BRADFORD CITY
City are facing competition from Yorkshire First Division rivals Huddersfield and Barnsley in the bid to sign Rangers stalwart Stuart McCall. After seven years at Ibrox, McCall - left out of Craig Brown's 22-man pre-World Cup squad has yet to decide whether to see out the remaining year of his contract at Rangers. Bradford chairman Geoffrey Richmond is determined to pull out all the stops to secure McCall's return to the club where he spent six years before moving on to Everton and then Rangers.
He said: ''Stuart is arguably the most popular player ever to play for Bradford and we were alerted over the weekend that he was likely to be available.Our manager Paul Jewell spoke to Stuart on Monday and told him that we were extremely interested, and Stuart was happy to hear that. As soon as he gets back from their end of season tour, then Stuart will start talking to us. We are prepared to go that extra mile to secure his services.''

CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Winger John Robinson faces a weekend of worry over whether he will be the final name on manager Alan Curbishley's team sheet for the First Division play-off crunch with Sunderland at Wembley on Monday.
Robinson has not played for nearly two months after fracturing his right leg in a freak collision with his own goalkeeper Sasa Ilic. And now he fears a repeat of his Wembley nightmare seven years ago when he was dumped from Brighton's squad - after scoring the goal that got them there.
''I'm desperate to play because it's got to be Charlton's biggest ever game,'' Robinson said. ''A win gets us into the Premiership and every player will tell you that's the only place to be. I know I'm fit and ready and there's no way that I would say that if I thought there was any chance at all of letting down 10 other players. But what I can't control is the kind of thing that happened to me at Brighton this time seven years ago. I scored the winner in the second leg of the play off semi-final against Millwall but then wasn't even in the squad at Wembley where we lost to Notts County.''
Charlton have a squad of 22 players in training for Monday and assistant manager Les Reed said: ''Clive Mendonca, who had a twisted neck, is OK. He's been training all week. We've stuck to our normal routine and we've had our training ground marked out in the Wembley measurements to help our preparations.''

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
Manager Peter Jackson has ended his search for a goalkeeper by signing 28-year-old Nico Vasen from Belgium club Eendracht Aalst for £80,000. Newcastle's Stephen Harper spent three months on loan with Town last season but Magpies boss Kenny Dalglish refused to sell the highly-rated 23-year-old.

IPSWICH TOWN
Midfielder Paul Mason has been offered a month-to-month contract while he tries to regain his fitness. The 34-year-old, who was the club's top scorer in the 1996/97 season, was only able to play two games during the last season because of a foot injury.
TOWN have confirmed they will entertain Blackburn Rovers in a pre-season friendly on July 21.

MANCHESTER CITY
Blues boss Joe Royle responded to Georgi Kinkladze's departing claim that City wouldn't have gone down if he had been picked for more games by rubbishing the Georgian in public.
''I'm deeply disappointed but not surprised," said Royle. ''His parting shot was like all the others, delivered from a long way out and hopelessly wide of the target. Let's put the record straight. I played him three times and in two he was totally anonymous and in the other he was abysmal." Which was the one in which he scored a glorious first-minute free-kick before your record buy scored an astonishing own goal to send City down, then?

MIDDLESBROUGH
Midfielder Craig Hignett has signed for Aberdeen on a free transfer despite 40,000 Riverside fans signing a petition begging him to stay.
After persuading the out-of-contract star to agree to a reported £8,000-a-week wage packet, Dons manager Alex Miller is convinced he will be a success in a new-look Dons side next season. "I am delighted that Craig has agreed to join us," he said. "He is a quality player who I am sure will quickly become a firm favourite with the fans."
The former Crewe star sought out Paul Gascoigne's advice about the Scottish game and the presence of another Boro old boy, Derek Whyte, at Pittodrie helped him make up his mind over a switch north of the border. "Obviously I know Derek from his time with Boro and he had nothing but praise for the set-up here," said Hignett. "I'd been told before I came here that this would be an excellent move for me and having now seen around the place and talked with Alex, it did not take long to persuade me to sign."
BORO will play host to Newcastle, Graeme Souness' Benfica and Italian giants Fiorentina for a pre-season friendly tournament at the Riverside Stadium on August 1-2. Benfica will include Karel Poborsky and Brian Deane, while Fiorentina should still have Argentine superstar Gabriel Batistuta up front after refusing him a transfer, as well as former Manchester United winger Andrei Kanchelskis.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Manager Dave Bassett has warned fans not to expect any big-money signings this summer following financial talks with Irvin Scholar. Bassett is believed to be in line to receive less than half the £8m the club will receive from Sky TV, and much of that will be used in contract negotiations with current players. He said: ''It is fair to say I will not have the money to bring another Pierre Van Hooijdonk to the club during the summer.''

READING
Manager Tommy Burns has signed defender John Polston from Norwich and Scotland B midfielder Mark Reilly from Kilmarnock on free transfers. Polston was a member the Norwich side in their great UEFA Cup run in 1993-94 transfer but the 29-year-old missed five months of last season with groin and ankle injuries and was allowed to leave Carrow Road as part of a cost cutting exercise by the Canaries.
READING have confirmed a three-year groundshare deal in their new £37m Madejski Stadium with rugby union club Richmond. The Allied Dunbar Premiership club will play their home games at the new 25,000 all-seater stadium when it opens before the start of next season.

SUNDERLAND
Defender Darren Williams will be handed the job of taming Charlton's danger man in the promotion play-off decider at Wembley. Williams, set to face 25-goal Clive Mendonca, said: ''I rate him highly. There's no doubt he's a good player.'' Williams has been having treatment for a foot injury, but says he will be fit for Monday: ''Nothing will keep me out of this game.''

DIVISIONS TWO NEWS ROUND-UP GILLINGHAM Gillingham could lose two prized assets in as many days. Teenager Jim Corbett is set to join UEFA Cup-bound Blackburn for around £500,000 while Bristol City have once again been linked with Ade Akinbiyi, after a £2m bid for rivals Bristol Rovers' Barry Hayles was rejected. Akinbiyi was Gills' leading marksman with 22 goals this season and boss Tony Pulis is on record admitting that it will be difficult to keep either man. NORTHAMPTON TOWN Ian Atkins reports a clean bill of health as the Cobblers look ahead to Sunday's Division Two play-off final against Grimsby. Defender Ian Sampson has been passed fit after suffering a bruised foot in the second leg of the semi-final against Bristol Rovers. The only absentees from the Cobblers squad will be long-term injury casualties Sean Parrish and Roy Hunter. PLYMOUTH ARGYLE Argyle midfielder Chris Billy is poised to join runaway Third Division champions Notts County. Billy - who is also in Bristol City's sights - has refused to discuss a new contract with Plymouth, his current deal runs out next month. Central defender Richard Logan, who can also play in midfield, is being chased by Blackpool, Rotherham and Scunthorpe. PRESTON NORTH END Chairman Bryan Gray has flatly denied that manager David Moyes is operating under a strict transfer embargo. But any new signing will only come in after Moyes has sold a player from his already reduced squad. And each request for a new face would be considered on its own merits. I don't expect a lot of changes this summer because we did all that a year ago, explained the chairman, "although David will be looking to bolster certain positions. We will help him as much as we can but I don't think the ship's engines are broken - I just think the motors need to function more consistently. In hindsight, we made the mistake of bringing in players without moving people on and that proved a mistake." WATFORD Watford and Saracens are joining forces to invest more than £700,000 in the installation of a new high-tech playing surface and undersoil heating system at Vicarage Road. Initial construction will take six weeks and, with time allowed for growth, the pitch will be ready for the new First Division season in August. Then a revolutionary system using polypropylene fibres 20cm into the ground will help strengthen the pitch and the process should be finished in time for the start of the new rugby campaign in September.

DIVISION THREE PLAY-OFF PREVIEW AND NEWS ROUND-UP COLCHESTER v TORQUAY Colchester have sold only 8,000 tickets for tonight's Third Division play-off final at Wembley. They are blaming the switch of the game from its traditional Saturday to accommodate the England international against Saudi Arabia and have made unsuccessful attempts to gain compensation. Officials estimate that Colchester will take only around £25,000 in receipts with a potential crowd of 15-20,000 expected. For the AutoWindscreen Final two years ago against Carlisle, Colchester took 20,000 fans with them to Wembley and the club had anticipated in disposing of at least 16,000 tickets for tonight's big match. Colchester, Division Three's second-highest scorers behind champions Notts County, expect to field the side that beat Barnet in the semi-final second leg, but skipper Richard Wilkins has not suffered any recurrence of his groin injury. Manager Steve Wignall said: ''It will be tough, but the team showed tremendous determination against Barnet and are determined to make the Second Division. We think we might have the edge in having players with previous Wembley experience. My players are in good mood for the game. It's a huge match when you think we could be playing Manchester City next season." The Essex side, who finished fourth, one place above tomorrow's opponents, are hoping to get out of the bottom division for the first time in 22 years. One Torquay player with Wembley experience is defender Alex Watson. Although the brother of Everton stalwart Dave Watson played only four League games for Liverpool, he did play all 90 minutes of the 2-0 win over Wimbledon in the 1988 Charity Shield at the twin towers. Torquay manager Kevin Hodges is aiming to complete a remarkable transformation in the Devon club's fortunes by leading them into the Second Division after to successive years fighting against relegation to the Vauxhall Conference. Hodges then led the Gulls to within a whisker of automatic promotion from the Third Division this season, missing out on third place by a point after losing 2-1 at Leyton Orient in the last game of the season. His team have responded superbly to that huge disappointment and sealed a 7-2 aggregate win over Scarborough in the play-off semi-finals. Amazingly, Torquay's transformation has been achieved at the cost of £5,000 in transfer fees only striker Scott Partridge from Cardiff was not a free transfer and he is not even likely to start against Colchester. Hodges will instead rely on the incredibly fast breaks of £1m-rated West Indian striker Rodney Jack, 25, a St Vincent international who has scored 16 goals this season and been on trial at Newcastle and Sunderland, and the experience of 37-year-old former Ipswich midfielder Steve McCall. Then there are the attacking qualities of wing-backs Paul Gibbs, released by Colchester last season, and Andy Gurney, who have 20 goals between them this campaign. Teenage goalkeeper Matthew Greg is likely to return in goal because Ken Veysey is suspended after being sent off against Leyton Orient. The Torquay boss said: ''Everyone was completely deflated at losing out on automatic promotion in the last game against Orient and there were a couple of days of doom and gloom at the club. But the players have responded really positively since then and our last two performances against Scarborough have probably been our best two games of the season. We lacked a regular goalscorer last season but I brought in a few free transfer signings over the summer who had something to prove, and players such as Jack, McCall, and Jon Gittens have been superb. We've turned it around.'' DIVISION THREE CHESTER CITY City will play a friendly against Tranmere at the Deva Stadium on 17th July before entertaining Everton eight days later. Manager Kevin Ratcliffe said: ''The Everton game is a big match and a good time to have a game with no income for the club during the summer.'' EXETER CITY Former Exeter and Glasgow Rangers star Chris Vinnicombe could be on his way back to St James' Park next season. The 27-year-old Burnley left-back is due to meet City boss Peter Fox for talks when his contract runs out at Turf Moor next month. Exeter-born Vinnicombe who joined Rangers from City for £300,000 in 1989 becomes a free agent under the Bosman ruling. NOTTS COUNTY Notts are set to renew their chase for former Sheffield Wednesday striker O'Neill Donaldson. Magpies boss Sam Allardyce targetted Donaldson in March but lost out to Stoke City, who in turn have released him on a free transfer following relegation. Allardyce is also believed to be close to completing a deal with two players, set to be free agents in June. ''They are both strong possibilites,'' he said. SWANSEA CITY Swansea have promoted first team coach Alan Curtis to the role of assistant manager and have advertised nationally for a player-coach. Manager Alan Cork explained that it would enable him to share the scouting duties with Curtis because ''the job is too big for one man.''

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