Former France and Manchester United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez announced his retirement from football, on this day in 2006.

The 1998 World Cup winner made his announcement on French television channel TF1, three months after appearing in the 2006 World Cup final.

Barthez, aged 35 at the time, said: “I am quitting the French team, I am quitting club football. I am going to continue enjoying myself without football.”

The mercurial Frenchman, who also helped his country win Euro 2000, initially quit soon after being released by Marseille at the end of the 2005-06 season.

He had been France’s first-choice keeper in the 2006 World Cup, with his last match being the penalty shoot-out loss to Italy in the final.

Barthez was with United for four years between 2000 and 2004, winning two Premier League titles in the process.

But his erratic displays saw Sir Alex Ferguson lose patience with him and he spent the final season on loan back at former club Marseille, who he subsequently joined on a two-year permanent deal.

Shortly before he announced his retirement, Barthez had been trying to agree a deal with first club Toulouse, but it did not work out.

“The only club I wanted to go to was not so happy to have me,” he said. “It happens and you have to live with it. I needed an adventure and I have only done things that I want to.”

Barthez’s club retirement did not last long though, with the keeper announcing in December 2006 that he had signed a deal with Nantes.

But the following April, after an altercation with a Nantes fan, Barthez left the club and, although he stated his intention to carry on playing, he did not make another appearance.

In 2008, Barthez switched sports and began a successful motorsport career. He won the 2013 French GT Championship alongside Morgan Moullin-Traffort and competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Sonny Gray and five relievers combined on a shutout and the Minnesota Twins advanced in the postseason for the first time in 21 years with a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Minnesota, which ended an 18-game playoff losing streak with a 3-1 win in Game 1, completed the sweep and moved on to face the defending World Series champion Astros in the best-of-five AL Division Series, starting Saturday in Houston.

The Twins snapped a nine-round losing streak that started with an ALCS defeat to the Angels in 2002. The Atlanta Braves (2001-2019) and Chicago Cubs (1910-1998) share the all-time mark with 10 consecutive series lost.

The Blue Jays lost their seventh straight playoff game, leaving nine runners on base in each game.

All the game’s offense came in the bottom of the fourth.

Royce Lewis drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on Max Kepler’s infield single against reliever Yusei Kikuchi.

After pinch-hitter Donovan Solano walked to load the bases, Carlos Correa singled home a run. Willi Castro then hit into a double play to make it 2-0.

Gray allowed five hits over five innings with two walks and six strikeouts.

Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax each worked one inning and Jhoan Duran struck out the side in the ninth to trigger the celebration.

Gallen, Diamondbacks complete sweep of Brewers

Ketel Marte highlighted a four-run sixth with a two-run single and the Arizona Diamondbacks finished a sweep of the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-2 victory.

Two years after losing 110 games, the Diamondbacks advanced to the NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Zac Gallen allowed two first-inning runs but settled down to toss six solid innings before Arizona’s bullpen finished with three scoreless frames, the final three outs coming from Paul Sewald.

Milwaukee has lost nine of its last 10 playoff games, a stretch that started with a Game 7 home loss to the Dodgers in the 2018 NLCS.

Freddy Peralta held Arizona hitless for 4 2/3 innings before Alek Thomas homered to make it 2-1.

The Diamondbacks knocked out Peralta and grabbed a 5-2 lead with four runs in the sixth.

After Marte singled home a pair of runs, the Diamondbacks got another run on Abner Uribe’s wild pitch and extended the advantage on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s RBI single.

Stott hits slam as Phillies sweep

Bryson Stott hit the second grand slam in Phillies postseason history and Aaron Nola was masterful on the mound as Philadelphia rolled to a 7-1 win over the Miami Marlins for a two-game sweep.

J.T. Realmuto also went deep, and the Phillies will face the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS for the second straight season after last year’s series win in four games.

Nola limited Miami to three hits over seven scoreless innings, getting an inning-ending double play in the fifth.

Already leading 3-0, Stott’s blast off Andrew Nardi in the sixth all but assured the Phillies of advancing.

Rangers finish sweep of punchless Rays

Adolis Garcia and rookie Evan Carter homered to back Nathan Eovaldi’s stellar start as the Texas Rangers secured a spot in the AL Division Series with a 7-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rangers outscored the Rays 11-1 in a pair of wins and won a postseason series for the first time since 2011, when they reached the World Series.

Texas will open the ALDS on Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles.

Eovaldi gave up six hits over 6 2/3 innings while walking none with eight strikeouts to beat Tampa Bay for the third time this season.

The Rays’ postseason losing streak reached seven straight, as they were bounced in the Wild Card Series for the second consecutive year.

Garcia led off the fourth with a home run against Zach Eflin, igniting a four-run inning.

Leody Tavares singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Josh Jung’s triple. The 20-year-old Carter followed with a home run to right for a 4-0 lead.

England are ready to kick off their World Cup defence with a rerun of their 2019 final victory against New Zealand, but returning hero Ben Stokes has emerged as an injury doubt for the opening game.

The lure of repeating the tournament triumph of four years ago was enough to draw Stokes out of ODI retirement after a year away from the format, but he may be confined to a watching brief in Ahmedabad.

While England fans will be glad to hear there are no signs of his long-term knee problems flaring up, skipper Jos Buttler revealed the 32-year-old has been struggling with soreness in his left hip in recent days.

He was the only member of the 15-strong squad not to play some part in this week’s warm-up win over Bangladesh, meaning he has not featured since scoring a new national record of 182 against the Black Caps on September 13.

Stokes joined his team-mates for their final training session under lights at the Narendra Modi Stadium – which is not expected to fill even half of its gargantuan 132,000 capacity – but was little more than a bystander.

He spent some time in the indoor gym but did not bat. Given the lengthy nature of the competition, which spans nine group games over six weeks, it seems highly unlikely that England would gamble with their prized asset at such an early stage.

“He’s got a slight niggle with his hip, but fingers crossed that it’ll be good news for us. We’ll see,” said Buttler.

“We’ll make the right call. If he’s not fit to play, he’s not fit to play. It’s not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament. Nearer the end, maybe you do take more of a risk with people’s injuries but it’s going to be a long tournament.”

Buttler is looking to repeat the career-defining achievement of his predecessor Eoin Morgan by lifting the trophy, but distanced himself from the notion of a title ‘defence’.

For a side who have rebuilt their entire philosophy around an aggressive mindset, it is a term he is more than happy to banish.

“I don’t see us as defending champions. We’re not defending anything. I want us to attack so I don’t like the word defending,” he said.

“For us it’s irrelevant. It certainly is for me. It’s fantastic to be reigning champions and I won’t say we’ve left that behind completely because it’s a nice place to be, but you’ve given that trophy back now. It’s done.

“It’s about trying to create something new. There’s always a desire for more, a hunger for more. We wouldn’t be here if we were content with what we’ve done.”

Stokes’ likely absence could open the way for Harry Brook to make his World Cup debut, a remarkable shift in fortunes for a player who was omitted from the original squad only to edge out Jason Roy at the eleventh hour.

Prop Tadhg Furlong believes Ireland have proven they can thrive under big-game pressure as they seek to avoid a shock Rugby World Cup exit.

Andy Farrell’s men have topped the world rankings for well over a year and won a national-record 16 Test matches in a row.

Yet the Six Nations champions are still in danger of flying home from France before the knockout stages heading in to Saturday evening’s decisive Pool B clash with Scotland in Paris.

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Leinster tighthead Furlong has helped his country beat each of their major rivals during the Farrell era and expects the team to once again deliver under the weight of expectation.

“I think it brings the best out of rugby players,” he said. “It shows your mentality, it shows what you are about, it shows what the group is about. It shows a lot.

“The proof is always in the pudding in terms of how the match goes, and how you deal with the pressure. It’s just about trying to get on.

“I think as a group, we are relatively experienced and we have a good understanding of how we work and how the team works and how to get the most out of the team in these big games.

“We have played in big games before. Now it’s just about trying to get your prep right and try to get your best performance out there.

“It’s (about) not being afraid of it, it’s about embracing it and getting on with it.”

Head coach Farrell will name his team for the Stade de France showdown on Thursday afternoon and is likely to make few, if any, changes following a 13-8 victory over South Africa on September 23.

A win or draw will send Ireland through as group winners ahead of the Springboks.

But success for Gregor Townsend’s side could see them snatch progression at the expense of their rivals, depending on the margin of victory and bonus points obtained.

Ireland have dominated recent meetings between the two nations, winning eight in a row and 12 of the last 13 across the last decade, including March’s 22-7 Six Nations triumph at Murrayfield.

Furlong feels Scotland represent a “ huge challenge” and a far tougher proposition than that match just under seven months ago when the Irish overcame a host of injury setbacks to keep themselves on course for the Grand Slam.

“Of course you look at the last game, you probably don’t look at the seven before that,” said the 30-year-old.

“Rugby is ever changing and evolving. They’re flying at the minute. I was really impressed with their warm-up games against France and have been really impressed with how they’ve performed in the tournament so far.

“I would imagine they’re disappointed with their South Africa performance (an 18-3 loss).

“They’ve come on a lot since the Six Nations, and they had a really good Six Nations.

“They were flying then as well. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us this weekend.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will not allow Newcastle to get ahead of themselves despite seeing them dismantle Champions League giants Paris St Germain.

The 4-1 victory over the 2020 runners-up at St James’ Park took the Magpies – playing in the competition for the first time in 20 years – to the top of Group F after two games.

However, head coach Howe was refusing to be carried away by a performance and a result which brought back memories of the club’s 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona 26 years ago.

 Howe, who inherited a Newcastle side seemingly heading for the Sky Bet Championship less than two years ago, said: “Going from the difficult moment we were in to now, it’s a great lesson for us not to get ahead of ourselves.

“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we want to keep going and we take nothing for granted. Amazing night, but we’ve got to continue to work hard from here.

“It goes without saying we hope that gives us that belief that we need to be successful in this competition. Against Milan in our first game, there was an element of us not quite hitting the levels that we expected of ourselves.

“But I think it’s only by doing that you can truly prove to yourself that you can do it consistently, and I think today will go a long way towards proving that.

“But as I said, there are so many difficult games to come in this competition. It’s a small step forward, but there’s still a long, long way to go.

“The next game in this competition will be hugely important, but that goes to the back of our minds now as we focus back on to the Premier League and West Ham.”

The Magpies got off to a dream start when Bruno Guimaraes picked off Marquinhos’ ill-judged ball out of defence and although Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Alexander Isak’s initial shot, Miguel Almiron followed up to score.

Dan Burn made it 2-0 with a towering header six minutes before the break, after a lengthy VAR check, and Sean Longstaff put the Magpies in dreamland five minutes after the restart.

Lucas Hernandez’s 56th-minute header sparked something of a fightback, but ultimately it amounted to little and Fabian Schar smashed home a fourth in stoppage time to cement a remarkable win.

Howe was particularly pleased for Geordies Burn and Longstaff, lifelong supporters of the club they now represent with such distinction.

He said: “I really do respect the Geordies who have had life-long associations with the club and understand what it means to play for Newcastle and have a unique experience, really, so for Sean to score and play how he did and for Dan, they’re amazing moments in their careers.”

A crowd of 52,009 witnessed a remarkable night on Tyneside, although the visiting fans, some of whom briefly caused troubled as they were escorted to the stadium by police, left less than impressed by what superstar Kylian Mbappe and his team-mates produced on the pitch.

Asked if he took responsibility for the performance, PSG boss Luis Enrique said: “Yes absolutely, there’s no doubt about that, I’m the first person to be responsible for what happened this evening. Of course I’m responsible for it.

“I think the outcome of the game was fair, although the scoreline was perhaps a little bit too much in their favour, not really a fair reflection.

“But of course we made such careless mistakes which led to their goals and when you play at this level, you can’t afford to do that.”

Swansea centre-back Ben Cabango has given Wales boss Rob Page another injury worry after he limped out of his side’s 2-1 home win over Norwich in the Championship.

Wales are already without Aaron Ramsey and Brennan Johnson for the vital Euro 2024 qualifier with Croatia on October 15 and Swansea boss Michael Duff confirmed Cabango suffered a hamstring issue after he went off in the second half of his club’s victory on Wednesday night.

“Ben did the right thing in coming off. He felt something in his hamstring in the first half and then again later on,” said Duff.

“If he isn’t fit for the weekend, then I don’t think he’ll be able to go off to play for Wales during the international window.”

The win gave Duff’s new-look side a haul of 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four Championship matches having failed to win in any of their opening seven games in all competitions.

“I was delighted with the result and the performance. We started with real intent and the first goal came from a high press,” said Duff.

“Then their goal came from us getting our press wrong. In the second half we defended our box well and got the winner.

“Norwich are one of the best teams in the league and we finished very strongly against them. The fans really got behind us in the added six minutes at the end because our lads were out on their feet.”

Norwich boss David Wagner was “very disappointed” after seeing his side fail to press home their advantage in the second half.

“We didn’t do our job properly in each box, goals change games and we didn’t take our chances,” said Wagner.

“That’s three away defeats in a row now and we lost a game that we could have won. We have to be better in both boxes.

“After two away defeats in a row we knew we had a chance to pick up some points in an important game. It was there for us, but we didn’t do our job.

“Obviously the result is very disappointing. Performance-wise, first half we were not good, second half we were much better.

“Second half we have to kill the game. We had enough very good opportunities until 75-80 minutes.

“After that they put pressure on us with set-pieces. If you don’t kill the game, then one situation can cost you.

“It’s very frustrating that we were not clinical in both boxes today and have not won a game we had opportunities to win at 1-1.”

Leeds boss Daniel Farke was pleased to see his side grind out a 1-0 victory over QPR in the Championship.

Crysencio Summerville coolly slotted in the only goal of the contest after nine minutes to move the Whites into the play-off places.

The hosts missed chances to kill the game off against a QPR side who had goalkeeper Asmir Begovic sent off in stoppage time, but Leeds held on as they returned to winning ways following Saturday’s defeat to Southampton.

“I am really happy and pleased,” Farke said.

“I told the lads I am proud because you can be on a great spell like we were on before Southampton and after one bad result, the next game is very difficult.

“The confidence is not there like it was before and to grind out a result it’s never champagne or football fireworks, it’s always hard work.

“To bring this tight lead over the line and be there again with a clean sheet, a win, is fantastic and in this type of game you have to be there to be able to celebrate.”

Leeds missed a handful of chances in the second period which could have put them out of sight and Farke admitted it started to get more nervy as the game wore on.

He added: “When you don’t score the second goal the opponent believes there is a chance.

“Because you don’t score a second goal it gets more nervous. We dominated every stat, but one scruffy situation in the second half saw a ball go through and thank God (goalkeeper) Illan (Meslier) was in the right position.”

QPR slipped to their sixth league defeat of the season and are without a win in five, but boss Gareth Ainsworth took heart from the performance.

“We’ve had a couple of collapses in my time so resilience wise I’m very proud of the boys,” he said.

“They gave everything, I asked for a bit more output, bit more of the committed work rate, I haven’t seen enough of that this season and we have that tonight. I think we will finish way higher than what people think.”

Ainsworth disagreed with the decision to send off Begovic, who saw red after fouling Patrick Bamford outside his area.

“He (Begovic) does not touch him (Bamford). I’ve had verification from both players that there’s no contact,” Ainsworth said.

“Patrick’s a great lad and he’s just jumped out the way and the referee has seen it as he thought he caught him. We may be able to get it overturned, I don’t know.”

Mark Robins praised his brave Coventry side after they earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Blackburn at the CBS Arena.

Record signing Haji Wright nodded in on 85 minutes after Yasin Ayari’s effort had rebounded off the crossbar.

The Sky Blues had already hit the woodwork twice through Matty Godden and Bobby Thomas, while James Hill’s thunderous effort came back off the woodwork in the first half for Blackburn.

It meant back-to-back wins for the first time this season for Coventry, who beat QPR 3-1 at the weekend thanks to a brace from Ellis Simms.

“We started the brighter of the teams, had loads of energy, tried to execute what we wanted to do and did it pretty successfully to start with,” explained Robins.

“They got control in the second half of the first half and had a lot of possession and they can do that to you.

“You’ve got to be brave, work really hard to try and play through them and if you can do that and the first pass is a really good pass, then you can take out the majority of the team.

“With the pace of Ellis and Haji you can cause them problems and it looked that way. We had the spell in the second half when we created a lot more chances.

“The header is a brilliant header from Haji and he gets a lot of power on it and just waits for the right moment and the timing is perfect.

“It gives us a lead, having conceded a goal at the other end I thought he was going to give. Ben Wilson has got the ball in both hands and he has kicked the ball out of his hands by Moran.

“They are a good side and they will probably get fed up of hearing it, because they have played some really good teams now.

“I think they are a really good team and we’ve done really well to get the three points. Back-to-back wins for the first time this season which is really welcome.”

Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson was defiant after his Rovers side suffered a fourth loss on the bounce, as well as seeing a goal disallowed when Andrew Moran was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of Ben Wilson’s hands before tapping in.

“Disappointed with the result of course, I actually saw a really good team, great spirit and togetherness against a good opponent in an away game,” said the Dane.

“I think we were quite solid in everything we did with the ball, without the ball, we created chances and we had big moments where we probably should have done better.

“We need to be more clinical in the box to get results but I think the boys have played an excellent game so if we keep on doing this then we will get some results.

“From my distance it was a strange situation wasn’t it? The referee had no clue if it was a goal or not, the linesman did nothing and after a short chat suddenly it was a free kick.

“I haven’t seen it back, then after that we have an extremely big moment, maybe one or two against one with the goalkeeper, then we are leading 1-0, but a good performance from my players for sure.

“We are doing a lot of good things, we have been giving too easy goals away, I think we were quite solid today mostly and we have created plenty of goal chances to win games, but of course we need to score.”

Pep Guardiola hailed Rico Lewis as one of the best players he has ever coached after his starring role in Manchester City’s hard-fought win at RB Leipzig.

The 18-year-old produced a commanding display as the holders maintained the winning start to their Champions League defence with a 3-1 success at the Red Bull Arena on Wednesday.

Lewis, who made his first-team breakthrough as a right-back last season, had a hand in Phil Foden’s opening goal and proved City’s main driving force throughout.

City manager Guardiola, the former Barcelona boss whose past players have included Lionel Messi, said: “What a player! What a player!

“I’ve been a manager for 14, 15, years and lucky to train one of the best players in the world in Barcelona.

“To find a player like him playing in the pockets, how he has to move as a holding midfielder, moving in the spaces, he is one of the best I’ve ever trained by far.

“He’s a humble guy, doesn’t talk much. He didn’t play much this season but he is going to play a lot.”

Despite Lewis’ contributions, it took the introduction of substitutes Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku to secure a hard-fought victory.

City controlled the first half and led at the break through Foden’s 25th-minute strike but they were pegged back after the restart by Lois Openda.

The second half was a frustrating affair with Erling Haaland missing several chances and Foden hitting the bar but Alvarez made the breakthrough with a stunning effort on 84 minutes.

Doku wrapped up a second successive win in Group G in injury time.

After back-to-back defeats domestically, Guardiola was pleased to get back to winning ways.

He said: “Three or four days ago it was no progress because we lost in Wolves. It was important to break that.

“We played a fantastic game in all departments. We conceded two or three transitions in the second half but it’s normal. When a team is able to make a lot of passes early on, very nice things are going to happen in the game.

“The guys who came from the bench, the contribution they have done is the key point. Everyone helped each other. I am really satisfied. It was a tough game.”

Leipzig coach Marco Rose was pleased with the effort of his side but had no complaints about the result.

Rose said: “Manchester City deserved to win, even if it was 1-1 in the 83rd minute and we had hoped to hold on until the end.

“We did well after the break and got our equaliser. It was then an open game then but City put us under pressure at the death again. We are learning from the best.”

Rotherham boss Matt Taylor is confident he can turn things around after his side’s dismal start to the season continued with a last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Bristol City, but accepts results have to improve.

Tommy Conway’s goal in the sixth minute of time added on inflicted a seventh loss from the Millers’ opening 10 games, which is their worst start to a Championship season since 2004/05.

It looked like Taylor’s side, who are ravaged by injuries, would earn a point after Tyler Blackett’s 86th-minute strike had cancelled out Conway’s opener five minutes before.

But they left empty-handed, with Taylor, who celebrated one year in charge on Tuesday, knowing things have to change.

“You can’t afford to keep getting beat,” he said. “The manner of tonight’s defeat, if you are going to get beat, get beat by giving it everything and showing you are good enough to compete at the level.

“There have been a few away games where we have not shown enough of that which is frustrating. But you have to believe that A) you are good enough as a manager and B) your players are good enough.

“But when your best players aren’t available it is an incredible job and an incredible task. It has got an awful lot harder on the back of tonight.

“Like I keep saying to the players you can’t lose heart, confidence and will, if the supporters do that’s down to them, I understand that to a certain extent, but if there is anything this club is about it’s about standing up and showing a bit of character and fight and sticking together as well.

“It’s understanding that Championship level football for Rotherham is a hell of an achievement, it was a hell of an achievement last season and what we are up against is an absolute beast and it keeps on taking big chunks out of us.

“But we are still alive. We are 10 games in and still showing signs of brightness in certain moments and no one else will be thinking of Rotherham right now. I am looking forward to what we can achieve at the weekend because I still believe in this group of players.”

For the opening 81 minutes it was a forgettable encounter, with just one shot on target, before it burst into life with Conway’s opener.

Robins boss Nigel Pearson was pleased with the outcome rather than his side’s performance.

“What you have always got to do is keep alive in the game,” he said. “It is a good illustration of it being a squad game tonight, Tommy coming off the bench and scoring two quality goals.

“We were mugged at the weekend. They will be feeling a bit down, it wasn’t a game of a lot of quality but the important thing is we won a scrappy game.

“Tonight we have come away from home and got three points at a ground which is tough to come to at times.

“It is good for the players to come away with a quality result, especially having conceded a late equaliser.

“A good day but we are not kidding ourselves. Credit to the players they were prepared to keep going, a good night in the end, but it didn’t feel like it for much of the night.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers admitted their last-gasp 2-1 defeat by Lazio was a “devastating” blow after he felt they deserved to be in front.

Luis Palma thought he had given the Scottish champions an 81st-minute lead but it was ruled offside by a lengthy VAR check when the officials decided Daizen Maeda had helped on Alistair Johnston’s cross.

There was a bigger blow to follow five minutes into stoppage-time when Pedro robbed Cameron Carter-Vickers before spraying the ball out wide and running into the box to head home the resulting cross.

Kyogo Furuhashi’s early opener had been cancelled out by Matias Vecino following a 29th-minute corner.

Rodgers said: “I’m bitterly disappointed. I felt we totally deserved to take something from the game.

“We had a great start and scored a great goal. I’m disappointed with the goal we conceded, I felt we could do better with the corner.

“We were getting through them and it looked like a matter of time before we could score. We got a goal but unfortunately Daizen just got a touch on it and made it offside.

“I felt at that point we deserved to be in front, we had got into some good areas.

“To concede late on was harsh but there’s a learning there. You have to secure the ball late on. The learning is just managing the game at that late stage.

“We knocked on the door second half, if you can’t make the breakthrough just make sure in that late stage of the game that you are secure behind the ball.”

Carter-Vickers had come off the bench to make his comeback following seven weeks out with a hamstring injury.

Rodgers said: “There’s no blame on Cam, it’s one where they steal the ball from him but if we were in a better position, we deal with the cross.

“That’s the learning for the team – you can’t be coming out from the space unless you have good control of the ball.

“It was a devastating way to lose because we deserved something, but like every game there are learnings and when the Atletico game comes hopefully we can learn the lessons.”

Despite the finest of margins between potential victory and a ninth defeat in 11 Champions League group games at home, the facts remain that Celtic are on zero points from two games in Group E.

Rodgers said: “We were under no illusions at the beginning of the competition where we sat. I said at the beginning our idea was to qualify for European football, and that’s still the ambition and mentality.

“We have shown over the two games against good sides that we can compete. If we can just tidy up one or two moments and maybe get a bit of luck, we will still fight in every single game to get that qualification.”

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has challenged his players to keep their impressive run going after a 2-0 win over Watford kept them fourth in the Championship.

Full-back Niall Huggins’ thunderous first goal of his professional career put the Black Cats on course for three points two minutes before half-time.

Abdoullah Ba’s back-post header in the 62nd minute effectively sealed the points before the Hornets had substitute Ryan Andrews sent off for a reckless tackle on Jack Clarke late on.

It was Sunderland’s sixth win in eight matches, leaving them six points off the top two ahead of Saturday’s meeting with neighbours Middlesbrough.

Mowbray said: “I’m delighted for Niall. He has had a tough time in the year or so I’ve been here with injury. Yet he’s had really high moments too.

“We did huff and puff for 45 minutes but we got the job done. I thought the centre-backs were amazing tonight. I’m pleased with them all, we have goals all over the pitch.

“We have to keep going. We kept a clean sheet and got three points.

“The moment normally comes from Jack Clarke or Patrick Roberts, and yet Niall comes up with an amazing goal.

“We preserved what we were doing. Sitting here now with 2-0 feels good. It was a dangerous game.

“I’m not sure Watford’s results warrant the talent they have. I am just pleased we have three points and move on to the next one.”