They have not won in eight matches since and last night suffered a humiliating defeat to York City, a struggling Second Division side.Everton fans may look back at Manchester United’s exit on the same picket- fence-ringed ground last season for consolation but United, unlike Everton, do not take this competition seriously. The Everton manager, Joe Royle, was recently given pounds 10m to spend and with Duncan Ferguson already booked in for an operation the pressure on him to spend some of that is now overwhelming.For York such riches are beyond their dreams – they are even sponsored by Portakabin – but last night they showed that however much money Premiership clubs lavish on their teams they will not succeed without matching the application and inspiration of their supposed lessers.An irony which Royle will not enjoy is that the man who did most to defeat his multi-million pound team is Neil Tolson, a player he once gave away as a makeweight in a part-exchange deal when both were at Oldham Athletic. Football

York City 3 Everton 2 York City win 4-3 on aggregate
The joy of an opening day victory over Newcastle is now just a fond but distant memory to Everton. “We estimate it would take around pounds 1m to rebuild the team.”The Leeds chief executive, Alf Davies, predicted yesterday that the outcome would be resolved in “two to three weeks”.He also revealed that two other parties are also involved in takeover talks, although it is thought that Conrad, who lost out to Caspian in the battle for Leeds United, have dropped their interest.Halifax are poised to unveil plans to leave their famous Thrum Hall ground after more than a century at that location and move in with their football neighbours Halifax Town.The rugby league club and the Vauxhall Conference outfit have been involved in lengthy talks and they appear to have the backing of the local Calderdale Council, which owns The Shay.”The clubs have found a way forward and we have the support of the council,” confirmed Nigel Wood, the Halifax chief executive.Halifax were faced with the stark choice of either undertaking expensive rebuilding costs to bring Thrum Hall into line with the ’s “Framing the Future” requirements or moving to a new stadium.Leading League clubs must have a 10,000 capacity, with 2,500 seats, within three years of the start of Super League.The sale of Thrum Hall is expected raise the money needed to bring The Shay up to the standards demanded.. Rugby League

Leeds will receive a pounds 1m cash injection if a takeover bid by Caspian, new owners of the Leeds United football team, is successful.
And Leeds, who finished third from bottom of the inaugural Super League, will move from Headingley to Elland Road if Caspian’s offer is accepted.The London-based media group, who took over the Premiership team in the summer, have an offer on the table to buy the franchise for the rugby league team from Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Club, owners of the Headingley site.Caspian have made pounds 12m available for team strengthening at Elland Road and the chairman, Chris Akers, promised that the Leeds coach, Dean Bell, would have cash at his disposal to bolster the rugby league team.”Leeds’ youth policy is very good – it would be a case of trying to bring in more experienced players,” Akers said. “I preferred to keep my strength for later, a few seconds now doesn’t mean very much. I still have to fight off people like Rominger for my place on the winner’s podium,” Dufaux said..

“It’s not over until Madrid,” said Zulle, who had looked in complete control in previous mountain finishes.As in the previous stages, most of the leading riders arrived at the final climb together, but were split as Rincon made his move five kilometres from home.With Zulle wilting, Jalabert protected his team’s interests by sticking close to a dangerous-looking Dufaux. Cycling

Alex Zulle, the leader of the Tour of Spain, showed signs of vulnerability after struggling to stay with his rivals in the mountain finish of yesterday’s 17th stage from Sabinanigo to Cerler.
Zulle had to be helped from his bike after failing to match the searing pace set by his team mate Oliverio Rincon, who raced away to victory in impressive style.Zulle was left several seconds adrift by his team-mate, Laurent Jalabert, and fellow Swiss rider Laurent Dufaux, who both picked up bonus time after following Rincon home.Jalabert gained a provisional 18 seconds in the overall classification, leaving him 1min 10 sec behind Zulle, while Dufaux is still over four minutes further back after gaining nine seconds on the leader.Zulle was still short of breath five minutes after finishing the climb, which ended at nearly 2,000 metres. Wenger said: “Everybody here will get a fair chance to show me what he can do.”. “A lot of damage was done in the first match, but I have seen two videos of Borussia and with the strength and quality of Arsenal it is certainly not finished yet,” he said.”It is a very big task but Borussia have had some strange results since the first leg – losing 4-0 against Cologne and beating Dortmund 5-1.”They have the lead and Arsenal must score at least two away goals, but I think it will be very difficult for their coach to decide whether to go for another goal early or try to stay back and hold the advantage.”Wenger has discounted speculation that he has designs on recruiting a series of leading foreign players, not least George Weah, the Milan striker. Pat Rice, who will be in charge of the team for the match said: “If Tony plays, there is no doubt he will return as captain.”With Dixon out, Rice will make a late decision on whether to switch Martin Keown to the right of a five-man defence which will be certain to include Adams – or to leave out Andy Linighan and go for more midfield strength by recalling either Ray Parlour or Glenn Helder.Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s new manager, is adamant that they can overcome the deficit. Dennis Bergkamp and Lee Dixon are both out with hamstring injuries, but the major plus for Arsenal is Adams’ return. When I get out there and do my job it makes all the other problems that much easier for me.

And I feel so pleased to be playing again because I earn a lot of good money being employed by Arsenal and recognise that I’ve still got a bit more to offer them.”I’ve picked up quite a bit of success already, but I don’t want to see out my career just going through the motions.”There is no chance of Arsenal being able to do that in Cologne this afternoon when they start the second leg of their first round Uefa Cup tie against Borussia Monchengladbach 3-2 down. He said yesterday: “I just feel it is high time I got back to doing my job I’ve got things in perspective now. The knee I injured is fine again and I feel really good.
“Playing for Arsenal is a big part of the life of Tony Adams and it really is nice to be back. Tony Adams makes a timely return to lead Arsenal today after 12 days of turbulence which have been remarkable even in the light of the troubled times he and his club have been through in the past.