Five England captains since WCup exit

Fabio Capello admitted he had a mix-up with all the captains he named in the last eight England internationals.

He had five different players wearing the captain’s armband, something quite unfamiliar in the national team’s set-up.

You only have to look at the number of appearances chalked up by the likes of Billy Wright and Bobby Moore, when football was the ‘real’ game.

The latest England captains were:

August 12, 2010: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, three matches in which England had won all).
October 12, 2010: Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, two games, a draw and a defeat).
February 9, 2011: Frank Lampard (Chelsea, one win).
March 26, 2011: John Terry (Chelsea, one win).
March 29, 2011: Gareth Barry (Manchester City, one draw).

Other news items for March:

• In the fifth round of the FA Cup, Everton suffer a home upset 0-1 against Championship team Reading.

• In a Scottish FA Cup fifth round tie, at Celtic Park, the home side topple Rangers 1-0, having three players sent off with a fans’ rampage in the stands.

• Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson is charged by the FA for improper conduct over comments he made about referee Martin Atkinson during the match at Chelsea.

• Arsene Wenger, of Arsenal, and Scott Parker, of West Ham, are named Manager and Player of the Month, respectively.

• In the Champions League second round, second leg, Arsenal go down 1-3 at the Nou Camp to Barcelona and are eliminated in the first round knock-out 3-4 on aggregate. Tottenham hold Milan to a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane to proceed to the quarter-finals of the competition.

• In the Europa League knock-out round, first leg, Rangers hold PSV Eindhoven away to a 0-0 draw. Other results: Braga-Liverpool 1-0, Dinamo Kiev-Manchester City 2-0.

• At Old Trafford, Manchester United beat Arsenal 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Other sides to reach the last four: Birmingham-Bolton 2-3, Stoke-West Ham 2-1, Manchester City-Reading 1-0.

• Championship side Coventry sack manager Aidy Boothroyd.

• In the remaining two ties of the Champions League first leg, second round, Manchester United and Chelsea progress with respective scores of 2-1 (2-1 aggregate vs Marseille) and 0-0 (2-0 aggregate vs Copenhagen).

• Scunthorpe, of the Championship, dismiss manager Ian Baraclough.

• Alex Ferguson is hit by a five-match ban for his comments to FA referee Atkinson.

• The remaining three British sides in the Europa League are eliminated − Manchester City to D. Kiev 1-0 (agg: 0-2), Liverpool to Braga 0-0 (agg: 0-1), and Rangers to PSV Eindhoven 0-1 (agg: 0-1).

• Arsene Wenger and Samir Nasri are banned for one match by UEFA after remarks they made to referee Massimo Busacca at the end of the game in Barcelona.

• At Hampden Park, Rangers topple Celtic 2-1 after extra time to carry the Scottish League Cup.

• QPR’s midfielder Adel Taarabt named Football League Player of the Year.

• In Viborg, England’s U-21 side beat Denmark 4-0 (Welbeck, Sturridge, Henderson, Sinclair).

• In a European Championship qualifier, Northern Ireland go down 1-2 (McAuley) in Serbia.

• England topple Wales 2-0 (Lampard pen, Bent) in Cardiff in a European Championship qualifier. The Republic of Ireland defeat Macedonia 2-1 (McGeady, Keane).

• In an U-21 friendly inter-national in Norwich, Eng-land lose 1-2 (Delfouneso) to Iceland in the preparations for the European Championship finals.

• In a European Championship qualifier, Northern Ireland share the spoils in a 0-0 draw at home to Slovenia.

• In a friendly international against Ghana at Wembley, England draw 1-1 with the Liverpool attacker Andy Carroll scoring his first international goal. In a similar encounter Eire go down 2-3 (Long, Fahey pen) at home to Uruguay.

Leading marksmen

Premier League
21 − Berbatov (Man. Utd)
19 − Tevez (Manchester City)
13 − Bent (Aston Villa)

The Championship
23 − Graham (Watford)
20 − Long (Reading)
19 − Holt (Norwich)

Scottish Premier
15 − Hooper (Celtic)
14 − Stokes (Celtic), Goodwillie (Dundee United), Higdon (St Mirren)
13 − Rooney (Inverness)

Average attendances
1. Man. United - 75,040
2. Arsenal - 60,016
3. Newcastle - 47,239
4. Manchester City - 45,953
5. Liverpool - 42,188
6. Chelsea - 41,472
7. Sunderland - 39,875
8. Aston Villa - 37,052
9. Tottenham - 35,814
10. Everton - 35,680
11. West Ham - 28,958
12. Wolves - 27,435
13. Stoke City - 26,715
15. Birmingham - 25,046
15. Fulham - 25,035
16. West Bromwich - 24,393
17. Blackburn - 24,279
18. Bolton - 22,194
19. Wigan Athletic - 16,360
20. Blackpool - 15,398