IT’S BACK!

24 SPORT THURSDAY 2 MARCH 2017
SPORT
FOOTBALL
Guardiola in
raptures over
star Aguero
FA CUP
MANCHESTER CITY 5
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1
ROSS MCLEAN
@rossmcleanRMAC
MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola
declared two-goal Sergio Aguero’s
performance during his side’s FA Cup fifth
round replay victory over second-tier
Huddersfield the best of his reign.
Aguero continued his hot streak of form
with his fourth strike in two matches and
22nd of the season as City recovered from
Harry Bunn’s early strike, while Leroy
Sane, Pablo Zabaleta and Kelechi
Iheanacho also netted for the hosts.
Victory ensured that City reached the
competition’s last eight – the 10th
quarter-final of the Sheikh Monsour era –
where the five-time winners will travel to
fellow Premier League side
Middlesbrough on 11 March.
There has been much speculation over
the future of Aguero and whether he can
thrive in Guardiola’s preferred system and
style of football. The 28-year-old has been
linked with a move away from the club,
although there were few complaints from
Guardiola last night, while muchmaligned
goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was
also singled out for praise.
“It’s the best Sergio Aguero ever and the
best I’ve seen yet,” said Guardiola, who is
bidding to win his maiden City trophy.
“His performance was amazing. He
CYCLING
doesn’t just run but he runs in the right
moment with the right tempo. When this
happens he is involved in the game and
he is so precise with the ball.
“His performance was top, the same
with Claudio. His performance with the
foot helped us with the build up.”
City had been knocked out of the FA Cup
by lower league opposition in two of the
last three years and conceded early, yet
not before Sane had crashed an effort
against the post.
But Huddersfield, who made nine
changes from their 1-1 draw with
Barnsley on Saturday, stormed into a
seventh-minute lead following a swift
counter-attack. The move culminated in
ex-City academy player Bunn firing low
through Bravo, who failed to cover
himself in glory, following a clever pass
from midfielder Philip Billing.
The home side retaliated and all but
secured their place in the quarter-finals
with three goals before half time. Sane
levelled on the half hour mark, tapping
home following neat trickery and potent
delivery from Raheem Sterling.
Five minutes later Aguero rifled home a
spot-kick after being felled in the penalty
area by Jon Gorenc Stankovic, while the
Argentinian hit the post before turning
provider and allowing Zabaleta to apply a
close-range finish to a fizzed cross.
City put the tie beyond all doubt inside
the final 20 minutes when Sterling’s low
cross to the near post was turned beyond
Coleman by Aguero. Substitute
Iheanacho then added further gloss to
the scoreline with a last-gasp flick.
Team Sky and British Cycling unable to
prove legality of delivery for Wiggins
CITYAM.COM
BULLISH Why Christian Horner is
optimisic about future of F1– and his
team’s place in it EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: PAG E 22- 23
HORSE RACING
FOOTBALL
Fans plan fund
as Orient near
administration
FRANK DALLERES
@frankdalleres
LEYTON Orient supporters are due
to meet today to discuss plans for a
rescue fund after the League Two
club were served with a winding-up
order by HM Revenue and Customs.
The east London outfit could be
forced into liquidation unless their
controversial owner Francesco
Becchetti settles an unpaid tax bill.
A High Court hearing has been
scheduled for 20 March.
Dire results have already put
Orient in danger of losing their 112-
year Football League status – they
are second bottom of the fourth
tier – and fans fear they could now
be pushed out of existence
altogether.
The Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust
(LOFT) hopes to raise £100,000,
which could help them join a
consortium to buy out Becchetti,
keep the club running if they enter
administration, or, in the event of
liquidation, found a phoenix club
in the same manner as AFC
Wimbledon.
LOFT said: “How the club’s owner
Francesco Becchetti reacts to this
winding-up order will be a clear
indicator of his seriousness at
selling the club as a going concern.
The coming days and weeks may be
the most important in Orient’s 116-
year history.”
Italian renewable energy and
waste management tycoon
Becchetti, who has appointed seven
managers since buying the club in
2014, has indicated that he is
willing to sell. He is thought to be
determined to recoup the £4m he
paid sports promoter Barry Hearn,
a prospect that has receded with
the team’s slide down the leagues.
Orient had just missed out on
promotion to the Championship,
losing the play-off final on
penalties, when Becchetti invested.
They were relegated to League
Two in his first season and now lie
six points from safety with 12
matches remaining.
Grand National anti-Irish
bias weights row escalates
FRANK DALLERES
@frankdalleres
TEAM Sky and British Cycling are
unable to provide documentary
evidence of their assertion that a
mystery package sent for Sir
Bradley Wiggins at a 2011 race
contained a legal medicine, MPs
heard yesterday.
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) chief
Nicole Sapstead, whose
organisation has spent 1,000 manhours
investigating claims of
wrongdoing in the sport, said that,
contrary to guidelines, medical
records were not kept up to date.
Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford
in December rebuffed allegations
that the package contained a
banned steroid, telling the Culture,
Media and Sport select committee
that the contents had been
decongestant Fluimucil.
But Sapstead told the committee
that had not been verified because
Team Sky and British Cycling’s Dr
Richard Freeman had failed to
update a shared database and later
reported his laptop stolen.
“We are not able to confirm or
refute that it contained Fluimucil.
We have asked for inventories and
medical records and we have not
been able to ascertain that because
there are no records,” she said.
Sapstead said Dr Freeman kept
medical records on his laptop but
was also obliged by Team Sky policy
to share them with colleagues.
He did not in this instance and in
2014 reported his laptop had been
stolen while on holiday in Greece.
Dr Freeman had been due to give
evidence yesterday but missed the
hearing, citing ill health.
She added: “It strikes me as odd,
too, particularly for a road racing
team set up to prove races could be
won clean. I think it’s strange they
haven’t kept records to prove that.”
Former British Cycling coach
Simon Cope said he did not ask the
contents of the bag he delivered.
FRANK DALLERES
@frankdalleres
ONE OF Britain’s top handicappers
has hit back at claims his assessment
of Grand National entries was
coloured by anti-Irish bias after a row
broke out ahead of next month’s race.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s
Gigginstown House Stud yesterday
withdrew eight of its horses at the
latest forfeit stage, including his big
three Don Poli, Empire Of Dirt and
Outlander.
That came after his brother and
racing manager, Eddie O’Leary,
blasted the weights allocated last
month, saying: “A handicapper is
meant to be impartial. The National
now is a pre-Brexit, post-Brexit
handicap.”
British Horseracing Authority
(BHA) handicapper Phil Smith
defended his verdict, which followed
a change in the BHA’s methodology
for assessing Irish horses.
“Since switching approaches the
strike rate of British and Irish
runners have levelled out,” he said.
“The Jump Handicappers are
confident that based on these
figures there is no semblance of any
anti-Irish bias and that keeping our
own Irish performance figures has
given our handicaps greater equality
and fairness.”