Bryan Redpath confident for play-offs after Gloucester run riot against Sale

There was a long period on Saturday afternoon, with Leicester trailing to London Irish, when it looked as if they might have been going back to Welford Road, and the scene of a recent 41-41 thriller.

Around the Kingsholm fringes the rather bizarre consensus, given that Leicester might be stumbling a little but they are not yet exactly allowing all-comers up unmanned ladders into their fortress, was that that might be better than going to Vicarage Road, where they lost 35-12 only a fortnight ago.

“I’m happy going there,” head coach Bryan Redpath said of the trip to Vicarage Road after beating Sale 68-17. “We under-performed last time, but this will be the fourth time we’ve played them this season and we’ve won two [home wins in the League and the LV Cup] and they’ve won one.”

It will certainly be a clash of styles. As Gloucester demonstrated here with 10 sumptuous tries, they seek a game with width.

And you would do with Charlie Sharples and James Simpson-Daniel on the wings, and the pace of Henry Trinder at outside centre. That trio bagged six tries between them on Saturday, with a hat-trick for Sharples. And the all looked fantastically sharp, all the while shepherded by the muscularity of Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu inside.

But Saracens will be all pragmatism and efficiency. And they will defend manically, something Sale conspicuously did not do here, as they conceded seven second-half tries.

“That’s an indication of how far this club has dropped,” said executive director Steve Diamond, “Thirteen or 14 of those players won’t be at Sale next season and we didn’t come down here with the right mindset.

"I don’t expect to come down here and get a hiding like that again. I’ll bite my lip, get out of here and have a month off. Then we’ll regroup and stop this spiral downwards. It is possible to turn things round quickly. The team and coaching staff are already in place for next season.”

Charlie Hodgson will not be with Sale, though, joining Saracens next season, and it was rather sad to see him bow out in such a supine team performance. “He has been a stalwart of the club and didn’t deserve that,” said Diamond.

Hodgson tried and tried, as he always does. Indeed he and half-back partner Dwayne Peel were excellent in an opening quarter when Sale did at least ask some questions.

Gloucester were a little sloppy, but then their scrummage and driving line-out found their fire, and Sale simply did not fancy it. It was one-way traffic after Rory Lawson’s opening try.

There was even time for sentiment. Also bowing out for Gloucester was Hodgson’s opposite number, Nicky Robinson. His excellent passing game was again a huge factor in the ever-present threat of Gloucester’s back-line, and he even crossed himself before departing to a moving ovation.

He is off to Wasps, and Gloucester might miss him more than they realise.

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Craig Kieswetter's second century of the one-day season maintains Somerset's unbeaten start

Somerset maintained their unbeaten start to the Clydesdale Bank 40 thanks to Craig Kieswetter’s second century of the one-day season.

Having bowled out Gloucestershire off the final ball of their allotted 40 overs, last season’s runners-up eased to a comfortable eight-wicket win, with six overs to spare.

It was another competent performance from Somerset who, having won the toss, bowled and batted with great purpose on a wicket that was significantly less helpful than the Championship track had been during the week.

Former Gloucestershire seamer Steve Kirby picked up the early wicket of Ian Cockbain, but was over shadowed, thereafter, by Devon-born youngsters Lewis Gregory and Adam Dibble.

Gregory, 18, who took his first Championship wicket against Worcestershire on Wednesday, bowled with pace and accuracy, on his way to career best figures of 4-27.

Dibble, two years his senior, bowled with equal menace and weighed in with 3-52 from 10 overs. For Gloucestershire, it was a mixed bag.

Captain Alex Gidman and New Zealander Kane Williamson added 117 for the second wicket with the former passing 50 from 66 balls.

However, having looked in decent shape at 135-1, in the 26th over, the visitors lost their last nine wickets for just 78.

There was even a wicket for Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis, who has been far from convincing since arriving in Taunton as an early season replacement for Murali Kartik.

In reply, openers Marcus Trescothick and Kieswetter made short shrift of the Gloucestershire attack.

Together, they passed 50 inside seven overs, with Kieswetter adding to his century against Nottinghamshire and unbeaten 95 against Glamorgan, with an equally impressive unbeaten 108.

Trescothick, struck six fours in reaching his 50, from as many balls, but departed, two balls later, trapped leg before by Richard Dawson.

Still, Kieswetter, who looks an odds-on bet to win a place in England’s one-day squad this summer, continued where his skipper left off.

Despite being dropped on 39 and 85, he passed 100 from 101 balls, and with Nick Compton, duly took Somerset to a fourth successive victory of the campaign.

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Manchester City face hard grind to secure Champions League spot following defeat to Everton

For all the money spent by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a talent for making life unnecessarily complicated remains and the next few days will be far more arduous following this defeat.

Victory at Goodison Park would have enabled Roberto Mancini to rest the legs of his key men against Tottenham tomorrow night, with the FA Cup final against Stoke to come on Saturday.

But after surrendering a lead that revealed a worrying weakness for crosses, which will have been noted by Tony Pulis, who could not even venture to the toilet without being grilled by supporters about Matthew Etherington’s hamstring, the visit of Spurs retains important.

It may be a little removed from the Champions League decider that was the penultimate match of last season but there will be no shortage of tension at Eastlands.

Mancini plans to bring Carlos Tévez, sidelined with a hamstring problem since April 11, on for up to half an hour against Harry Redknapp’s side but even that may be thrown into question if the game is not going City’s way.

The City manager, who was involved in an ugly exchange with Phil Neville after the final whistle, maintains that a six-point lead over Tottenham with a vastly superior goal difference and three games remaining means that fourth place is not a major concern.

“I am not worried but I am disappointed because, if we had won this game, [the race for fourth] was finished and we could have prepared very well for the final but now we are thinking only of Tottenham,” Mancini said. But the nature of City’s collapse under Everton’s second-half onslaught – they conceded both goals from headers – will give Rory Delap and Stoke’s own list of potential NBA recruits plenty of encouragement.

Nigel de Jong, who has been nursing a hip problem, is one who might have been spared tomorrow night but the Dutchman is certain that 35 woeful minutes will not disrupt City’s attempts to end their 35-year trophy drought.

“We have now got to grind through the Tottenham game before the Cup final and that will be hard,” De Jong said. “It is our own mistake and we just have to get our heads clear again. This is a very important week for the club, the players and the fans. This is do-or-die for Manchester City. Fourth place is in reach and everything is in our hands.

“We just have to win that game against Tottenham, we then have a chance to be FA Cup winners after 35 years but we just have to learn from this game.

“We just have to think what we did wrong, take the mistakes out and if we do that, we can be in fourth place and FA Cup winners.”

In the opening period at Goodison, the excellent David Silva and Yaya Toure combined to pull the hosts apart regularly and it was they who worked the opener, with the Spaniard slipping through for the Ivorian to finish with a cross-shot.

But again they simply seemed to stop doing what was so productive and Everton forced their way back, with Sylvain Distin heading in from Mikel Arteta’s free-kick and Leon Osman beating Vincent Kompany to glance in from Neville’s cross.

At the final whistle Aleksander Kolarov accused Seamus Coleman of elbowing him, resulting in Mancini and Neville having to be pulled apart as they roared insults at each other.

Moyes has come out on top in each of his four meetings with Mancini and the closest the Italian has come to any sort of victory was ripping the ball from his counterpart’s grasp at Eastlands last season.

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Barnet celebrate another final-day Football League survival success

It was a win that guaranteed this 123-year-old club at least one more season in the Football League.

Nothing against Lincoln City, the fall guys on the final day of the League Two campaign, but it was a heart-warming scene. There is something engaging about Barnet, whose idiosyncratic ground, Underhill, sounds like a hobbit’s home, and slopes so drastically that one goalkeeper’s boots are level with the other’s crossbar.

The phrase “family club” is often used for anywhere without a 30,000-seat stadium and a shady absentee owner, yet at Barnet it truly seems to apply.

In April, they suffered a managerial crisis when Martin Allen left for Notts County after only 19 days in the job. Their response was to appoint Giuliano Grazioli, their community development officer, as caretaker manager.

“I was here every Saturday afternoon, watching the boys play, keeping my face around the place,” chuckled Grazioli, a former Barnet striker who scored 62 goals in a five-year stint at Underhill. “I would give the chairman a little wink when things weren’t going well. There was a method in my madness, because this is what I want to do. And it means so much more because I am a fan of this football club.”

Allen had started the revival for Barnet, who were eight points from safety on April 1. Grazioli continued it. Coming into Saturday’s deciders, Barnet knew that if they could beat Port Vale, they had a chance.

That was not the end of the story: a win for Lincoln over Aldershot would still knock Barnet out of the Football League, no matter how many goals they scored. But Lincoln had taken just one point from the previous nine matches. The Imps were limping towards the finish line in what was now a two-horse race.

In the early stages the diminutive Mark Byrne was at the heart of everything Barnet did, running the game like a cut-price Scott Parker. He had promising outlets in a pair of speedsters: left-winger Mark Williams and striker Izale McLeod, who once earned a transfer fee of £1million on his way to Charlton Athletic.

Port Vale, who had nothing to play for, were coming second on every 50-50 ball. And yet, for all their energy, Barnet could not get the ball home.

They were fortunate that Port Vale were so disinterested, and indeed charitable: a ridiculous penalty at the start of the second half meant that Grazioli’s nervous strikers did not even have to score from open play.

Straight from the restart, Byrne slipped the ball to McLeod, who ran 40 yards into the Port Vale penalty area without being challenged. When a tackle did finally come in, from centre half Gareth Owen, it was mistimed and brought McLeod down. McLeod struck the ball home.

Soon afterwards, news began filtering through of Lincoln’s plight: Aldershot landed a penalty of their own just before the hour, and eventually romped home 3-0.

“We’re all grateful to Aldershot,” said Grazioli afterwards, “but what really gives me pleasure is that six weeks ago nobody gave us a chance in hell. I looked at the crowd and saw a lot of the kids I’ve been coaching for the last year with their families: it was great to do it for them.”

So what now? “On Monday, I’ll be back in the community development office,” he replied. “The chairman has to think about what he has to do. If I’m part of it, fantastic, if I’m not the manager, I’d still like to have a place.”

Grazioli was a folk hero at Barnet during his playing days, and after Saturday’s feat of escapology – the second time in as many seasons that they have defied the drop on the final day — he is more revered than ever.

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Rafael Nadal v Novak Djokovic: all signs point to a titanic clash in final of Mutua Madrid Open

That is the most likely scenario, given that Djokovic has won all 27 matches that he has played this year — including five tournaments — while Nadal’s last defeat on clay came fully 34 games and two years ago against Robin Soderling in Paris.

Unless someone pulls off a stunning feat of giant-killing, it will be the indomitable Serb against the invincible Spaniard on Sunday. Djokovic has the form, having beaten his former nemesis in five of their last six meetings, but Nadal will enjoy both the fervent support of his home crowd and the shift from hard courts to clay, the surface he has made his personal fiefdom.

Can anyone derail either of these two trains before they meet head-on? Well, Andy Murray has a shot at a semi-final against Djokovic — a potential rematch of the Australian Open final – if he can come through a quarter of the draw that includes Gael Monfils and Tomas Berdych.

But this would be a lot to ask. While the Big Two have been polishing their latest trophies, Murray has only just emerged from the worst losing streak of his career — the one that started with that morale-shredding loss to Djokovic at Melbourne Park, and continued through inept performances in Rotterdam, Indian Wells and Miami.

He has been in Spain for over a week, first recovering from the sore elbow that kept him out of the Barcelona Open, and then working with Darren Cahill, the team adidas coach who will help him as a consultant until a more permanent coaching appointment can be found. There was also a 16-game practice match against Nadal himself, which ended up in an 8-8 draw.

Granted a first-round bye, Murray will enter the singles on Wednesday against either the Frenchman Gilles Simon or Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic — a demanding opener for a man with little live tournament action behind him, but one he should survive if he recovers the form he showed in Monte Carlo last month.

On Tuesday, Murray is expected to play doubles with brother Jamie, but the main attraction at the Park Manzanares will be Mikhail Youzhny’s tussle with the unseeded Juan Martin del Potro, a dangerous “floater” in the men’s draw who dominated all-comers in the Estoril Open last week.

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