We have discussed the options and, as always, he realises our position, so he has agreed to stay until the end of the season.”After talks with Evans and the chief executive, Peter Robinson, Rush has agreed to see out the remaining months of his contract. And in football, things can change very quickly,” Evans said. “I would rather he was staying with us but he wants first-team football, and a player of Ian Rush’s stature and ability deserves that. Rush scored 345 goals in two spells with Liverpool: he moved to Juventus for pounds 3.2m in 1987 only to return to Anfield for pounds 2.8m the following year.Evans said yesterday that he wanted Rush to sign a new contract, but that he was willing to acknowledge the striker’s need to play first-team football at this stage of his career.”It has not been a selfish decision by him He has been very fair. “Now that it is public knowledge he will be leaving Liverpool, the manager and I will be talking shortly about the possibility of an approach.”Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Oldham and Swansea are other clubs said to be interested in signing Rush, while Celtic could also make a move after offering pounds 750,000 for his services in November.It is a measure of Liverpool’s wealth of goalscoring talent that the club is to allow Anfield’s most prolific marksman to leave.However, it will not be without a degree of reluctance that Roy Evans, the manager, will let Rush go on a free transfer when his contract runs out. Tranmere Rovers, of the First Division, are preparing to move for the Liverpool striker Ian Rush. Frank Corfe, the chairman of the Endsleigh League club, confirmed yesterday that they are trying to secure the services of the 34-year-old Wales international, who is being granted a free transfer by Liverpool at the end of the season.
Tranmere, whose Prenton Park ground is only a few miles from Rush’s home on The Wirral, signed to great success another prolific Anfield striker, John Aldridge, at 37 the division’s leading scorer with 19 goals.”When someone of Rush’s calibre living in your home town becomes available then you have got to be interested,” Corfe said.

We all know what we would like a game to be, but sometimes it’s not like that, sometimes it’s like it was on Tuesday. The pace of the game is frightening at times and if you can’t keep up with that you’ll lose.”Last night it was Rudge’s brave battlers who eventually could not keep it up, McAllister freeing himself of Andy Porter’s shackles to prove the difference between the teams.While the Burslem outfit could still claim a Wembley date after their goalless draw at West Bromwich in the first leg of English final of the Anglo-Italian Cup, their main goal now has to be ensuring First Division survival.The Leeds game represented only their third defeat in 20 matches, but nine of those games have been cup matches and they are just one place off the bottom of the table.. “I sent him on because I thought he would give us something in terms of dropping off their back four, getting hold of the ball and bringing other people into the game,” Wilkinson said.”That started to happen but it didn’t happen as much as I would have liked throughout that 45 minutes because he drifted out of it and tired.”It is clear that Wilkinson feels Brolin, perhaps still suffering from the consequences of the ankle injury which kept him out for six months last term, is still well short of the required fitness levels.”I was pleased with his contribution against Vale but he’s got to do that more often,” declared Wilkinson “He’s got to get into the game more and he knows that. “That was what we needed and he did really well for the first goal as well.”Wilkinson, though “more than happy” with aspects of Brolin’s performance, indicated his doubts over the Swede were still not fully resolved. Football

Tomas Brolin’s sparkling skills helped drag Leeds back from the brink of FA Cup defeat at Port Vale on Tuesday night but it is clear he still has to convince the Leeds manager, Howard Wilkinson, that he has a full- time part to play at Elland Road.
The 26-year-old Swede has cut an isolated figure in recent weeks, omitted and given trolley-pushing duties at Aston Villa, “injured” and then not selected for the next three games, and then given six fleeting minutes against Birmingham as Leeds clinched a Coca-Cola Cup final place last Sunday.But at Vale Park , it was the pounds 4.5m buy from Parma that Wilkinson turned to in an attempt to rescue a cause that seemed beyond them after they had been totally outplayed by John Rudge’s men.Brolin, still the darling of the Leeds fans despite his limited appearances, responded in the grand manner, his presence helping the inspirational Gary McAllister turn the game around.It was from Brolin’s pin-point left-wing cross that McAllister headed the Premiership side on terms, and the Swede might then have grabbed his fifth goal in England – he was denied by a fine Paul Musselwhite save after linking with Tony Yeboah – before McAllister’s late match-winner.McAllister had no doubts that Brolin’s presence had made a vital difference as Leeds recovered from an “inept” first-half display.”Tomas makes people pass the ball to him,” McAllister said. Without him, the 7ft 1in Ian Whyte, Sheffield’s Roger Huggins and Andy Gardiner battled to score the bulk of England’s points. Whyte had 17 and Huggins and Gardiner 11 each.Russia’s Sergei Babkov top-scored with 21.

His side, who lead this group of the European Championship semi-final round with five straight wins, flattened England with nine second half three-pointers to outscore them 74-27 after the interval.. Basketball

England were overwhelmed 114-59 by Russia in Moscow last night, where their already daunting task was rendered impossible by the absence of both their most experienced player and their leading scorer.
Thames Valley Tiger’s Peter Scantlebury, England’s most capped international, remained at home nursing an eye injury, Steve Bucknall did not travel either. Substitutes not used: O’Sullivan, Ling.Referee: R Hart (Darlington).. Substitutes not used: Tisdale, Grobbelaar (gk).Swindon Town (5-3-2): Digby; Culverhouse, Seagraves, Taylor, Drysdale, Robinson; Collins (Finney, 73), Gooden, Horlock; Thorne, Allison. Their best if not quite their only opportunity of stealing the tie came early in the second half when Mark Robinson got away down the right. His cross was accurate enough for Peter Thorne to beat Richard Hall in the air but the header fell into Dave Beasant’s waiting arms.Southampton played out the tie after their second goal despite Swindon’s sudden willingness to be bold; but they did little to dispel the notion that the sides could well meet again in League competition next season.Southampton (4-4-2): Beasant; Widdrington, Hall, Monkou, Charlton; Oakley, Magilton, Venison, Walters (Robinson, 79); Watson, Shipperley.

And how is the golf? Are you hitting the ball straight? That’s the secret. After 128 years, those 32 batches of 45 minutes each will have added up to a full day.
Julius Caesar decreed, in 45BC, that every fourth February should have an extra day in February. Why? Well, it’s partly Julius Caesar’s fault, but is mainly to do with the earth’s orbit round the sun. ROUND-UP

Graham Taylor suffered his second consecutive defeat since returning as Watford manager when his team lost 2-0 at Stoke. Substitute not used: Oakes (gk).Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2) Flowers; Berg, Hendry, Coleman, Kenna; Gallacher, McKinlay, Sherwood, Wilcox (Warhurst, h-t); Gudmundsson (Fenton, 65), Shearer.