Stirring Sturridge

Football round-up

DEAN STURRIDGE scored twice at the Baseball Ground as Derby County beat Reading 3-0 to go eight points clear at the top of the Endsleigh First Division. Coping better with very muddy conditions, the visitors had the better of a scrappy first half. But the Rams gave Reading a battering in the second half and as soon as Sturridge grabbed his first, three minutes after the interval, they looked the only winners. They are now 8-11 favourites to win the division.

Huddersfield moved into second place after a 1-0 win at Watford and Stoke went third beating Leicester by the same score. A first win for new Luton manager Lennie Lawrence as the bottom club beat Southend 3-1 but still no joy for Mark McGhee's Wolves as West Brom ended their run of 11 consecutive defeats with a goalless draw at the Hawthorns. Sounded rivetting.

Adhesive gloves and peaked caps off to Alan Knight of Portsmouth, who passed the record, set by Chelsea's Peter Bonetti, of 600 games in goal for one club. He celebrated with a 3-1 win over Grimsby.

In the Second Division, only Burnley in the top 10 won but the most remarkable result was Bournemouth's 5-4 victory at Peterborough. The Cherries were trailing 4-3 with six minutes remaining at London Road, a ground where they had scored only once in the previous 10 visits. Then Steve Jones netted twice. Burnley's win, 4-3 at home to Stockport, was almost as dramatic in a match in which they trailed three times.

Third Division leaders Gillingham beat Lincoln 2-0, Leo Fortune-West claiming his 13th goal of the season, and Preston went second after beating Plymouth 3-2 at Deepdale thanks to a last- minute winner by Mark Saunders. Hereford's Steve White limbered up for the FA Cup replay at Spurs by blasting four in a 5-2 win against Cambridge.

In Scotland, wee Whitehall Welfare won their Tennents Scottish Cup second- round replay at Fraserburgh. Celtic and an estimated pounds 70,000 windfall are next. "We've done it," their ebullient manager Dave Smith said, "and now we are looking forward to the biggest fortnight anybody connected with the club can remember." Keith beat Deveronvale and look forward to a similar dividend from their match against Rangers.

The week's ecumenical discussion of the nature of Hell found an echo in the God-fearing parish of football with goals yesterday for Ian Monk (Morecambe), Neil Pope (Kettering), David Pew (Arbroath) and Steve Kirk (Falkirk), not to mention Swansea City's Christian Edwards.

And finally, the week ended on a high note for at least one Venables. David of that ilk scored twice for Stevenage Borough as they beat Halifax 2-0 to continue their pursuit of Macclesfield at the top of the GM Vauxhall Conference.