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Ranting Mourinho cries foul
SOCCER: Jose Mourinho had a rant yesterday, which is probably not front-page news, but it was entertaining in its own way. Mourinho firstly complained about a "conspiracy" to deprive Chelsea of penalties, while Manchester United can allegedly foul all-comers in their penalty area and not be punished. p

Donegal can thank McIver for finding a final solution
GAELIC GAMES: Well something had to give. Two teams with lamentable records in Croke Park came to town yesterday for a battle between two Davids, staged while the supposed Goliaths of the game rest up for high summer. p

Jacquelin reigns in Shanghai downpour
GOLF: Raphael Jacquelin credited good old-fashioned hard work for the hot April streak which culminated in his second European Tour title at the Asian Open yesterday. p

Soccer

Chelsea fail to show spark
Newcastle Utd, 0 Chelsea 0: There are days when it is impossible to tell the tension from the tedium. Any excitement at St James' Park was all in the mind of a home crowd responding to their side's forcefulness and a Chelsea support fantasising about a late winner to reduce Manchester United's lead to a single point. Those visitors did not quite get their way, with substitute Joe Cole sliding a Paulo Ferreira cross wide in stoppage-time. p
Kuyt hits form at the right time
Liverpool 2, Wigan Athletic 0: In Vancouver this evening an ice hockey team owned by Tom Hicks will confront a side almost purchased by Roman Abramovich some four years ago. Hicks's Dallas Stars have done well even to force a deciding seventh game against the Canucks in their Western Conference play-off series. p
United beginning to lose their way
Manchester Utd, 1 Middlesbrough 1: Manchester United are still in pole position to prevent Jose Mourinho from making it a hat-trick of Premiership titles but they have picked a lousy time to begin to lose their way. Five points have been dropped in the past three games and the sense of foreboding at Old Trafford was so acute on Saturday that it was as if the club had surrendered any advantage. p
Inter wrap up Italian title, AC rest their big names
Inter Milan duly wrapped up their 15th Italian title yesterday when beating Siena 2-1 on an afternoon when their closest rivals, AS Roma, lost 2-1 away to Atalanta. With five games remaining, Inter have an unbeatable 16-point advantage over second-placed Roma. p
Old school ties putting Arsenal in a bind
On the Premiership: Given Hollywood's predilection for remakes, perhaps it is time for some Anglophile director to turn his attention to the unappreciated 1939 thriller, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. p
James sets record for clean sheets
Aston Villa 0, Portsmouth 0: David James created Premiership history as he earned Portsmouth a valuable point in their quest to qualify for the Uefa Cup. The England goalkeeper set a record of Premiership clean sheets - 142 - and surpassed previous holder David Seaman as Portsmouth climbed above Tottenham into eighth spot. p
Superior Arsenal suckered
Tottenham 2, Arsenal 2: Arsenal would be wise to learn some Americanisms in case Stan Kroenke comes up with a share offer which finds their pukka English board abandoning Elgar for Sousa. One that comes to mind is about never giving a sucker an even break, a habit which has plagued Arsenal all season and saw them held to a draw at Tottenham in a game they should have won by a mile. p
PlanetFootball
A hard actor to follow: When you're christened Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Aveiro you really have to end up as a footballer, rather than, say, an accountant or a chiropodist, because it's a seriously proper footballer's name. p
St Patrick's power to the summit
League of Ireland Premier Division: Sligo Rovers 0, St Patrick's Athletic 4 St Patrick's Athletic powered their way to outright leadership, on goal difference, of the Premier Division at the Showgrounds on Saturday. p
Doolin happy with hand he is dealt
Setanta Cup Semi-final: The League of Ireland's two form sides meet in the first of the Setanta Sports Cup semi-finals this evening (kick-off 8.05), with Drogheda United travelling to Richmond Park to take on St Patrick's Athletic for a place in this season's final. p

Gaelic Games

Delight for Donegal, relief for GAA
National Football League Division One Final: Donegal 0-13, Mayo 0-10 After a week or so of hand wringing about the competition and its allure, yesterday's Allianz NFL final at Croke Park ended on a feel-good vibe with Donegal exuberantly celebrating the county's first win in this competition with as heart-felt a lap of honour as any league final has seen in a long time. p
'New era' celebrated in song
After all the talk of Croke Park not being the right place for the National Football League final it was hard to imagine Donegal winning their first such title anywhere else. In the end the players were singing pitchside with supporters in a good, old-fashioned Croke Park celebration. And that, reckoned manager Brian McIver, was the way it should be. p
Roscommon dominate throughout
National Football League Division Two Semi-finals: Roscommon 2-13, Cavan 0-14 Two first-half goals gave Roscommon the platform to go on and defeat Cavan at Croke Park on Saturday. The quality of Roscommon's football was in stark contrast to Cavan's somewhat patchy performance. p
Strong Meath make their chances count
Meath 3-10, Monaghan 0-12: Greater physical strength and the ability to capitalise on their scoring chances saw Meath book their place in the Division Two final at the expense of a wasteful Monaghan in Croke Park on Saturday. p
Cork see off late Armagh surge to reach another final
Under-21 Football All-Ireland Semi-finals: Cork 0-13, Armagh 0-12 Cork became the first team since Dublin (2002 and '03) to reach back-to-back All-Ireland under-21 finals when they held off a determined Armagh side at Portlaoise yesterday. p
Laois pull away for a finish
Laois 0-11, Mayo 0-6: Laois qualified for the All-Ireland under-21 final following their deserved win over reigning champions Mayo in Roscommon on Saturday. p
Omagh pressure proves relentless
Colleges Football All-Ireland Final: Omagh CBS 0-16, Tralee CBS 0-7 You come to these colleges finals half expecting a classic - and the hurling duly delivered - but with Tyrone and Kerry teams involved in the football we should have known better. In the end it was like a reprise of those mostly unglamorous occasions of late between their senior county equivalents. p
Power holds nerve to seal late victory
Colleges Hurling All-Ireland Final: DLS Waterford 0-13, Kilkenny CBS 1-9 An injury-time free from Stephen Power gave De La Salle, Waterford, their first senior colleges All-Ireland hurling title at Croke Park yesterday. p
Wexford coast to victory
Camogie National League: Wexford were impressive yesterday at Ballinasloe in Division One A when defeating Galway 6-8 to 1-5 with Michelle Hearn the hat-trick heroine. The visitors led 5-4 to 0-2 at the interval with goals from Kate Kelly and Una Lacey and three from Hearn, Galway's points coming from Deirdre Burke and Ann Marie Hayes. p
Cork's long winning run halted
Women's Football NFL Semi-finals: Cork's 32-match winning streak came to an end at the hands of a revitalised Mayo in a sensational Suzuki NFL Division One semi-final in Banagher on Saturday. p
GAA Digest
CARLOW FOOTBALL: Carlow have revealed John Kearns as the county's new senior football manager. p

Rugby

Wasps' gain could mean Ashton loss
Rugby European Cup semi-finals: London Wasps 30, Northampton 13 Life does not get any easier for Brian Ashton. After the weekend's European semi-finals he now has just days to sift through his contact books in an attempt to patch together a squad to tour South Africa. p
Remorseless Tigers take debate
Leicester Tigers 33, Llanelli 17: Leicester found their running shoes at a ground where they had previously not managed to break out of walking pace and in so doing reached not just their third Heineken European Cup final this decade. They also achieved a unique quadruple for an English club by recording victories over all four Welsh regions in the same season. p
O'Boyles make it Garryowen's day
All-Ireland League Round-up: In the 17 years of the AIB All-Ireland League, and the 10 years of the top-four format, there's surely never been a last day quite like it. p
New Zealand keep supply line open
Under-19 World Cup Final: New Zealand 31, South Africa 7 Their senior team are hot favourites to win the Rugby World Cup in France later this year and on Saturday night the New Zealand Under-19 side demonstrated that the supply line to the All Blacks is in the rudest of health by winning the IRB Under-19 World Championship with a stunning 31-7 defeat of South Africa in the final at Ravenhill. p
Rousing Irish finish
Ireland 34, Scotland 0: Ireland's disappointment in finishing in ninth place as the host nation in the IRB Under-19 World Championships was at least eased somewhat by a rousing final flourish with the rout of Scotland. p
Planet Rugby
Clearance finds Merc: We have word that during the St Mary's College game against UL Bohemians in the Under-20 Cup a wind-assisted clearance found more than touch. The kicker, a nephew, it is said, of the former Garryowen player Willie Sexton, put the ball into the carpark, where it was stopped by the windscreen, now shattered, of a Mercedes Benz belonging to the kicker's father. p

Racing

Wells springs a surprise
Mores Wells sprung a minor surprise as he accounted for leading Epsom Derby contender Macarthur in the P W McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown yesterday. p

Golf

Hoey back on track after play-off victory
Michael Hoey rounded off a gutsy, battling final round performance with a brilliant sudden-death play-off birdie to win the European Challenge Tour's Tessali-Metaponto Open di Puglia e Basilicata . p

Other

Ulster sides bow out
HOCKEY: All-Ireland Club Championships Well, well. No Ulster teams in the semi-finals of the National Club Championships next weekend in Belfield. That is a major surprise as Glenanne, Pembroke, Cork C of I and Cork Harlequins graduated from the weekend's tournament to qualify for next weekend's finale. p
Champions make progress
HOCKEY: The tweaking of the format of the All Ireland Club Championships in the last couple of seasons was, largely, done with the intention of making the series more competitive and giving hockey's lesser lights a chance to upset the form. p
O'Sullivan starts off again in right frame of mind
SNOOKER: World Championship Ronnie O'Sullivan swept imperiously to an 8-1 overnight lead over Ding Junhui in their best-of-19-frames first-round match in the world championship as the 20-year-old Chinese player - already winner of three world ranking titles - was outplayed on his debut in Sheffield. p
Zhou makes rivals sit upand take notice
ATHLETICS: London Marathon Zhou Chunxiu claimed a first victory for China in the women's race and Martin Lel ensured Kenya's men maintained their dominance at the London Marathon yesterday. p
Perry takes third title ina row
SQUASH: Irish Open Madeline Perry won her third straight Cannon Kirk Irish Open at Fitzwilliam to the delight of the home crowd, beating New Zealander Jacklyn Hawkes in a one-sided final. Perry, the world number 10, put in a rock-solid display to take the match 3-0 in 35 minutes. p
Tiger image pales when you think of Ali
LockerRoom: A few weeks ago on this patch of grass we criticised Tiger Woods for settling for being a knacky golfer and über corporate shill when he could have been so much more. p
Elliott rolls back the years to win
Sports Digest/CYCLING: Former top British professional Malcolm Elliott proved he still has what it takes at 45 years of age when he won the Murphy and Gunn-sponsored Shay Elliott Memorial trophy yesterday, writes Shane Stokes . p
Generation gap yawns but snooker snooze-fest averted
Mary Hannigan TV View p

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