UFO Info Week-End

But their most experienced defender the former Leicester Derby and Charlton player Gary Rowett misses out again because

But their most experienced defender, the former Leicester, Derby and Charlton player Gary Rowett, misses out again because of a hamstring strain.United will be without the banned Cristiano Ronaldo as well as Rooney, making it likely that Louis Saha and Alan Smith will start the match after their cameo roles at Manchester City. There may also be a debut for Nemanja Vidic, 24, the Serbia & Montenegro centre-back bought for £7.2m from Spartak Moscow. Saul Deeney, who was labelled “Houdeeney” after the stoppage-time save that ensured Burton escaped with a replay, has signed a new contract and will play, watched by several of his nine United-mad brothers.Darren Stride, a Burton-upon-Trent boy and veteran of 500 matches and 100 goals for his only club, returns to captain them. Nor will there be any fairytale return for Martin Taylor, the 39-year-old former Derby and Wycombe goalkeeper, although he will be on the bench. “We left our shirts from the first game for the United lads to sign, and we’ll pick them up this week. I was told to leave my Rooney top for him to sign, but I didn’t want it out of my sight. I’m just hoping I can catch up with him afterwards.”Pundits and bookmakers alike will put their shirts on United to prevail and claim a fourth-round tie at Wolverhampton Wanderers However, Burton will not go quietly.

Nigel Clough’s team will be backed by 10,300 supporters, the biggest away following Old Trafford has witnessed since the last extension to the stadium took its capacity to 68,000.Clough, it is safe to assume, will not pick himself to play left-back as he did in Burton’s last match, a 4-1 defeat at Stourbridge in the Birmingham Senior Cup. But he has already passed up one opportunity to secure the signature.”We went to Old Trafford in a mini-bus last Thursday and it was awesome, even when it was empty,” Ducros explained. Owning the top is not enough; he wants it autographed, framed and hung at home. Such brushes with stardom have not prevented the midfielder from succumbing to the “Manchester United mania” that the chairman, Ben Robinson, says has swept the Staffordshire brewing town.
Ducros’ concerns centre on the United shirt he swapped with Rooney at the end of the 0-0 draw at the Pirelli Stadium 10 days ago.

A virulent strain of FA Cup fever has got one Burton Albion player worrying about Wayne Rooney – despite the Manchester United striker being suspended for tonight’s third-round replay against the Conference side at Old Trafford. Andy Ducros played in the Premiership for Coventry City, and as a member of the same England Youth team as Rio Ferdinand he spent 10 days working with Terry Venables’ squad during Euro 96. But a fourth-minute miss – when he burst through to see his shot brilliantly saved by Brad Jones – will undoubtedly leave the sports development officer deliberating over what might have been.. The satisfaction at having scored twice against Premiership opposition will not prevent Gez Murphy from waking today to reflect on the one that got away.

With his side in danger of being on the end of a double-figure deficit as Middlesbrough ran riot after the interval, Murphy’s two late interventions ensured that, quite rightly, non-League pride remained intact. A government spokesman said: “The minister is concerned but we’re still hopeful that something can be done to get ordinary people fair and open access to tickets.” He added that Warner has told the government that he still does not know how many tickets the TTFF will receive.Simpaul’s website continues to claim that it is not selling tickets, but callers are being offered tickets.. Yet Warner has also claimed that an unnamed European tour operator is supplying his agency, raising doubts about what will happen to the TTFF tickets.Roger Boynes, the sport minister in Trinidad & Tobago, has written to Warner asking that fans get access to tickets at face value or thereabouts. The scandal could also have repercussions for fans of England, who will play Trinidad & Tobago in the group phase in Nuremberg on 15 June. Each of the associations should receive a minimum of 2,950 tickets for sale to its fans.Any spare seats from the TTFF’s allocation would normally be returned to Fifa and, in all likelihood, offered to the English FA for sale to its fans. As The Independent reported yesterday, all of Trinidad & Tobago’s ticket allocation is being handled by a travel agency owned by Jack Warner, a Fifa vice-president and the president of Concacaf who is also a special advisor to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation.
Newspaper advertisements placed by Warner’s company, Simpaul Travel, have told fans that unless they buy tickets via his agency’s “travel packages” (where travel is not included in the basic price), they will not be able to see their team play. It is estimated that Simpaul will make about £1,660 profit on each £2,720 package, which includes three tickets with a total face value of £200 maximum, and hotel accommodation.

The Trinidad & Tobago government said yesterday that it had appealed for “fair and open” access for its football fans to World Cup tickets but it remained “concerned” that the Fifa official with a monopoly over seats in the Caribbean nation had so far not addressed its concerns. The advantage to the FA would be that they would not have to pay up on the full value of Eriksson’s remaining contract – a compromise that Eriksson’s advisers feel is unacceptable.It means that the England manager looks set for a final, messy stand-off with his employers after this summer’s competition. If England fare badly, and Eriksson does not have acceptable options elsewhere, it appears that Barwick will have to sack the Swede, and pay out on the expensive remainder of his contract.The Villa manager, David O’Leary, to whom Eriksson has, apparently, not apologised over the comments he made about potentially becoming manager at Villa, said it was “not acceptable” for Eriksson to have spoken about taking over at the club.. In a proposal mooted by some members of the international committee, the FA chief executive, Brian Barwick, should try to negotiate a settlement with Eriksson before the tournament that would allow him to secure a new job for next season.Such a plan would, in theory, involve Eriksson and the FA coming to some kind of agreement between now and June about his contract that would see the Swede leaving the post after the tournament this summer.