The side who finished sixth in the Championship have not won promotion through the play-offs since Blackpool managed it in 2010. Derby County have spent the intervening years finding new and more elaborate ways not to go up, but they took a big step towards the final with a 1-0 win over Fulham in the first leg of their semi.

It was a solid performance from Derby, defending Cameron Jerome’s first-half header as if the very future of the club depended on it. They played the second half as if they were the away team, defending superbly as Fulham tried again and again to break their resolve, to no avail.

McCutchen admitted things might get emotional when he faces the Pirates for the first time: “If I cry, I cry. Big whoop.”

Rudolph, who was selected in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft by Pittsburgh, is expected to be Roethlisberger’s backup this season.

Goal summarizes the biggest transfer and trade talk involving the LA Galaxy, New York City FC, Toronto FC and the biggest clubs in North America

• Championship play-off semi-final first leg updates
• Boro v Villa given added poignancy by Percovich return
  
• And you can email John here or tweet @JohnBrewin_

7.09pm BST

Can what happened before tell us what to expect?
Last time these team met, Fulham won 2-1 at Pride Park in March, with goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ryan Sessegnon. Back in November, at Craven Cottage, it was a 1-1 draw, with Oliver Norwood scoring for Fulham and Matej Vydra for the Rams.

7.04pm BST

And on the other play-off, played tomorrow evening, here’s Louise Taylor.

Related: Middlesbrough v Aston Villa given added poignancy by Percovich return

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Kyle Dubas as the team’s new general manager on Friday.

Woods’ playing partners, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, didn’t make it to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.

LONDON: Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was charged with violating UEFA’s code of conduct on Friday for comments he made about referee Michael Oliver following his team’s Champions League quarter-final defeat by Real Madrid last month.

The post Buffon hit with UEFA charge after rant at referee appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

LONDON: Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte defended his record over the past two seasons and said on Friday that he had succeeded in building a platform for success at the London club.

The Italian took over after a season in which Chelsea finished 10th and led the team to the Premier League title in his first campaign in charge.

That success has not been repeated in the current campaign and though Chelsea have reached the FA Cup final, the club is likely to miss out on a place in the top four in their final league match of the season at Newcastle United on Sunday.

“For sure, we worked two years and worked very hard to try to build something, to create a base,” Conte told a news conference. “I think we did this.

“I’m the last person to judge the moment of the club. My task is to work, to do my job in the best possible way, and to work very hard with this team, with these players for the fans. Other people will judge our position.”

Fifth-placed Chelsea must beat Newcastle and hope Liverpool lose to Brighton and Hove Albion to secure Champions League football, but Conte said failing to finish in the top four was always a risk given the competition in England.

“Don’t forget two years ago, Chelsea ended the season 10th and not in the FA Cup final, not in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, and they were eliminated in the last 16 against PSG in the Champions League. It can happen,” he added.

“But last season after a 10th place we won the league. It was difficult. We worked very hard, but we won it… Now, probably, you can finish fifth and start with a bit of an advantage compared to when you finish 10th.”

Conte’s future is under a cloud given the team’s failure to defend their title. British media have also reported that he has a strained relationship with members of the club’s hierarchy. The Italian, however, said he paid no attention to speculation.

“I always said to you, my only thought is to do my job in the best possible way. To work very hard with my players,” he added.

“This is my only worry. Since the start of the first game, I think… the time I start listening to the speculation about me, this is the moment I start to be worried.”

The post Conte defends Chelsea record ahead of final league game appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

As Britain’s summer sport continues its slump, the narrative and brevity of its US cousin increases in appeal

A sporting series of astonishing power, passion, tension and intensity was played out in New York this week. Baseball’s great traditional rivals, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, played three games that each swung violently. Finally – while Britain slept on Friday morning – the Sox, having lost two, clung on breathlessly for a consolation win in the third.

This was not the World Series, or anything like it. It was, in theory, a routine part of the regular fixture list barely one-fifth of the way through the season. These teams will reconvene at intervals throughout the long, customarily hot, summer. It just happens that they are currently the two most successful, as well as most resonant, teams in baseball. And, after this week’s events, they are tied for the lead in their division, the American League East, way ahead of all rivals.