Senegal’s Mame Biram Diouf scored twice as Stoke City sharpened the focus on West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Irvine with a 2-0 win in the Premier League on Sunday.
Former Manchester United striker Diouf struck twice in 15 second-half minutes at the Britannia Stadium to give Stoke back-to-back wins for the first time this season after Friday last week’s 1-0 success at Everton.
It was a third defeat in a row for West Brom, who have won only once in nine games, and it followed Irvine’s admission that he feared for his job at The Hawthorns.
The defeat saw Irvine’s side fall one place to 16th and left them just a point above the relegation zone ahead of a trip to high-flying West Ham United on New Year’s Day.
While Stoke boss Mark Hughes made only one change, replacing Jonathan Walters with Peter Crouch, Irvine drafted Brown Ideye, Chris Brunt, Graham Dorrans and Chris Baird into his lineup.
The visitors enjoyed the best of the first half, but it was Stoke who went closest to breaking the deadlock, with Bojan Krkic fizzing a shot narrowly wide in the 14th minute.
Bojan has been one of Stoke’s most impressive performers in recent weeks and he was the catalyst for the home side’s opening goal in the 51st minute.
The former Barcelona forward sprayed a pass wide to Erik Pieters on the Stoke left and the Dutch fullback’s low cross was in turned in by Diouf via a slight deflection off Joleon Lescott.
Irvine responded with a double change, sending on Saido Berahino and Silvestre Varela, and saw his side hit the woodwork when Gareth McAuley stabbed a shot against the post following a goal-mouth scramble, but in the 66th minute Diouf claimed his second goal when he fortuitously deflected a shot from Marko Arnautovic past Ben Foster to leave Irvine cursing his luck once again.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Japan yesterday secured a second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance with a 2-1 win over 2023 champions Canada, thanks to Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino in the qualifying doubles decider. Shibahara and Aoyama powered through the opening set 6-3, breaking twice for a quick 3-0 lead. Cross and Marino hit back in the second, edging it 7-5 to level the match, before the Japanese pair regained control in the third. Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko edged Shibahara 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a marathon opening clash. Mboko fired eight aces to
DAY OF BLOWOUTS: Elsewhere, the Lakers clinched the third seed in the Western Conference with a 140-109 pounding of the under-strength Houston Rockets The Denver Nuggets on Friday improved their playoff position, with a triple double from Nikola Jokic helping them to a 117-109 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Serbian put up 26 points, 13 assists and 16 rebounds. The triple-double performance, his 34th this season, ensured that he will finish the regular season as just the third NBA player to average a triple double across an entire season. The win meant the Nuggets improved to 49-32 on the season and gave them a real chance of grabbing fourth place and home-court advantage in the playoffs. Aaron Gordon top scored with 33 points for Denver,
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