MARTIN KELLY is ready to cut his coaching teeth with Salford.
The ex-Liverpool, Crystal Palace and England defender works with the League Two Ammies after playing for them in pre-season.
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Manchester United legend Gary Neville is set to add Martin Kelly in SalfordCity’s coaching staffCredit: Getty
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Man Utd great Neville owns Salford along with fellow Class of 92 legendsCredit: Getty
His playing career ended at Wigan and the 34-year-old hopes to carry on but may focus on climbing the ladder off the field.
Salford, currently under manager Karl Robinson, are 16th in the fourth division.
The Class of 92-owned outfit have only won three out of their first 10 matches.
And the Ammies recorded their fourth defeat on Saturday after a 2-1 loss by Grimsby Town at the Peninsula Stadium.
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Robinson’s side have now lost three of their last five matches in League Two.
The poor start to the campaign may force Neville and fellow Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt as well as his brother Phil Neville to shake things up in the dugout.
Robinson addressed Salford’s latest loss and declared he was “absolutely fuming” with the referees.
The 44-year-old tactician said: “I would love to know how it could be that bad of a performance, it’s impossible.
“The penalty is an absolute disgrace. I can say our defending and finishing was a disgrace at times today as well, but that was only part of the story today.
“Some of the tackles as well, I’m surprised that some of my players aren’t in a worse place.
Gary Neville gives behind-the-scenes tour of new job as he misses Sky Sports’ coverage of Aston Villa vs Man Utd
“I’d say the better team lost. At the end of the day they won, but I am absolutely fuming on external influences on the result.
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“It sounds worse when you lose, but at the end of the day that was not an acceptable performance from the officials today.
“Our defending for the two goals was appalling, though, and I’ve gone absolutely crazy at the players.
“We were the better team today and I don’t think anybody could argue that with the chances we created.”
Stay tuned for the main event, when unified champion Artur Beterbiev faces WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol in a long-awaited showdown for all the marbles at light-heavyweight. It’ll be the first time since the four-belt era that a new king reigns at 175lbs.
I’ve been told we have just under an hour to wait, by virtue of quick stoppage victories for Chris Eubank Jr and (pressingly!) Fabio Wardley’s first-round destruction job at Frazer Clarke’s expense.
I’ll still be here but James Anderson is poised to take you through the action, so click and follow that live blog commentary here. Ready?
Warren stays winning!
After Raven Chapman sadly fell well short in her WBC world featherweight title shot against Skye Nicolson earlier tonight, Frank Warren will be delighted that his new signee Fabio Wardley has done exactly as he outlined in Thursday’s presser: make a statement!
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Heavyweight boxing is so unpredictable that you never really know when a new contender emerges to become a mainstay within the world-level landscape, much like Agit Kabayel and Martin Bakole have done – powered by Riyadh Season cards – over the past year or so.
Wardley, trained by highly-rated coach Ben Davison, shares him with former unified champion Anthony Joshua and rising teen star Moses Itauma among others, and it’ll be interesting to see how Warren manoevures him in next given those highly-ranked contenders now.
As for Clarke, who made his 10th professional appearance tonight and turned 33 in August, one can only wonder how he rebuilds after such a stunning stoppage defeat. Unlike their March meeting, what positives can he possibly take from a conclusive first career defeat?
AND STILL! Wardley speaks…
R1, 2:28 is the official time of the stoppage, in what was a tentative round for 90 seconds or so… Round 13 indeed, true to his word!
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Wardley on his fast finish: “Always know once I’ve hurt someone, I get rid of them. Went into the first fight with a lot of background stuff, my team said maybe we should pull out, had a couple of issues but we fixed them and got the gameplan right, executed on the night.”
“Sometimes it takes a little bit of brains, I took enough from the first fight where I had success but needed to be a bit cuter, set things up and disguise them. I can’t help it! War by name and nature.”
He concluded the interview saying while his series of titles look great, he wants to become a world champion and doubled down on a desire to return to Saudi shores after two stoppages in Riyadh a year apart.
Ospreys:Max Nagy; Luke Morgan, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, James Ratti, Adam Beard, Jac Morgan (capt), Justin Tipuric, Morgan Morris.
Replacements: Sam Parry, Garyn Phillips, Ben Warren, Lewis Jones, Will Greatbanks, Kieran Hardy, Luke Scully, Jack Walsh.
Bulls: Willie le Roux; Sebastian de Klerk, Canan Moodie, David Kriel, Kurt-Lee Arendse; Boeta Chamberlain, Embrose Papier; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Ruan Vermaak, Ruan Nortje (capt), Marcell Coetzee, Reinhardt Ludwig, Elrigh Louw.
Replacements: Akker van der Merwe, Alulutho Tshakweni, Francois Klopper, Cobus Wiese, Cameron Hanekom, Keagan Johannes, Stedman Gans, Aphiwe Dyantyi
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Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
Assistant referees: Ben Breakspear & Ben Connor (WRU)
CHELSEA will remain at Stamford Bridge and expand the stadium capacity to 55,000 — if Behdad Eghbali wins the boardroom battle with Todd Boehly.
Blues’ co-controlling owners are at loggerheads and want to buy each other out — and the outcome will have a huge effect on the stadium plans.
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Todd Boehly sees Chelsea’s future away from Stamford BridgeCredit: Alamy
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Behdad Eghbali has a different vision to BoehlyCredit: Alamy
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Chelsea could look to upgrade their current Stamford Bridge homeCredit: Getty
Eghbali favours a £1.5billion renovation to stay at the Bridge, while Boehly wants a new 60,000 ground in nearby Earl’s Court.
A source said: “There is a growing realisation that Earl’s Court can’t be done, while Boehly could be out of the club soon.
“If Todd Boehly leaves, then the club are expected to push forward on plans to remain at Stamford Bridge and work towards a solution for a 55,000-capacity stadium.”
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An expansion would see Blues move away from the ground for just two years while work takes place.
Plans include modernising the West Stand, building concrete decks over a neighbouring railway line and using land that the club purchased from veterans’ charity Stoll.
Eghbali’s preferred option does not involve a complete demolition of the club’s 42,000-capacity home.
Construction of a completely new stadium on the Stamford Bridge site is expected to take at least FIVE YEARS — meaning the club would have to find a new home for that time.
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But it is understood that Eghbali is not in favour of being away from the Bridge for such a long period.
After taking a 20-month layoff in the aftermath of his octagon debut, Clayton Carpenter returned to action Saturday at UFC Fight Night 244 and put on a violent performance against Lucas Rocha.
It was largely one-way traffic for Carpenter (8-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the flyweight bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He got top position on Rocha (17-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in the opening round and landed a big elbow to open up a nasty cut. Then, in the next frame, he took the back of his opponent and locked in a deep rear-naked choke for the technical submission finish at the 2:12 mark of Round 2.
Check out the replay of the overwhelming finish from Carpenter below (via X):
With the win, Carpenter keeps his undefeated record in tact, while Rocha fell short in his promotional debut.
“My performance was pretty on point,” Carpenter said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping. “It took me a second to get calibrated, but I did my thing.”
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