apiece.

Juventus had to come from two goals down in Minsk with BATE holding on for their first-ever Champions League point. Vincenzo Iaquinta scored both Juve goals after the Belarus side went two up in 23 minutes through Sergei Kryvets and Igor Stasevich.

In the other Group H match, Real Madrid kept their 100 percent record intact with a 2-1 win at UEFA Cup holders Zenit St Petersburg, Ruud van Nistelrooy netting the 31st-minute winner.

Real, who went ahead with a fourth-minute own goal by Tomas Hubocan, the second fastest own-goal ever in the Champions League behind Scott Minto’s for Benfica, before Portugal’s Danny equalised, lead the group on six points after two games. Juventus are second with four points, BATE have one and Zenit none.

Arsenal crushed Porto 4-0 in Group G with a double strikes from Robin Van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor. The other group match between Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev ended scoreless.

Arsenal have four points from two games, one point more than Porto. Dynamo have two points and Fenerbahce one.

Bayern Munich top Group F despite being held 1-1 at home by Olympique Lyon. The French side took the lead when Bayern’s Martin Demichelis headed into his own net in the 25th minute, but the German champions claimed a crucial point when Ze Roberto headed home after the break.

Bayern have four points with Lyon and Fiorentina, held 0-0 at home by Steaua Bucharest, two points behind. The Romanians have one point.

Hull City produced one of the biggest shocks in the history of the Premier Division when they came back from 1-0 behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium. In their first season in the top flight Hull battled back from going behind to a Paul McShane own goal to win, the first goal already a contender for the goal of the season when Geovanni hit an absolute beauty into the top corner from 35 yards, just three minutes later Daniel Cousin headed in a second to send the visiting fans into dreamworld.

Chelsea remained on top with a workman like performance over Stoke. Bosingwa scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-0 win, while Anelka added a second late on.

Liverpool kept their unbeaten run going with two goals from Spanish striker Fernando Torres giving them a 2-0 win at close rivals Everton. Tim Cahill was dramatically sent off late in the game.

Manchester United were awarded a dubious penalty by Rob Styles when Ronaldo went down under a challenge. The Portuguese winger picked himself up to score the resulting kick and then set up Wayne Rooney for the second to move them up to 9th place.

Aston Villa move up into third with a 2-1 win over Sunderland, Cisse opened the scoring for Sunderland before Ashley Young and Carew gave the home side the victory.

Big money spending Manchester City took their side to Wigan and were once again defeated this time 2-1 by Wigan.

Amr Zaki calmly scored a penalty to ensure Wigan grabbed all three points as they moved up to 10th position.  Luis Antonio Valencia had given Wigan the lead with a fine strike, before Vincent Kompany equalised soon after.

Stand-in boss Joe Kinnear failed to stop the rot as Newcastle crashed 2-1 at home to Blackburn. Rovers raced into the lead through Christopher Samba and Roque Santa Cruz while a Michael Owen penalty gave the Toon Army false hope.

Andy Johnson was sent off for two first-half yellow cards at Craven Cottage where Fulham were beaten 2-1 by West Ham United. The Hammers made it two wins out of two for new boss Gianfranco Zola.

Tomorrow night Jose Mourinho will attempt to stay undefeated in his 100th consecutive home league match as a manager when his Inter Milan team take on Lecce at the San Siro.

Not since Fary Faye scored the winner for Beira Mar against Porto to give them a 3-2 win in February 2002 has a team led by Mourinho been beaten at home. In that match present Chelsea stars Carvalho and Deco were sent off.

Since that time teams led by Mourinho has scored 219 goals and let in 51, while winning 83 times and drawing 16.

In that time he managed Porto in 38 games, winning 36 of them, Chelsea in 60 games winning 46 and Inter Milan in one, a home win over Catania 2-1.

Mourinho’s former club Chelsea still remain undefeated at Stamford Bridge in 85 league games  (62 wins, 23 draws) which started in February 2004, during the reign of Claudio Raineri, and has encompassed Mourinho, Avram Grant and Phil Scolari.

Tribunal find in favour of Blades over Tevez

Hull sign Stelios

Gerry Francis set to join Stoke

Maradona set to be handed rule at Inter

Zico poised to team up with Rivaldo in Uzbekistan.

Williams and Sinnott leave their posts

The Football League has ruled out replaying Saturday’s controversial game between Watford and Reading.

Assistant referee Nigel Bannister mistakenly awarded Reading’s first goal in the 2-2 draw after the ball had gone wide of the post.

An independent tribunal, set up to look into the Carlos Tevez affair at West Ham and Sheffield United’s relegation from the Premier League, has found against the Hammers who could be forced to pay the Blades £30m in compensation.

Hull City have signed former Bolton midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos until the end of the season.

Former Tottenham manager Gerry Francis is in talks with Stoke to join as a part-time coach.

Serie A champions Inter Milan are considering hiring former Argentina great Diego Maradona as a consultant

Zico is poised to be named coach of Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor,  the former Brazil international, who left Turkey’s Fenerbahce in June, is set to join up with compatriot Rivaldo in Tashkent as a successor to Mirdjalal Kasimov.

Geraint Williams has left Colchester United after just over two years as manager while Lee Sinnott has parted company with Port Vale after less than a year in charge.

On Sunday Manchester City confirmed that the takeover of the club would take place on the 23rd September and then proceeded to wallop Portsmouth 6-0 in front of their new chairman.

Now dubbed the ‘Richest Club in the World’ City had six different scorers as they ran the Pompey defence ragged to move up into fifth place.

Manchester United had seven booked and could face a £25K fine from the FA after their 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. United took the lead through Ji-Sung Park but Kalou equalised with ten minutes to go to move Chelsea to second behind rivals Arsenal and leave United stuck in fifteenth with five points from four games.

Liverpool thought they had scored early only to see Gerrard’s goal chalked out by the referee for offside and then despite having a couple of double chances they couldn’t score and the game ended all square at 0-0.

Arsenal moved to the top of the league after coming back from a goal down at Bolton to win 3-1.

Gianfranco Zola saw his managerial career at Upton Park get off to a great start as they beat managerless Newcastle 3-1 to leave the St James’ Park team in the bottom three.

Tottenham remain rooted to the bottom after a 0-0 draw at home. Hull City slipped a couple of places after a 2-2 draw at Everton, where Everton were 2-0 after 50 minutes and Sunderland moved into eighth after beating local rivals Middlesbrough 2-0, Stuart Downing missing his second penalty of the season.

Aston Villa are in 4th place after beating local rivals West Brom 2-1 on Sunday. Carew and Agbonlahor scoring the goals to take O’Neill’s side into the Champions League spot.

Blackburn beat Fulham 1-0 in the other game in the division.

Just when I thought I’d seen most things in the game on Saturday we saw one of the most bizzare decisions ever with Reading being awarded a goal after the ball went at least three yards wide of the post. Reading have said they will replay the game while Watford seem happy to take the point!

Elsewhere in the Championship Birmingham suffered their first defeat when they lost 1-0 to Blackpool at St Andrews, while Black Country rivals Wolverhampton beat Preston 3-1 to leap above them with a Iwelumo hat-trick before he saw red as did Wolverhampton ‘keeper Wayne Hennessey.

Mike Astley is obviously suffering from a type of ‘Life on Mars’ scenario with Kenny Dalglish the latest name being put into the frame for the vacant Newcastle job.

Chelsea easy winners over Bordeaux

Big Shock as Cluj beat Roma

Barnes takes over as coach of his country

Liverpool got their Champions League campaign off to a good start with a 2-1 win away in Marseille. After falling behind to a Cana goal on 23 minutes, Steven Gerrard scored with a dipping shot and then added a second from a twice-taken penalty. Gerrard’s brace took his total to 99 goals for Liverpool.

Chelsea had an easier game against Bordeaux, winning 4-0 at Stamford Bridge, with goals from Lampard, Joe Cole, Malouda and Nicolas Anelka.

Romanian side CFR Cluj-Napoca pulled off one of the biggest Champions League shocks in recent memory with a 2-1 victory away at Roma on the opening day of the 2008-09 season.

Cluj, who were playing third tier Romanian football seven years ago fell behind when Christian Panucci headed in after 17 minutes, but on their Champions League debut came back with a double from Argentinean midfielder Juan Emanuel Culio.

Former Liverpool and England star John Barnes has been named as the new national coach of Jamaica. Barnes takes over from Rene Simoes, who was sacked as technical director last week.

Weekend Premier Round-Up

Poor defending by Manchester United allowed Liverpool to come back from a goal down to beat their arch-rivals 2-1 at Anfield.

Substitute Ryan Babel scoring the winner in front of the Kop in the 78th minute after a mistake by Ryan Giggs had allowed Javier Mascherano to cross for Kuyt who knocked the ball on to his Dutch collegue.

United had started well and took the lead when debutant Dimitar Berbatov set up Carlos Tevez in just the third minute but Liverpool equalised when a howler from Edwin Van Der Sar led to Wes Brown scoring an own goal.

United’s miserable afternoon was completed when Vidic received his second yellow card for a foul on Xabi Alonso.

Robinho got his Manchester City career off to a flying start when he converted a free-kick to open the score at the Eastlands in the clash of the rich clubs.

responsed quickly with a Ricardo Carvalho strike before well-taken second half goals from Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka secured a deserved victory for the Blues.

John Terry was shown a straight red card for a clumsy challenge on Jo although it could be disputed whether he was the last man. (Chelsea have appealed against the sending off)

Hull City added to the mounting woes on Tyneside with a 1-2 victory at a turbulent St. James Park which saw protests made by the Newcastle fans before, during and after the game.

Marlon King opened the scoring for the visitors with a 34th minute penalty after Nicky Butt fouled Peter Halmosi.

Their lead was doubled when King netted again in the 55th minute but Xisco netted on his debut to set up a nervy finish for the visitors.

Arsenal warmed up for their midweek trip to Kiev with a four nil win over Blackburn at Ewood Park. Adebayor bagged a hat-trick for the Gunners with Robin van Persie opening the scoring for the visitors after good work from Theo Walcott.

Portsmouth trailed to a 24th minute Mido goal at Fratton Park before Jermain Defoe rescued them with a double, Defoe equalised from a Crouch pass and the England striker struck again with a minute to spare, with his eleventh goal in sixteen games for Pompey.

Wigan and Sunderland drew 1-1 with Amr Zaki picking up his fifth goal of the season to earn his side a point after Titus Bramble had scored an own goal.

Fulham secured a 2-1 win over Bolton to make this their best start in five seasons. Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora scored the goals in the first half before a Kevin Davies goal for Bolton caused the home side some alarm but they held on for all three points.

West Bromwich Albion secured their first Premier League victory of the season as Gianfranco Zola watched his new team for the first time.

In an entertaining first half, West Ham side shared four goals with the Baggies at the Hawthorns.

James Morrison scored the first with a third minute header but Mark Noble struck one back for the Hammers in the 29th minute. The London side then took the lead with a Lucas Neil goal but Roman Bednar converted a penalty to leave honours even at the interval. Chris Brunt was the Baggies hero as he fired in the winner to send the home crowd wild.

Tim Cahill celebrated his return to Everton’s starting line-up with the winner in a breathless 3-2 win against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.

Everton looked like they would cruise to victory when goals either side of half-time from Yakubu and Victor Anichebe put them firmly in the driving seat, but Stoke showed grit, and aided by the potent weapon of Rory Delap’s long throw they fought back and restored parity through Seyi Olofinjana and a Phil Jagielka own goal.

Tottenham and Aston Villa will play on Monday evening.

Theo Walcott scored a stunning hat-trick for England as they produced a remarkable performance to beat Croatia 4-1 and go top of their World Cup qualifying group. Wayne Rooney also scored as England became the first team ever to beat the hosts in a competitive match in Zagreb.

The result leaves England comfortably top of Group 6 with six points from two games, having already beaten Andorra in their opening fixture – and leaves them as strong favourites to reach the World Cup Finals in South Africa in 2010.

Croatia did have defender Robert Kovac sent off for a 51st minute challenge on Joe Cole that left the Chelsea man with a terrible head wound.

Scotland skipper Steve McManus got an unwanted card on his birthday when he was shown one of the red variety against Iceland tonight. The Scots still managed to hold out to win 2-1 to register their first win of the campaign. Goals for  Kirk Broadfoot on his debut and  James McFadyen, who scored the rebound after seeing his penalty saved.

Wales went down 2-1 in Russia. New Spurs striker Roman Pavlyuchenko scored for Russia. Gareth Bale missing a penalty when it was 0-0. After Croatia’s defeat Russia now hold the record for consecutive victories at home in competitive matches, 27. The all-time record belongs to Russia and the former Soviet Union who remained unbeaten in 68 home qualification matches between 1957 and 1998.

Steve Evans created a piece of post-war history when he replaced Edwards in the 77th minute, with the Wrexham defender becoming the first Non League player to represent Wales for 78 years.

The Republic of Ireland could only get a goalless draw in Montenegro while rivals Italy won 2-0 against Georgia with Daniele De Rossis scoring both.

Northern Ireland held the Czech Republic to a goalless draw at Windsor Park.

A Miroslav Klose hat-trick saved Germany from a shock defeat at the hands of Finland. Klose equalised in the 83rd minute to give Germany the draw in a six-goal thriller.

David Villa scored a brace as Spain beat Armenia 4-0, while in the same group Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Estonia 7-0. Turkey and Belgium drew 1-1

Denmark scored two in the last two minutes to beat Portugal 3-2 in Portugal in Group one. Sweden beat Hungary 2-1 and Albania beat Malta 3-0.

In Group two Alphonse Leweck will be a national hero after scoring with four minutes to go to give Luxembourg a 2-1 win over Switzerland in Switzerland,

Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka scored for France as they beat Serbia 2-1. Austria who beat France on Saturday lost to Lithuania, who lead the group 2-0, while Romania had Sorin Ghionea sent-off but still beat the Faroe Islands 1-0.

Bilic confident Croatia can shatter England’s World Cup dreams

Trappatoni names unchanged team

Zola set for Hammers Job

Fowler signs pay as you play deal

Hamburg open cemetery for fans

Catania fans banned from San Siro this weekend

Rio Ferdinand has been passed fit for England’s World Cup qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb tonight (Wednesday).

Slaven Bilic has warned England his players would prove even more formidable in tonight’s World Cup qualifier than when they shattered their Euro 2008 dreams.

Croatia are unbeaten in 34 competitive games at home.

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trappatoni has named an unchanged starting line-up for tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Montenegro.

West Ham want Gianfranco Zola to be their new manager and expect to agree a deal with the ex-Chelsea forward by Thursday

Blackburn have agreed to sign Robbie Fowler on a three-month pay-as-you-play deal, with the striker in line to face Arsenal at Ewood Park this weekend.

Hamburg have become the first football club in Europe to open their very own cemetery where fans can be buried next to the club’s stadium. The German side’s HSV Arena stadium is clearly visible from the cemetery, which can cater for up to 500 fans.

Catania fans will be banned from travelling to the San Siro on Saturday for their team’s away Serie A game at Internazionale.