They paid a five-figure fee to Farnborough on Wednesday for Dennis Bailey, who once scored a hat- trick for Queen’s Park Rangers against Manchester United at Old Trafford. The 31-year-old striker, who watched Tuesday’s encounter between his old and new teams, has scored 21 goals in all competitions this season.Whoever loses out in the Conference title race this term may still be facing Nationwide League opposition next season. Rumours are circulating that Conference clubs may be invited to compete in the Auto Windscreens Shield.It will require the biggest shock in the tournament’s history if Bedlington Terriers are to be denied a trip to Wembley for the FA Carlsberg Vase final. Whoever wins the league will deserve it.”I’m up for it, but I’m not tense,” Cotterill added.

“I’ve got to keep my head so that the players keep theirs.”While Kettering have sold their promising 19-year-old striker Ben Wright to Bristol City for pounds 30,000, Cheltenham have been adding to their options up front. Rushden, who visit Morecambe tomorrow, let a two-goal lead slip in a 2- 2 draw at home to Dover Athletic.Steve Cotterill, Cheltenham’s manager, was not surprised that the top three all dropped points “It’s a tough league,” he said, “there are no easy games. Cheltenham were held 0-0 at home by struggling Farnborough Town, while Kettering’s trip to Woking also saw neither goalkeeper beaten. Indeed, the greatest threat to the Robins’ hopes of promotion to the Nationwide League may come not from Kettering but from third-placed Rushden & Diamonds, who are three points adrift of Cheltenham having played the same number of games.
All three title hopefuls were in action on Tuesday, and all had to settle for draws. With four games in hand on their Northamptonshire rivals, the Gloucestershire club are the bookmakers’ favourites to lift not just the title but the FA Umbro Trophy, in which they visit Emley in the quarter-finals tomorrow week. Second- placed Cheltenham Town entertain the leaders, Kettering Town, knowing that a victory will take them to the top of the table on goal difference.

WHADDON ROAD will tomorrow host a fixture which will have a big say in deciding the destination of the Nationwide Conference title. “It would be fun.”But when he was reminded that two of his team-mates in that World Cup- winning team, Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane, were playing for Juventus, Lizarazu added: “Maybe it would be a pity to beat them in the semi-finals Let’s have them only in the final.”. But his fellow striker Carsten Jancker proved hecould be a match winner, scoring two goals on Wednesday and being involved in the other two.The French World Cup winning wing-back Bixente Lizarazu, asked which team he would like to face next, named Juventus “They are a great team,” he said. “In my days we had brilliant individualities but today, all the players are strong, even those who are not in the first team,” he said.There were fears that Bayern would be weakened by the absence of the Brazilian striker Giovane Elber, who tore ligaments in his left knee in a league match at the weekend and will be out of action for the remainder of the season. They look too good for Werder Bremen, whom they will meet in the German Cup final on 12 June in Berlin. But although the club president Franz Beckenbauer claims providing entertainment is more important to him that titles, he dearly wants success in Europe’s showcase tournament.It was for that reason that Bayern hired Hitzfeld, hoping he could do for them what he did for their arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund, steering them to victory in the 1997 European Cup.The club’s general manager, Uli Honess, like Beckenbauer a prominent member of Bayern’s formidable side of the 1970s, says it is their best team in decades.

The Bavarians are in a class of their own at home this season, 14 points clear of second- placed Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga standings. “Manchester United and Juventus, obviously, are very strong opponents and Kiev look really dangerous,” Hitzfeld said after his team completed their impressive 6-0 aggregate victory. “We’re not taking any team lightly but I do believe we can beat anybody.”Bayern, who have not put their hands on the European Cup since the last of three consecutive triumphs in 1976, last appeared in the semi-finals in 1995, when they lost to the eventual winners Ajax. He personally congratulated every Kiev player, kissing the veteran coach Valery Lobanovsky three times on the cheek.Also celebrating were Bayern Munich, whose coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, said he believed his men could beat anybody after they demolished Kaiserslautern 4-0 to reach the last four for the first time in four years. They are sixth in the 20-team Spanish First Division, headed by their bitter rivals Barcelona, and are also in the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup. However, an improvement in their form is vital if they are to claw their way back into the top four and ensure entry into next season’s revamped Champions’ League.Meanwhile Shevchenko, a shy 22-year-old, was hailed a national hero by his country.