Lions face FA probe into coin throwing

The Football Association will liaise with Millwall as it investigates the latest incident of coin throwing at the New Den.

Millwall's First Division fixture against Birmingham City last month was blighted when missiles were thrown by supporters. During the second half of the Lions' 1-0 win over West Bromwich on Tuesday night, the assistant referee Mike Russell was hit on the shoulder by a five-pence piece thrown from the East Stand.

The match referee Paul Armstrong ordered the club to make a public announcement to its supporters after the incident and the FA received his report on the match yesterday.

An FA spokesman said: "It has been reported by the referee. A coin was thrown at one of the assistant referees.

"We have received an initial report from Millwall. We will be in contact with them to discuss what measures will be taken.

"We will always look at referee's report and see what he has said. We will then go back to the club and see what security provisions have been put in place and ascertain what steps the club will take to identify the perpetrators."

Meanwhile, the Millwall manager Mark McGhee is targetting the second automatic promotion place currently occupied by his former club, Wolves. That could mean the promotion place being decided by the "six-pointer" between the two sides on 5 April.

McGhee said: "We have got 12 games to go and we are in with a chance, which is more than you can say for some other teams below us. We have to rely on Wolves dropping a couple of points but we have still got to play them. From that point of view it is not impossible that we might get automatic promotion, but it is a tall order."

Despite the 1-0 defeat, the West Bromwich manager Gary Megson has not given up hope of his own push for automatic promotion. He said: "Time will tell what effect this has on our promotion hopes but they have got a good result against us.

"I don't know how many times we have lost over the past few weeks but we have made it tighter for ourselves and we should know now what it takes to win games.

"No one at this club has been saying that we would get automatic promotion, but Millwall said this was a must-win game for them if they were going to have a chance of second spot. And if they have got that chance then I would say we have. We will have to see what happens to Wolves and [Manchester] City but no-one seems to be able to take points off them except us, and we have already played them twice."

The Watford manager Gianluca Vialli defended the Hornets' poor showing during their goalless draw with mid-table Wimbledon. Vialli claimed: "You need to take one step backwards before you can take two forward. There is no doubt we can do better but the team is continuing to improve."

The Wimbledon manager Terry Burton insisted the Dons could still make the play-offs despite falling further behind in the race for the top six. He said: "We have spoken about the play-offs and, although we are not close to it, we are still not out of it. We just need to turn some of our draws to wins."

Burton has told Tottenham to come back with a serious offer if they want to sign Lionel Morgan. Spurs made a £750,000 bid for the 18-year-old at the start of this month. "Just because we are short of money doesn't mean we have to let players go on the cheap," Burton said. "He is very talented and we would need adequate compensation for losing him."

The Norwich City midfielder Phil Mulryne has rejected a "substantial" new contract offer from the club and could now leave on a free transfer in the summer. The Norwich manager Nigel Worthington may decide to sell the Northern Ireland international before then should a club come in with a suitable offer.

Bradford City hope to sign the Leicester striker Arnar Gunnlaugsson by the weekend. The Iceland international is out of contract with the Foxes in the summer and the Bantams are looking to offer the player a contract until the end of the season. City will move for Everton's out-of-favour forward Danny Cadamarteri if the deal for Gunnlaugsson collapses.

The Football League has ruled that Queens Park Rangers' transfer embargo will remain in place until they come out of administration. But their Ian Holloway will be allowed to apply for dispensation should he need to replace injured or sold players.

The Loftus Road chief executive David Davies, who had appealed for the embargo to be lifted, said: "Although we are disappointed with the overall decision, I understand that the league are trying to deter clubs from becoming insolvent and where clubs have taken the step to seek protection from the courts, they should focus all of their attention on coming out of administration."

Brentford have completed the signing of Mark Peters from Southampton. The 19-year-old striker has signed a two-and-a-half year contract, with the Saints receiving a percentage of any future sell-on fee.

The striker Mark Allott has joined Chesterfield from Oldham Athletic on a free transfer, while Portsmouth have taken the Canadian international goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld on trial for a week.