Football: Newcastle sign Cole for 1.75m pounds

RUSSELL OSMAN was handed the job of Bristol City manager yesterday and immediately repaid the club's directors by bringing in pounds 1.75m through the sale of Andrew Cole, their England Under- 21 striker, to Newcastle.

While Cole was departing to further his reputation, a big name from football's past, Big Mal, was also leaving the West Country wondering if Bristol was to be his final port of call in a colourful and successful career. Following the appointment of John Ward, Malcolm Allison has quit as the Bristol Rovers coach.

Kevin Keegan has wanted to take Cole to Newcastle since the start of the season and finally succeeded with a club-record fee in time for the player to make his debut in today's promotion game at fourth-placed Swindon.

It brings Keegan's spending this week alone to a staggering pounds 3m and he said: 'The chairman and the board have given me tremendous support. It's a privilege to be at the front of a club which is so ambitious and so different from the one I played for 10 years ago. This is probably the most important signing we have made.'

Arsenal will collect around pounds 400,000 from the deal under the terms of Cole's pounds 500,000 move to Ashton Gate.

There will be around pounds 1m for Osman, the 33-year-old former England defender, to spend to try and keep City in the First Division and he immediately invested pounds 75,000 on the Ipswich midfielder, Glenn Pennyfather.

Ward resigned from Third Division York to take charge of Rovers who wanted Allison to stay in charge for today's game with Wolves. Instead the former Manchester City and Crystal Palace chief, who had only just returned after a week off with a chest problem, decided to go immediately.

'That's football,' Allison said. 'I've enjoyed my time at Rovers, they have some good players and I hope they get out of trouble.'

Rovers first tried to lure Ward last November after Dennis Rofe's resignation and have succeeded now with an offer 'impossible to turn down' according to the man who has also worked at Watford and Aston Villa as assistant manager to Graham Taylor.

Ward's assistant at York, Alan Little, brother of the Leicester boss, Brian, will be in charge for the game at Barnet today and for the rest of the season.

Play was held up on two occasions in last night's Third Division match at Colchester, which Cardiff won 4-2 to go top of the table, when around 100 Welsh fans invaded the pitch, causing a five-minute delay. The incident follows a pitch invasion near the end of Sunday's FA Cup tie at Maine Road between Manchester City and Tottenham.