Football: Whittingham on target

GUY WHITTINGHAM continued his crusade to break down the Newcastle-West Ham monopoly at the top of the First Division last night.

The 28-year-old striker netted twice, lifting his tally to 39 goals, as Portsmouth won 2-0 at Tranmere and moved three points closer to the leading duo who both lost. While Newcastle, the leaders, were beaten 1-0 at Watford, West Ham lost by the same margin at Oxford, Andy Melville settling it five minutes from the end.

Leicester kept in touch with the leading group by winning 3-1 at Cambridge. Julian Joachim, fresh from the World Youth Cup in Australia, opened the scoring for Leicester, and the visitors' clinched victory via two David Lowe goals in the last 10 minutes.

Andy Saville, who earlier in the season went 1,227 minutes without scoring during Hartlepool's record barren run, needed only 16 to open his account for Birmingham following his pounds 155,000 move earlier this week. Saville later scored again as his new employers won 3-0 at home to Barnsley.

Gary Blissett ended Brentford's 810-minute goalless spell with the winner at Grimsby. At The Valley, Wolves broke the deadlock through Robbie Dennison in the 87th minute and then had Paul Birch sent off for arguing with a linesman. Southend's goalkeeper Paul Sansome was sent off during the 4-0 defeat at Notts County for handling outside the area.

The leading trio in the Second Division all won, and fifth-placed Bolton had a 1-0 success at Burnley. The Third Division leaders, Cardiff, lost 1- 0 at Bury, but Northampton and Gillingham both won to push Halifax down to the bottom.