City stay in trouble after away defeat

Durham City couldn’t make the most of an early lead as they fell to a narrow defeat at Ryton and Crawcrook Albion last night. The Citizens started brightly and took a deserved lead on 11 minutes when Carl Pottinger fired them in front. But the lead lasted just seven minutes as Albion striker Scott Jasper rose to meet a cross from the right and headed the ball past Citizens keeper Joe Wilson. Parity remained in place until 20 minutes into the second half when Jasper grabbed the winning goal as he rounded Wilson and tapped the ball into the empty net. The defeat leaves City with five points away from escaping Division Two’s bottom two.

Connor Wickham has suffered a setback in his pursuit of match fitness worsening Crystal Palace’s striker crisis ahead of tomorrow’s fixture at Chelsea.

Christian Benteke’s absence with a knee injury and Alexander Sorloth’s unconvincing performances have left Palace struggling in the final third, where Jordan Ayew, Andros Townsend and Zaha have combined in an unorthodox front three.

The lack of a recognised, in-form striker also meant it took until last week for Roy Hodgson’s team to score their first goals of the season at Selhurst Park, giving Wickham’s potential availability increasing importance.

The former Sunderland striker has missed the past two years, having seriously injured his anterior cruciate ligaments, but a thigh strain suffered when he had been in contention to play at Middlesbrough on Wednesday instead means the 25-year-old will continue to miss out.

Leicester boss Claude Puel will lead many of his squad to Thailand for Vichai Sr iv add ha nap rabha’ s funeral after today’s game at Cardiff.

The Foxes owner died last Saturday with four others when his helicopter crashed outside the King Power Stadium. Players including Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel will travel to Thailand.