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Wolves midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White reveals that he raced home after his impressive Premier League display against Tottenham to watch his performance on Match of the Day with his dad.

Watch the full interview on Football Focus on Saturday, 10 November at 12.05 GMT on BBC One.

WATCH MORE: Goals, glory and upsets – last season’s FA Cup in 60 seconds[1]

References

^ Goals, glory and upsets – last season’s FA Cup in 60 seconds (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

England’s record appearance-maker Peter Shilton said caps should not be “given out like gifts of presents” after it was announced Wayne Rooney would make a one-off return to the national side.

Rooney, who retired from international football[1] in 2017, will be part of the England squad that faces the United States at Wembley on 15 November.

The match will be called ‘The Wayne Rooney Foundation international’.

Shilton said he was “surprised” England boss Gareth Southgate had allowed it.

“I think there are better ways to do it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We could have a presentation on the pitch.

“I think if he was picked on merit, fair enough. But I don’t think you can give caps out like gifts of presents.

“You have got to be careful it doesn’t set a precedent. It’s great Wayne’s foundation are going to get money from this game, but that is going to happen whether Wayne plays or not.”

Analysis: Does Rooney’s return cheapen an international call-up?[2]

Rooney, who now plays for MLS side DC United, had ended his international career with 119 caps and a record 53 goals.

But the Football Association said the match against the USA was an opportunity to “honour” the 33-year-old’s “record-breaking international career”.

Shilton won 125 caps before retiring after the 1990 World Cup, when England reached the semi-finals – just as they did this summer.

“There was terrific spirit within the squad this summer and I don’t think Wayne will offer anything different,” he said.

References

^ retired from international football (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Analysis: Does Rooney’s return cheapen an international call-up? (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha had an “immeasurable influence on English football”, says former Foxes boss Nigel Pearson.

Srivaddhanaprabha and four others were killed in a helicopter crash[1] outside the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Pearson led Leicester to Championship promotion in 2014 and now manages Oud-Heverlee Leuven in Belgium – another club owned by the King Power Group.

“I will miss his guidance and wisdom,” Pearson said.

“And certainly his mischievous sense of humour and singular chuckle!”

Pearson first managed Leicester between 2008-2010 but left the club before Srivaddhanaprabha’s £39m takeover later that year.

He returned in November 2011 and guided the Foxes to promotion to the Premier League three years later, but was sacked in 2015.

Leicester owner like a dad to me – Mahrez[2]

Shilton describes ‘horrendous’ crash[3]

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha – the ‘humble, generous, private enigma’[4]

In an open letter[5] posted on OH Leuven’s website, Pearson added: “On a personal level, a manager could not have wished for a better boss.

“I have, through both good and difficult times, been afforded an unwavering support which has been a huge motivator and, in personally difficult times, a huge comfort.

“His warmth, humour and generosity have always been extended to my own family, something for which we will all be eternally grateful.”

Under Srivaddhanaprabha’s ownership the Foxes won the Premier League in 2016, having started the season as 5,000/1 outsiders – an achievement Pearson described as a “sporting miracle”.

Pearson added: “The leadership and managerial processes he instilled and encouraged within Leicester City over a sustained period of time has borne fruit in such a way that people throughout the world witnessed the impossible by seeing a club win the Premier League in the most incredible circumstances.”

Belgian First Division B side OH Leuven have postponed their next match, against Lommel.

References

^ were killed in a helicopter crash (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Leicester owner like a dad to me – Mahrez (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Shilton describes ‘horrendous’ crash (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha – the ‘humble, generous, private enigma’ (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ open letter (www.ohleuven.com)

BBC Sport – Football

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“It took off as I have seen it do hundreds of times before, it lands and leaves from the pitch like it does every a game.”

BBC football commentator Ian Stringer was at the King Power Stadium on Saturday covering Leicester’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Around 90 minutes after full-time, the helicopter belonging to Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha crashed outside the club’s ground shortly after taking off from the centre circle. It is not yet known who was on board.

“I have seen staff, backroom staff of the first team in tears here this evening,” Stringer adds. “The reception area is described as silent, people are looking around and crying and not knowing what to do and consoling each other.

“This is a very close football club, a tightly knit group of people. People love this guy – they pulled off the greatest sports story ever at this stadium and lifted the Premier League trophy.

“The chairman looked at me today on his way to the executive box and said ‘hello and good afternoon’. I said ‘good luck’, he said ‘thank you’.”

‘Helicopter dropped out of the sky’

Freelance photographer Ryan Brown had been at the match covering the game.

“I heard the helicopter take off,” he told BBC Radio 5 live. “I turned around and it made a whirring noise and grinding noise and then went silent, it was spinning out of control.

“The blades had stopped spinning and then there was a big bang and a big fireball. Lots of people started running towards the scene, as I came around the corner there was a huge fireball.

“It crashed right near the stadium. It just cleared the stadium roof and landed in an industrial park next to it. By looks of it, it has crashed straight into the ground.”

Stringer spoke to a former Leicester player who said the helicopter “took off as normal and flew over the west stand, as it went over the stand, it dropped out of the sky and hit the ground”.

Andrew James, Match of the Day floor manager added: “I was walking back to the car park and was aware as I got in my car of the noise of the helicopter hovering above the stadium.

“I got in my car because it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and as I was exiting the car park there was a woman walking in looking towards the sky.

“I said ‘are you OK?’ ‘Can you move?. And she said ‘look, look’. I looked out of my window and saw smoke initially and she kept saying ‘it just spiralled to the ground’. Very quickly, within seconds of that, there was police cars.”

Day of drama on BT

The match ended at around 19:25 BST.

Afterwards BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey discussed the owner’s helicopter, from their studio at the King Power, as it took off from the centre circle of the pitch behind them.

Around five minutes later, after an advert break, he revealed the helicopter had crashed. The studios were then evacuated.

The helicopter crashed just before 20:50 BST.

It was the second incident BT Sport staff found themselves at the centre of on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, former England and Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle was taken seriously ill after appearing as a pundit.

It led BT to cancel their Saturday afternoon results programme.

“Worst experience of my life,” tweeted ex-England midfielder Paul Ince, who had been a guest on BT Sport on Saturday morning. “Praying for the gaffer and his family. Huge thanks to all the crew at @btsportscore.”

Former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage added: “Worst experience of my life today , thoughts and prayers with Glenn and his family, so proud of our BT Sport team today.”

‘No ordinary Saturday’

Gary Lineker presented Match of the Day just hours after the crash and following the news of Hoddle, who is said to be “responding well” to treatment after being taken to hospital.

“We would normally come on air and tell you about the games we can look forward to seeing in the show,” former Leicester striker Lineker said. “This though is no ordinary Saturday.”

Clubs around the country and Europe tweeted that the club were in their thoughts, while numerous Leicester players tweeted the praying emoji.

England left-back Ben Chilwell said he was “speechless”.

“Terrible scenes at Leicester,” tweeted West Ham centre-back Fabian Balbuena, who scored against Leicester. “My prayers and thoughts go out to everyone involved.”

‘The saviour of Leicester’

Srivaddhanaprabha, 61, owner and chairman of duty-free company King Power International Group is worth an estimated $ 3.8bn.

The Thai businessman bought Leicester in 2010, with the club winning promotion to the top flight four years later and they then beat odds of 5000-1 to claim the Premier League title in 2015-16.

Stringer said: “I’m a local guy, I have followed the club for about 10 years, I remember them taking over and have generated a relationship with them. I have seen them in Thailand and Bangkok, in their home surroundings, they are really nice people.

“He [Srivaddhanaprabha] is a billionaire, very wealthy and successful man and so humble and lovely.

“He celebrated his birthday by handing out cake, he bought drinks for travelling supporters, bought breakfast and scarves for those on away trips.

“He wrote off the debt when he took over club from Milan Mandaric to give it a stable footing to be able to grow. He has invested an enormous amount of money.

“In the last 10 days the local council approved a new £100m training ground to be developed. The chairman is the saviour of the football club and taken it to heights no-one expected.”

Leicester City Supporters Club chairman Cliff Ginetta told Radio 5 live: “It’s such a tragedy. The family are very, very popular with the people of Leicester. They are loved by the Leicester public for what they have done to the football club and for what they have done for the city.

“They have put the city on the map worldwide, they’ve put millions of pounds into the club and lots and lots of money into local hospitals, children’s care. When it’s his birthday he buys everyone in the ground a beer and a cake. At Christmas time it’s free mince pies and a drink and that’s the way they are.

“He doesn’t speak great English so he doesn’t talk a lot but he certainly likes to walk around the ground and shake hands with people. He’s got time for the normal fans.”

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BBC Sport – Football

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford reveals all to Match of the Day 2 pundits after saving Luka Milivojevic’s penalty during their 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

WATCH MORE: Late defeat a harsh blow to Palace – Hodgson[1]

MATCH REPORT: Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace[2]

References

^ Late defeat a harsh blow to Palace – Hodgson (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

Tony Fitzpatrick has revealed how he tricked Sir Alex Ferguson into playing him while recovering from pleurisy before making him St Mirren captain.

Ferguson was in charge of the Paisley side for four years from 1974.

Fitzpatrick’s father posed as a doctor and his mother as his secretary to assure the team boss their son was fit.

“He doesn’t know this by the way,” Fitzpatrick told BBC Scotland. “I played in the game and look what happened – I was made captain.”

Ferguson, who was previously in charge of East Stirlingshire, had only recently taken over when he wondered whether the teenage midfielder was able to play in a reserve game.

“He called me into the office and said ‘I want you to play in this game as I want to see you play, but I know you’ve been ill’,” the 62-year-old St Mirren chief executive told Sportsound.

“He asked if I was OK and I said yeh, but I wasn’t. He said ‘give me your doctor’s number’ and I said I was going to the doctor’s right now.

“He said ‘get the doctor to phone me’. So I went home and told my mum and dad.”

‘Mr Ferguson, I’ve got Doctor McClure on the line’

Fitzpatrick said his father came up with a plan.

“There was only one person in the street – Jenny Little – who had a phone and she stayed in the next close,” he said.

“So me, my mum and my dad went into Jenny Little’s and gave her money to use the phone.

“On the old red phones, you could press it and there was a noise, so my mum kidded-on she was the doctor’s secretary and got through to Alex and said ‘Mr Ferguson, I’ve got Doctor McClure on the line for you just now’ and then my dad went on and spoke away.

“I could hear the conversation and my dad said ‘he’s fine now, he’ll be able to play in the game’.

“If my mum and dad hadn’t done that, who knows?”

‘He changed my life completely’

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How the 19-year-old was chosen to be St Mirren captain is a more well-known tale that is also related in former Buddies manager Fitzpatrick’s forthcoming autobiography.

“He was only in a matter of six weeks,” he said of Ferguson. “He said he was going to speak to everybody on a Tuesday night and let them know who is going to stay and who is going to go.

“We were in the dressing-room, all scared with Sir Alex up the stair and I was first to go up.

“I’d been told in my career I was too small to be a professional footballer, so I expected Fergie to turn round and tell me I was not good enough and too small.

“But he changed my life completely because he stared at me and said ‘Tony, I’ve been watching you very carefully and you’ve got great potential’.

“In five years’ time, not only will we be challenging Celtic and Rangers but we’ll be above Celtic and Rangers and I want you to be the captain.”

BBC Sport – Scottish

Alex McLeish will need to “stand up and be brave” as the pressure increases on the Scotland manager.

Sunday’s 3-1 home loss to Portugal means he has won two of his six games in charge of the national side.

The friendly defeat came just three days after a 2-1 collapse away to Israel, ranked 94th in the world, in the Nations League.

“It’s never easy to lose and that was a tough weekend,” said McLeish.

“I have to stand up and be brave and take it forward.

“There’s other examples of managers being under the cosh – Michael O’Neil and the Russian camp and Stanislav Cherchesov persevered. I’ll always retain that determination.”

Scotland beaten by ruthless Portugal[1]

As it happened: Scotland lose to Portugal[2]

Player rater: How fans rated the Scotland team[3]

Scotland paid the price for poor defending as Helder Costa, Eder and Bruma all scored for Portugal at Hampden.

The game ended with a consolation goal as Steven Naismith finished off a sweeping move involving Graeme Shinnie and Gary Mackay-Steven.

McLeish felt his side played well, with the performance an improvement on Thursday’s Nations League defeat in Haifi.

They face Israel again next month as well as a trip to Albania to complete their Nations League section.

“It’s basic errors that we made and that is the disappointing aspect of it,” said McLeish. “You expect the top teams to cut you open with majestic skills, but we were the perpetrators of our own mistakes.

“I thought there was a lot of good football. We had a good game plan, we were compact, we pressed when we had a chance to press. I know there was a few Portugal players rested but there was a still a hell of a lot of money out on that pitch.

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“I know every system that there is to know. I’ve coached teams before with three at the back, it’s been quite fashionable recently. We want to adapt. The Russians at the World Cup, they played four at the back but for certain games they played three. For the Albania game it really worked.”

Scotland had a number of call-ups, with Kieran Tierney, Scott McTominay, Robert Snodgrass, John Souttar, Charlie Mulgrew all dropping out.

McLeish also insists he has no issues with Leigh Griffiths deciding to stay at Celtic to work on his fitness.

“I admire him for that,” said McLeish. “He wants to get to a level of fitness where he can blow Brendan [Rodgers, Celtic manager] away, and blow the nation away and hopefully he can score the goals and get himself where he wants to be in terms of fitness and be a contender again.

“We’ve got a lot of young players still learning the trade. Some of them have come in during the summer when we had to make new recruits. It’s not easy to get guys to come in and be top internationals within three or four caps.”

References

^ Scotland beaten by ruthless Portugal (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ As it happened: Scotland lose to Portugal (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Player rater: How fans rated the Scotland team (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Scottish

Ayr United manager Ian McCall says he is “100%, completely and utterly” not interested in returning to take over as Partick Thistle boss.

McCall, whose Somerset Park side are top of the Championship, was in charge at Firhill for four years until 2011.

But after Alan Archibald’s sacking on Saturday, he insists his loyalty to friend Archibald, and Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron, would be an issue.

“I can rule that out totally,” McCall told BBC Scotland.

“For what I owe my chairman, and that’s nothing to do with lack of ambition, it’s to do with stuff far more important than football.

“It wouldn’t sit right with me sitting in Alan Archibald’s seat. It just 100% would not.”

Archibald sacked as Thistle manager[1]

Archibald was in charge of Thistle for over five years and led them to the First Division title in his first season at the helm in 2013.

However, following the Jags’ relegation in the summer, the club’s board made the decision to call time on his tenure with the Glasgow side sitting eighth in the Scottish second tier after eight games.

“I spoke to Archie on Sunday and I wish I’d been a good enough friend to tell him what I thought at the time,” said McCall.

“Alan Archibald should have left at the end of the season of his own accord.

“I think he looked tired, I think he needed away from the game for six months then come back refreshed because undoubtedly he’s a very good manager.

“I wish I’d offered that advice. He’d have probably ignored me.”

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References

^ Archibald sacked as Thistle manager (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Scottish