Pearce leads England U-21 to finals in Denmark

For the third consecutive time, Stuart Pearce steered England’s U-21 team to the finals of the UEFA European Championship after a 2-1 aggregate win over Romania in the play-offs.

Pearce’s boys were handed a tough draw as they were paired with Spain, Czech Republic and Ukraine in the group stage. Group A looks much easier, featuring hosts Denmark, Switzerland, Belarus and Iceland, who were seeded ahead of England by the narrowest of margins.

England, who reached the last four in the tournament on eight occasions, became the sole country to progress to three successive finals in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

England lifted the silverware in 1982 and 1984 under the guidance of Dave Sexton.

Path to Denmark

Qualifiers:

Away vs Macedonia 2-1 (Sears, Cattermole pen).

Away vs Greece 1-1 (Sturridge).

Home vs Macedonia 6-3 (Gibbs, Richards, Carroll 2, Hines 2).

Home vs Portugal 1-0 (Rose).

Away vs Lithuania 0-0.

Home vs Greece 1-2 (Delfo-uenso).

Away vs Portugal 1-0 (Sturridge).

Home vs Lithuania 3-0 (Welbeck 2, Albrighton).

Play-off: Home vs Romania 2-1 (Henderson, Smalling); Away vs Romania 0-0.

Other football items for October:

• Manchester City announce losses of £121 million for the financial year that ended on May 31, spending more on wages than their entire turnover.

• Championship side Leicester sack manager Paulo Sousa.

• A West Bromwich double scoop as Roberto Di Matteo and striker Peter Odemwingie are named Manager and Player of the month, respectively.

• John Hughes steps down as Hibernian manager.

• The owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team take over at Liverpool.

• Northern Ireland hold Italy to a 0-0 home draw.

Other European Championship outcomes: Ireland-Russia 2-3 (Keane pen, Long), Wales-Bulgaria 0-1, Czech Republic-Scotland 1-0.

• In the first leg of the U-21 UEFA Championship play-off, Scotland lose 2-1 to Iceland.

• Manchester United declare their support for UEFA’s proposed financial fair play regulations while stressing that they are safe from the threat of exclusion from European competitions despite announcing club record losses of £83.6 million for the last financial year.

• Fabio Capello reinstates Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand as England captain after his return from injury. Ferdinand replaces Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard.

• England’s Euro 2012 quali-fication hopes suffer a blow following the home 0-0 draw against Montenegro.

More results: Slovakia-Ireland 1-1 (St Ledger), Faroe Islands-Northern Ireland 1-1 (Lafferty), Switzerland-Wales 4-1 (Bale), Scotland-Spain 2-3 (Naismith, Pique og).

• Several players and employees are to lose their jobs as Dundee FC have officially been put into administration after failing to negotiate the payment of a £365,000 tax bill. This is the second time in seven years that Dundee have been forced into administration.

• Former Manchester City boss Malcolm Allison dies aged 83.

• Hibernian appoint Colin Calderwood as boss.

• Gordon Strachan leaves his managerial post at Middlesbrough.

• At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal dump Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 in a Champions League group match.

Other outcomes: Spartak Moscow-Chelsea 0-2, Inter-Tottenham 4-3, Manchester United-Bursaspor 1-0, Rangers-Valencia 1-1. Gareth Bale nets a second-half hat-trick for Tottenham at the San Siro.

• In the group stage of the Europa League, Manchester City win 3-1 at home to Lech Poznan, while Liverpool draw 0-0 away at Napoli. Emanuel Adebayor becomes the first Manchester City player to score a hat-trick in Europe.

• Tony Mowbray becomes the new Middlesbrough manager.

• FIFA say the vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will take place on December 2.

• Former England and Blackburn player Ronnie Clayton dies at the age of 76.

League marksmen

Premier League
7 − Malouda (Chelsea), Nolan (Newcastle), Tevez (Man. City).
6 − Bent (Sunderland), Berbatov (Man. City), Carroll (Newcastle), Drogba (Chelsea).
5 − Cahill (Everton), Elmander (Bolton), Kalou (Chelsea).

The Championship
10 − Boothroyd (Cardiff).
8 − Iwelumo (Burnley), Mackie (QPR), McGugan (Nottm Forest).
7 − Commons (Derby), Parkin (Preston), Sinclair (Swansea).

Scottish Premier
14 − Miller (Rangers).
7 − Goodwillie (Dundee Utd), Hooper (Celtic).
5 − Blackman (Motherwell), Naismith (Rangers), Rooney (Inverness), Sammon (Kilmarnock), Stokes (Celtic).

Average Attendances
1. Man. United - 75,198
2. Arsenal - 60,018
3. Man. City - 46,399
4. Newcastle - 46,292
5. Liverpool - 43,100
7. Sunderland - 39,833
8. Everton - 37,506
9. Aston Villa - 37,359
10. Tottenham - 35,761
11. West Ham - 33,762
12. Wolves - 27,532
13. Stoke City - 26,611
14. Fulham - 25,517
15. Blackburn - 24,483
16. Birmingham - 24,180
17. West Brom - 23,760
18. Bolton - 22,113
19. Blackpool - 15,689
20. Wigan Athletic - 15,523