West Bromwich Albion have completed the signing of the England goalkeeper Scott Carson from Liverpool. Carson has signed a four-year deal, for an initial fee of £3.25m which could rise by £500,000, depending on "performance-related criteria". The signing is Albion's seventh since they gained promotion in May and brings their summer spending to £13.75m. Roman Bednar, Luke Moore, Doheon Kim, Graham Dorrans, Gianni Zuiverloon and Marek Cech have already been signed. The 22-year-old Carson, who played 35 Premier League games for Aston Villa last season, is second on the all-time list of England Under-21 appearance-makers, with 29, and was in the team that reached the 2007 European Championship semi-finals. Sven-Goran Eriksson, then the England manager, named him in his 2006 World Cup squad and he made two B international appearances before being given his senior debut in a 1-0 win over Austria in November 2007. Five days later, with the regular No 1 Paul Robinson out of form, Carson started the make-or-break Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia at Wembley which England lost 3-2, confirming their absence from this summer's finals.

The mother of two young boys killed in a motorway crash has returned to court to see a Plymouth Argyle footballer charged with causing their deaths.

Footballer Luke McCormick was charged today with causing the deaths of two young boys by dangerous driving.

It is the West Yorkshire town that cannot stay out of the spotlight: the scene of the successful manhunt for the missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, one-time home of the 7 July bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, and the place where the Yorkshire Ripper was questioned after his arrest almost 30 years ago.

While Harry Redknapp confirmed he wants "two or three signings" and Portsmouth's chief executive, Peter Storrie, said the manager would be given the funds to "strengthen the team" there were indications that the FA Cup winners will have to fight to hold on to Lassana Diarra and Niko Kranjcar, their best two young players.

A spectacular long-range strike from the full-back Tommy Spurr lifted Sheffield Wednesday out of the Championship relegation zone last night, but they remain in deep trouble after being held to a seventh consecutive draw. Spurr drove in a precious goal nine minutes from time after Plymouth led for virtually the whole game up to then.

Both managers described this Home Park meeting of play-off hopefuls as a must-win match and at the close Paul Sturrock's Plymouth lost out. Alan Pardew's 10-man Charlton rekindled their slender chance of breaking into the top six by ending a six-match sequence without a win against the odds and an Argyle side bereft of imagination and flair on the day.

They have yet to appear in the top flight in their 103-year history, but Hull City, the only side in the top six of the Championship to win yesterday, might break that mould as they moved to within two points of the automatic promotion places with a 2-0 win at hapless Leicester City.

Rory Fallon is a man of God who takes life very seriously, so he did not appreciate the barbed half-time comments from the Bristol City manager Gary Johnson.

The ageing legs may mean surging runs are a thing of the past but for Gary Speed, 38 years young, there is time yet to show Sheffield United's fans a little more of what made him a Premier League success with Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers, following his move to Bramall Lane in the January transfer window.

For two clubs brought together by the ebb and flow of the promotion race, this was always going to be an instructive test of belief. And it soon became apparent that both were thoroughly alarmed by their sudden proximity: the hosts having subsided from first to fourth, while four successive wins had catapulted the visitors to dizzy new heights in fifth.

It was a defiant message that came across from Nigel Pearson, the new Southampton manager, following this defeat last night, his first game since taking over at the club. Two first-half goals, from Peter Halmosi and Jim Paterson, consigned Southampton's supporters to yet more misery and the prospect of being dragged into a relegation scrap.

Len Boyd was the staunch and steely skipper of the most successful Birmingham City side in the club's 132-year history. Under his uplifting leadership the Blues won the Second Division championship in 1955, then a year later came sixth in the top flight – their highest ever League finish – and reached the FA Cup final.

The Atletico Madrid coach, Javier Aguirre, is confident his side can reach the last 16 of the Uefa Cup despite their 1-0 defeat at Bolton.