Football

Dennis Booth has quit as the No 2 to John Ward, the Bristol Rovers manager, and is to team up with Brian Horton at Huddersfield Town, the club which ended Rovers' promotion hopes last season when beating them in the Second Division play-off final.

Gillingham, saved from expulsion from the Endsleigh League, have named Tony Pulis, 37, as their new manager. Pulis, who made 16 appearances for Gillingham in 1989-90, was dismissed 10 months ago as manager of Bournemouth after two years in charge.

Birmingham City have signed Richard Forsyth, Kidderminster Harriers' 24-year-old England semi-professional international midfielder, in a pounds 50,000 deal.

The Football Association of Singapore yesterday defended its life ban on the Australian Abbas Saad. Saad was banned from the game after being convicted last month of conspiring to fix matches when he played for Singapore in Premier League and Malaysia Cup matches in 1994. The FAS said it had received many appeals to lift the ban on the 27-year-old Lebanese-born Australian.