Cobblers poised to give Albion the boot

A misunderstanding between West Bromwich goalkeeper Stuart Naylor and defender Daryl Burgess at the Hawthorns meant that the First Division club again face an early exit from the Coca-Cola Cup at the hands of Third Division opposition following their 1-1 draw with Northampton in the first round last night.

Albion, who were knocked out last season by Hereford, took the lead through a Bob Taylor header before gifting an equaliser to Lee Colkin.

Birmingham made hard work of beating Plymouth at St Andrews through the only goal of the game by Gary Cooper. And by the same score Bury gained a small measure of revenge over Chesterfield for their Third Division play-off final defeat 11 weeks ago, thanks to a goal from Phil Stant.

A Brett Angell header gave Peter Reid's Sunderland the lead at Preston, only for defender Bryan Kidd to curl in an equaliser. And Fulham made it seven goals in four days with a 3-0 win against Brighton at Craven Cottage. Michael Mison added to his brace in Saturday's 4-2 victory over Mansfield and newcomers Mike Conroy and Lee Barkus completed the scoring.

They were not the only new boys on target - Dennis Bergkamp, Arsenal's pounds 7.5m Dutch signing, scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win against non-League St Albans City.