Football: Webb resigns over player's reprieve

DAVE WEBB is waiting to learn the Brentford chairman's response to his resignation as manager on a matter of principle.

Webb, who took the job during the summer and has just steered the side through a 10-match unbeaten run, felt his position was undermined yesterday when the Football League Appeals Commission ordered the club to reinstate a player he had sacked for disciplinary reasons. Micky Bennett was dismissed after fracturing the jaw of his team-mate, Joe Allon, at the training ground.

Webb reacted to the decision by immediately tendering his resignation and is now waiting to see if his chairman, Martin Lange, who is on holiday, will accept it.

'The decision by the FLAC has left me extremely uncertain as to the level of management control they will allow,' the former Chelsea player and manager said.

Crystal Palace are interested in brigning back to London the former Arsenal midfielder David Rocastle, who has struggled to establish himself at Leeds United since joining them in August last year for pounds 2m.

That sum would cover the debt that Bournemouth's directors will be discussing with Lloyds Bank representatives on Friday. Tony Pulis, the Second Divison club's manager, revealed in a prepared statement issued by the chairman, Norman Hayward, that he and the coaching staff had been paid for the first time in six weeks.

Hayward, whose club has been banned from signing players because of unpaid transfer fee instalments, inherited the debt when the took over, he said. Although the board fear the imposition of liquidators, a spokesman for Lloyds denied there was any immediate danger to the club.

John Fashanu will learn two days before Christmas whether he will face Football Association charges when an FA commission of inquiry meets to watch the video of the collision between his elbow and Gary Mabbutt's face.

The talk in Sheffield was of postponements. United want to rearrange their Premiership match against Blackburn on 15 January and the Sheffield derby a week later because Jostein Flo and Roger Nilsen will be involved in Norway's games against the United States and Mexico. Wednesday's Roland Nilsson has agreed to delay his return to Sweden until the end of the season.

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