Category Sports News

A home fan spitting at one of Ross County’s coaching staff at the end of their Scottish Premiership play-off at Livingston, according to the club, caused a verbal altercation.

In the first leg of the first leg in West Lothian, Top-flight County capitalized on a 96th-minute penalty to draw the game, which was followed by a furious Livingston fan who yelled and yelled at the visitors’ dugout.

County manager Don Cowie claimed Carl Tremarco’s assistant Carl Tremarco had been spat at the start of the dispute.

Livingston is looking into the incident, which was captured on camera.

Our employees want to protect each other when it occurs because it is a repulsive experience. I wanted to ease my nerves.

Livingston has been excellent, and they have CCTV to track down the culprit and take action.

Steven Ferguson, the Highland club’s chief executive, agreed with his manager’s assertions and said they were “not going to accept that.”

Although Livingston manager David Martindale was not present, he claimed the incident would be “disgusting if true.”

He continued, “I’m sure the club will find out what’s going on.” It is vile. It’s disgusting. Really, really disappointing.

Betfred Super League

Leigh (0) 12

Ipape, Trout Goals: McNamara 2

Hull FC (26) 26

By leading Hull FC to victory at Leigh, which ended their four-game losing streak in the Super League, Scrum-half Aidan Sezer made his 250th career start.

The Black &amp, Whites blitzed their hosts in the first half to give them a 26-point lead, Sezer’s kicking was almost flawless, with three conversions and two penalties.

Before the break, cadets Cust, Herman Ese’ese, Lewis Martin, and Sam Eseh all made a defensive breakthrough to give Hull FC a chance to rise to fifth place.

In the final 20 minutes, third-placed Leigh rallied, but tries from Edwin Pape and Owen Trout did little to maintain the scoreline.

It was hardly surprising that the two teams looked evenly matched again in their end-to-end opening ten minutes despite drawing a thrilling 22-22 tie before half-time.

Sezer’s coolly-taken 35-yard penalty extended Hull’s lead even further and made it possible for the Black &amp, Whites to retake it despite a brief period of Leigh pressure.

Martin was given a more routine kick by Sezer after Trout was harshly punished for a high tackle on the scrum-half, and after another weaving run from Pryce, the home side appeared ragged.

As Sezer burst through once more to set up Eseh under the posts for Hull’s fourth try to make it 26-0 at half-time, Leigh’s hopes of reaching half-time were completely dashed.

Ipape and Alec Tuitavake were both held up close to their target, but Adrian Lam’s men repeatedly gained territory without producing anything.

On the hour mark, Ipape broke through, diving over between the posts, and it needed smart defending from Zak Hardaker to stop Trout from getting the ball down once more. There was a glimmer of hope for the Leopards.

After Lachlan Lam’s crossfield 40-20 kick had kept Leigh in the ascendancy, Trout was not denied, however, collecting Ben McNamara’s pass to add his name to the scoresheet.

Hughes, Tuitavake, Davis, and Charnley swapped out.

Pryce, Martin, Litten, Briscoe, Barron, Cust, Sezer, Ese’ese, Bourouh, Knight, Hardaker, Chamberlain, Asiata, all play for Hull FC.

Ashworth, Balmforth, Eseh, and Laidlaw are the exchanges.

Betfred Super League

Leigh (0) 12

Ipape, Trout Goals: McNamara 2

Hull FC (26) 26

When Hull FC defeated Leigh to end their four-game losing streak in the Super League, Scrum-half Aidan Sezer led them on their 250th career game.

The Black &amp, Whites controlled their hosts in the first half to take a 26-point lead, with three conversions and two penalties coming from Sezer.

Before the break, cadets Cust, Herman Ese’ese, Lewis Martin, and Sam Eseh all made a defensive breakthrough to give Hull FC a chance to rise to fifth place.

In the final 20 minutes, third-placed Leigh rallied, but tries from Edwin Pape and Owen Trout did little to maintain the scoreline.

It was hardly surprising that the two teams looked evenly matched again in their end-to-end opening ten minutes despite drawing a thrilling 22-22 tie before half-time.

Sezer’s coolly-taken 35-yard penalty extended Hull’s lead even further and made it possible for the Black &amp, Whites to retake it despite a brief period of Leigh pressure.

Martin was given a more routine kick by Sezer after Trout was harshly punished for a high tackle on the scrum-half, and after another weaving run from Pryce, the home side appeared ragged.

As Sezer burst through once more to set up Eseh under the posts for Hull’s fourth try to make it 26-0 at half-time, Leigh’s hopes of reaching half-time were completely dashed.

Ipape and Alec Tuitavake were both held up close to their target, but Adrian Lam’s men repeatedly gained territory without producing anything.

On the hour mark, Ipape broke through, diving over between the posts, and it needed smart defending from Zak Hardaker to stop Trout from getting the ball down once more. There was a glimmer of hope for the Leopards.

After Lachlan Lam’s crossfield 40-20 kick had kept Leigh in the ascendancy, Trout was not denied, however, collecting Ben McNamara’s pass to add his name to the scoresheet.

After Bailey Hodgson and Josh Charnley stormed the home side, Hull and Hull had to fight it out to keep the home side out, but Leigh always had a chance to make up the top two.

The visitors only suffered injuries to ex-Leopards loose forward John Asiata, who was substituted at half-time due to a leg strain, and Cust, who went off after receiving a blow to the ribs.

John Cartwright, the head coach of Hull FC, told BBC Radio Humberside:

“We were kicking from deep in our half, but we didn’t panic; we stuck with it for the first 15 minutes because they probably had the better of us.”

We did a little bit of decent ball, and Aidan Sezer was performing at his best on his 250th. Will Pryce probably had one of his best games for the club. Cade [Cust] did a fantastic job of keeping things professional while we were out there.

“We iced up a lot of opportunities tonight,” he said. It was encouraging to be able to compete and attack the way they did; I know we could do it, and tonight was nice and tactful.

Hughes, Tuitavake, Davis, and Charnley swapped out.

Pryce, Martin, Litten, Briscoe, Barron, Cust, Sezer, Ese’ese, Bourouh, Knight, Hardaker, Chamberlain, Asiata, all play for Hull FC.

Ashworth, Balmforth, Eseh, and Laidlaw are the exchanges.

Nathan Aspinall secured the final Premier League play-off spot, while Luke Littler set a new seasonal points record in Sheffield.

Englishman Aspinall defeated Michael van Gerwen 6-2 in the quarter-finals to eliminate the seven-time champion.

Meanwhile, table-topping world champion Littler averaged more than 114 as he broke his own points record, reaching 42 after earning two in thrashing Stephen Bunting 6-1.

Aspinall, 33, had finished in fifth, one place below qualification, in the previous two seasons.

But he will join Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price at the London finale on 29 May after beating Van Gerwen, the only player who could stop him going through.

The 36-year-old Dutchman, without a nightly win in the whole 2025 campaign, misses out on the play-offs for only the second time in 13 years of competing.

Aspinall said: “There was a lot of emotion as soon as I walked off stage. Michael didn’t look himself but I thought I put in a fantastic performance under that pressure.”

World number eight Aspinall has confounded critics who opposed his inclusion in the eight-man competition, having been ranked 11 when the picks were made.

His inclusion was questioned by fellow players Mike de Decker and Dave Chisnall amid suggestions his popular walk-on song Mr Brightside helped his case.

The Stockport-born player has battled online abuse over his participation, as well as recovering from injuries and dartitis to reach the final four.

“I came off social media because of the abuse I was getting,” said ‘The Asp’ after his second nightly win, in Aberdeen a week ago.

“I’m not being exaggerated here, but it ruined my life for a month, not just my life, my family’s. It was horrific. “

Aspinall has also come back from elbow, wrist and back injuries, along with tackling dartitis – a condition where players have a mental block when it comes to throwing on the stage.

Missing out on qualification seals a miserable campaign for Van Gerwen, whose last nightly win came back in April 2024.

The three-time world champion had seven victories and two runner-up spots from his previous 12 campaigns, with his last Premier League title in 2023.

“This is probably one of the hardest Premier Leagues I have ever played in – not in terms of players, but in terms of myself,” Van Gerwen admitted.

His cause was not helped when missing the ninth event of the season in Berlin with a shoulder injury sustained while trying to put a shirt on.

Final

Luke Littler v Luke Humphries

Semi-finals

Luke Littler 6-4 Nathan Aspinall

Luke Humphries 6-2 Chris Dobey

Quarter-finals

Gerwyn Price 5-6 Chris Dobey

Luke Humphries 6-4 Rob Cross

Nathan Aspinall 6-2 Michael van Gerwen

O2 Arena, London – Thursday 29 May

Semi-finals

Luke Littler v Gerwyn Price

Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall

Best of 19 legs

Final

Littler or Price v Humphries or Aspinall

Best of 21 legs

Every Thursday, the eight players go head-to-head in a straight knockout tournament. So, each player will be entered at the quarter-final stage, before moving to the semi-finals and then a final.

These matches are all played over the best of 11 legs (or games of darts).

Players take home points from each of these rounds. The winner of the night gets five points, the runner-up three points, and each semi-finalist wins two points.

All eight players are re-entered into the tournament for the next round on the following Thursday.

The players meet each other once at the quarter-final stage from weeks one to seven, and then again in weeks nine to 15. The matches in weeks eight and 16 are played based on position in the league at that point.

The four players at the top of the table by the end of night 16 qualify for the final play-offs, which take place on Thursday, 29 May.

Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall are through this year.

After agreeing to a new deal that will keep him at the La Liga club until 2028, Raphinha claims that his “dream is to be at Barcelona until the end of my career.”

As Hansi Flick’s side completed a domestic treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Spanish Super Cup, the Brazilian winger has 34 goals and 25 assists in 56 appearances this year.

Raphinha, whose previous agreement lasted until 2027, said, “It’s something very special, and feeling like a part of the Barca family for another year makes me feel very happy.”

I’ve already told my family that I want to work here until I can finish my career, and I want to do so at the highest level.

The 28-year-old from Leeds United, who has scored 17 goals in the Premier League in its two seasons, signed for Barca in 2022.

Raphinha’s first two seasons in Spain were the only ones that allowed him to score 13 league goals, which made the club look like a selloff.

However, he made a remarkable turnaround in the 2024-25 campaign, scoring 18 goals to reclaim the La Liga title.

In Barca’s quest to reach the Champions League semi-finals attracted interest from clubs in the Premier League and Saudi Arabia, where Raphinha also scored 13 goals and nine assists.

Along with his team-mate and Spain winger Lamine Yamal and Paris St-Germain’s French forward Ousmane Dembele, he is also thought to be a contender for the Ballon d’Or after a stellar season.

Raphinha was chosen as one of Barca’s five captains for the season along with Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, and Pedri, along with Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ronald Araujo, and Ronald Araujo.

He declared, “I’m now Raphinha, the father, and the captain.”

“I have more responsibility than I did when I first arrived, but I believe I have since matured greatly.”

However, I believe I can still grow up, and I want to improve as a person and a footballer with your assistance.

In this shirt, I want to keep scoring goals, adding assists, and most importantly, winning titles. My personal objective is this.

Stuart Kettlewell is among a number of candidates Kilmarnock are speaking to about the Scottish Premiership club’s managerial vacancy.

The Rugby Park outfit have been left hunting for a replacement for Derek McInnes after he opted to join Hearts.

And the 40-year-old Kettlewell, who quit as Motherwell boss in January citing personal abuse during a run of poor results, is reportedly close to being appointed as his successor.

However, Kilmarnock chairman Billy Bowie and his fellow directors will hold further interviews before they make an appointment.

In appointing a new manager, Kilmarnock clearly want to avoid any of the complications that surrounded the departure of McInnes.

That all got a bit tricky with the mounting speculation followed by a defeat at Motherwell and the understandable dismay of some fans.

The decision that McInnes wouldn’t be in charge for the final match of the season against his prospective new employers was clearly an exercise in damage limitation.

Kettlewell is not an unexpected name to be linked with the job. He is available and can point to a strong evidence of work at Motherwell and Ross County.

Jason: Now Dundee have decided to dispense with Tony Docherty’s services I’d quite happily see him in the dugout at Rugby Park. He did a good job there and I think he’d be an ideal replacement and it’s not too much of a risk. He knows the league and the players in it, so I think it would hopefully be a smooth transition.

John: Either Paul Lambert or David Martindale. I think both managers could improve our style of football, giving better entertainment for the fans. Passing football has been seriously lacking this season and it has been a grim watch.

Jay: Shaun Maloney for Killie – that’d be a great shout.

Gary: Scott Brown with a bigger and better squad than he has at Ayr could do well. Docherty unfairly sacked as Dundee boss. Chris Burke on coaching staff.

Matthew: Robbie Neilson. Average 1.7 points per game, likes to play 3-4-2-1 which allows you to play a more progressive, entertaining football.