FOOTBALL ROUND-UP : Three more for Thorne

Peter Thorne enhanced his reputation as one of the bargains of the First Division season with a hat-trick in Swindon's 5-2 win at West Bromwich Albion yesterday, writes Rupert Metcalf.

The £200,000 signing from Blackburn has now scored eight goals in 11 games since joining Swindon, who are striving to avoid a second successive relegation. All the goals came in the second half: Andy Hunt struck first for Albion but Thorne soon equalised. Tony Rees put the Baggies ahead again but Jan ge Fjrtoft levelled once more, before Swindon hit three goals in the last 10 minutes - one from Ty Gooden and then two from the prolific Thorne.

"It was a magnificent comeback," Swindon's player-manager, Steve McMahon, said. "We have been threatening a performance like that for a while and it was pleasing to see things come right. My aim when I came here was to ensure we could never be considered weak opposition."

Further up the table, Bruce Rioch was another happy manager after his Bolton side won 1-0 at Millwall yesterday, thanks to a late goal from John McGinlay against his old club. Wanderers climbed to second place, two points behind Tranmere with two games in hand; while a third successive defeat damaged Millwall's play-off hopes.

Only seven minutes were left when McGinlay turned superbly on to an Alan Thompson pass and slammed a 20-yard drive past Kasey Keller in the home goal, to reward Bolton's superiority. "It was a terrific, superb goal. It was always going to take a special sort of goal like that to decide it," Mick McCarthy, the Millwall manager, said.

Rioch does not intend to call for a postponement of next Saturday's game at Portsmouth - even if McGinlay is required for international duty by Scotland and Mixu Paatelainen by Finland. "We have got to get our fixtures played - there is just no vacant date for us to fit them in," he said.

Sunderland's hopes of staying away from the relegation dogfight were not helped by a 3-1 beating at Grimsby, for whom the former Blackburn and Coventry striker Steve Livingstone scored twice.