England's cricketers Andrew Strauss' men suffered a 267-run defeat to Australia in the third Test at the Waca at the weekend. The hosts only needed 50 minutes on the fourth day to take England's last five wickets.
But the England skipper was quick to douse any flames of overreaction. "Now is not a time to panic," he said.
Derby County Derby suffered their fourth consecutive Championship defeat at the weekend, a 2-1 loss to Reading. Shane Long was Derby's downfall, his two goals either side of half-time sandwiched Kris Commons' header for County. Nigel Clough, Derby's manager, remained confident of turning around the poor results. "We just want to try to keep the confidence up," he said, "keep the level of performance as it is, but cut out the silly mistakes and put away our chances."
Bath Bath fell to a 26-22 defeat to Ulster at the Rec in Heineken Cup Pool Four on Saturday. Matthew Carraro and Matt Banahan scored tries in vain for Bath and they remain third in the Pool, five points behind third-placed Ulster.
Crystal Palace While it was a wonderful weekend for Nottingham Forest, whose 3-0 victory over Palace stretched their unbeaten run at home to 29 league games, it was a woeful one for George Burley's men. Palace now sit in a precarious 22nd place in the Championship. "It was a poor performance," said Burley. "We didn't have enough penetration. At times it was too easy for Forest."
Leicester City It was a dreadful weekend for the Foxes and their furious manager. Leicester were consigned to a 3-0 defeat by Ipswich after referee Stuart Attwell deemed the pitch – which was afflicted by a blizzard – playable.
Attwell even had to declare a 17-minute second-half adjournment of the contest in order for the linesmen to clear away the snow to make the lines visible. And Leicester's boss was far from happy with Attwell's decision-making.
"You go skiing on snow, not play football," said Sven-Goran Eriksson. "Who wants to see a game in conditions like that? It was being shown worldwide but was very bad PR for football."
