Queen's Park Rangers 0 Bury 1 A SCRAMBLED winner from Gordon Armstrong ensured Bury's Division One survival and left QPR just one point above the drop zone; eternally grateful that other results didn't leave them with a relegation hangover. Rangers dominated in terms of possession and chances, but Bury got the all-important goal when Mark Patterson threw in a 22nd minute corner, Chris Lucketti headed the ball back into the danger area and former Sunderland striker Armstrong pounced. Bury boss Stan Ternent was ecstatic afterwards: ''It is a tremendous achievement to stay up - better than winning the play-offs at Wembley and better than two promotions. It has been very difficult losing players like David Johnson but the boys have responded really well. They are now elated and knackered, they just want to go home and relax. I didn't want to know the scores from anywhere else,'' he said, but everyone was telling me at half-time, which made it worse. I just said to the players that the three teams that could catch us would all have swapped places with us today. We have always had courage and self-belief and it came through today.'' Their courage was thoroughly tested in the second half as QPR piled forward in search of an equaliser. Gavin Peacock found space in the box but headed over, a Kevin Gallen shot shaved the crossbar and Dean Kiely did well to save a Tony Scully blast from outside the area. Defender Bryan Small was the visitors' hero in the last ten minutes, blocking a Nigel Quashie free-kick that was heading for the net and deflecting a Peacock shot around the post to safety. Rangers boss Ray Harford will have to wait until a vital meeting with chairman Chris Wright on Wednesday to find out if he has any money to spend on new players for a promotion challenge next season. ''Basically it's all down to money, said the former Blackburn manager, who brought in Vinnie Jones and on-loan Neil Ruddock to help in QPR's battle against relegation. I'll know this week how much we've got to spend, but I don't think it will be very much. When I came here I knew there was no money to spend, but I have brought £4m into the club so maybe it's time to go the other way." QPR: Harper, Bardsley, Baraclough, Jones (Heinola 77), Ready, Ruddock (Yates 12), Slade, Peacock, Quashie, Gallen, Scully. Subs Not Used: Rose. BURY: Kiely, Woodward, Small, Daws, Lucketti, Butler, Ellis (Battersby 82), Armstrong, Swan (Jemson 69), Johnrose, Patterson (Rigby 86). Booked: Patterson. Att: 15,210 Ref: A G Wiley (Burntwood).

TAFF LUCK FOR READING Reading 0 Norwich City 1   A CENTURY of football at Elm Park ended on a miserable note as Reading's biggest crowd of the season watched the already-relegated Royals well beaten by a Norwich side inspired by Welsh starlet Craig Bellamy. Reading, who now face life in the new 25,000-capacity Madejski Stadium as a Division Two side, had the support of 15,000 fans but the visitors who axed manager Mike Walker on Thursday were always on top. Goalkeeper Scott Howie, signed from Motherwell on deadline day, had to produce a string of saves to keep the home team in with any chance. Bellamy was clearly the man of the match and came close twice in the opening five minutes but was guilty of wasting glorious chances. He made up for it in the 57th minute, Norwegian defender Erik Fuglestad slipping the ball to Neil Fenn, whose first time pass sent the 18-year-old Wales international clear to finally beat Howie. Reading manager Tommy Burns promised ''major surgery'' before next season. The former Celtic boss said: Today was the first time that the players looked like a relegated side. They have given me everything in the past half a dozen games, but today they just seemed to be flat. Perhaps all that effort took its toll. I will have them working throughout the summer in order to improve their fitness and I will be chatting to our chairman this week with a view to bringing in a number of quality players.'' READING: Howie, Bernal, Gray, Parkinson, Primus, Kelly (Brayson 50), Meaker (Lambert 65), Caskey, Fleck, O'Neill, Lovell. Subs Not Used: Swales. NORWICH: A Marshall, Sutch, Fuglestad, Carey, Scott, Jackson, Adams, Bellamy, Roberts (Polston 86), Fenn (Russell 73), Llewellyn. Subs Not Used: L Marshall. Booked: Jackson, Bellamy. Att: 14,817 Ref: T Jones (Barrow-in-Furness).

FOREST'S MUTED FAREWELL West Bromwich Albion 1 Nottingham Forest 1		ALDO SIGNS OFF IN STYLE Tranmere 2 Wolves 1
LEE HUGHES stayed cool to tuck away an 88th minute penalty as West Brom held First Division champions Forest in their final game before returning to the Premiership. This match between a side safely in mid-table and a club already promoted had a lot more bite than you'd expect. Steve Stone's opener in the 17th minute sparked fighting in the stands, where Forest supporters had managed to buy tickets among the home supporters. The brawl spilled out onto the pitch and play was held up for five minutes. The first goal came when Pierre van Hooijdonk slid the ball to the unmarked Stone on the right-hand edge of the area and he slotted in just his second of the season. In front of their biggest crowd of the season of 23,012, the Baggies pressed for an equaliser. Beasant produced a fine save to keep out Sean Flynn's volley from James Quinn's cross on 57 minutes and Hughes missed a sitter on 77 minutes after ‘Lurch' blocked a Kevin Kilbane shot and the ball rebounded into his path. The equaliser finally came when referee David Orr ruled that Jon-Olav Hjelde had handled Brian Quailey's cross. Hughes stepped up and, watched by Northern Ireland number two Joe Jordan, kept his nerve to score his 14th of the season and claim a well-deserved point. WEST BROM: Crichton, McDermott, Van Blerk, Flynn (Quailey 79), Beesley (Murphy 79), Carbon, Quinn, Nicol, Sneekes, Hughes, Kilbane. Subs Not Used: Coldicott. Booked: Van Blerk, Flynn, Hughes. NOTTINGHAM FOREST: Beasant, Bonalair, Rogers, Cooper, Chettle, Johnson (Hjelde 79), Stone, Gemmill (Woan 67), Van Hooijdonk, Harewood, Bart-Williams. Subs Not Used: Moore. Booked: Van Hooijdonk. Att: 23,013 Ref: D Orr (Iver).		ENGLISH football's most prolific striker ever went out in style yesterday as 39-year-old John Aldridge netted in each half of his last game before retiring to concentrate on managing the Prenton Park side. Both goals in the 2-1 win one a typically, coolly taken penalty - took the former Republic of Ireland international's tally to an astonishing 474 goals for his glorious career. ''I couldn't have scripted it better," he said. "It was the perfect end to a perfect playing career.'' The prolific former Newport, Oxford, Liverpool and Real Sociedad marksman was gifted a golden opportunity to sign off with a goal in the 34th minute when Keith Curle impeded Gary Jones and the referee gave a penalty. Aldridge, cruelly remembered by some for the spot-kick miss which arguably cost Liverpool the 1989 Fa Cup, made no mistake from the spot. Don Goodman put Wolves level six minutes after half-time with a superb angled shot that goalkeeper Steve Simonsen could only help into his own net. After hitting a post, Rovers' player-boss made it 2-1 in the 75th minute with a classic poacher's strike after Curle failed to clear a Liam O'Brien free kick. And, four minutes later, only a superb save by Mike Stowell kept out a header that looked to be completing a fitting, farewell hat-trick. TRANMERE: Simonsen, Kubicki (Frail 70), Thompson, McGreal, Hill, Irons (O'Brien 59), Morrissey (L Jones 55), Aldridge, G Jones, Mellon, Parkinson. WOLVERHAMPTON: Stowell, Muscat, Naylor, Atkins, Emblen, Curle, Goodman, Ferguson (Sedgley 76), Paatelainen, Bull (Froggatt 57), Simpson (Claridge 76). Att: 11,144 Ref: K M Lynch (Knaresborough).

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