Football: ELEVEN ASIDES

Sharp shooters: The fastest goal in England yesterday was scored, after 1min and 34sec, by Andy Turner of Rotherham. They beat Shrewsbury 4-0. In the Premiership, Aston Villa's Dion Dublin took five minutes to find the net as the Midlanders beat Middlesbrough 1-0.

Room for one more? While 44,886 fans watched Liverpool beat Arsenal 2- 0 and move into eighth place in the Premiership, all of 172 supporters cheered Caersws to their 3-0 win over Flexsys Cefn Druids.

Bye-bye: Portsmouth's Andy Awford was sent off in the 22nd minute of his team's 6-0 defeat by Barnsley. "I don't talk about farces," said their manager, Alan Ball. He might have said: You cannot afford to do that. Meanwhile, there was no love lost in the Scottish Third Division 0-0 draw between East Fife and Montrose. Fife's Graeme Love was given his marching orders for foul language.

Happy beginnings: Derby's Esteban Fuertes - who was finally granted a work permit last week - scored on his debut for Jim Smith's side. It was a similar story just along the road at Nottingham Forest, as Ian Wright found the net on his month's loan debut.

Hey big scorer: As well as Barnsley beating Portsmouth 6-0, Huddersfield won 7-1 against Crystal Palace, and Barnet secured a 6-3 victory over York - a total of 23 goals in three matches - or 10 goals more than the Premiership managed yesterday.

Natural born striker: Stephane Guivarc'h, who flopped at Newcastle United and Glasgow Rangers, netted one of his team's two goals against Le Havre last night - his fourth in five games since returning to Burgundy.

Those were the days: "The sad thing is these days we always end up talking about referees. I can remember the days when we didn't talk about them." Jim Smith, the Derby manager, giving away his age after his team's 1- 0 win.

Kop that: "After the Middlesbrough defeat I was branded a villain but neither was I a zero then or am I a hero now - I'm just a man working hard with my team to get it right." Gerard Houllier basking in the glory of a 2-0 win.

A hard day's work? "He was put on the bench, refused to be a substitute, and decided to go home." Danny Wilson, the Sheffield Wednesday manager, about Benito Carbone.

What a surprise: "The overall performance was nothing short of diabolical," said Walter Smith of the referee, Andy D'Urso. Or was he referring to his team's performance?

Remember me? Michael Owen made his comeback; coming on with three minutes to go at Anfield yesterday.

Alex Hayes