The youngster perpetually tormented Joos Valgaeren, with Stephen Pearson almost profiting from McFadden’s best work when his volley flew inches over the bar.That Celtic failed to break the deadlock was down purely to Henrik Larsson, who failed to finish two glorious chances before the interval. In the 41st minute, he steered Steve Guppy’s low cross wide and then drilled a shot into the side net after evading his marker.Hartson’s late goal offered Celtic hope, but the main beneficiaries of McFadden’s performance – apart from Berti Vogts – are Rangers, who will go top of the Scottish Premier League tonight if they beat Hearts.Motherwell (4-4-2): Woods; Corrigan, Partridge, Sengewald, Hammell; Lasley, Leitch (Fagan, 70), Adams, Pearson (Ramsay, 51); Lehmann, McFadden (Ferguson, 90). Substitutes not used: Dubourdeau (gk), Russell.Celtic (3-5-2): Douglas; Valgaeren, Balde, Laursen; Agathe (Maloney, 69), Lambert, Petrov, Thompson (Hartson, 64), Guppy; Larsson, Sutton. Substitutes not used: Hedman (gk), Crainey, Maloney, McNamara.Referee: W Young.. Ernie Els heads the list of entrants for next month’s World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.

The Open champion joins Ian Woosnam, Sergio Garcia, Nick Faldo and Justin Rose in a strong field.
Woosnam, who last year became the event’s oldest champion, will face stern opposition in his attempt to retain the title, including the man he beat in last year’s final, Padraig Harrington.Els, who triumphed in the Open at Muirfield in July, won an unprecedented hat-trick of titles between 1994 and 1996. Colin Montgomerie, Els’s fellow South African Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh, of Fiji, are also included in the 12-man line-up.Sam Snead’s record of 81 official PGA Tour victories has increased by one. The Tour has finally decided to count Open championships won before 1995.. Castleford’s full-back, Richard Gay, has announced his retirement after the diagnoses of a benign brain tumour.

“After 15 years of professional rugby league the decision to retire from the game I love was very hard indeed,” he said.St Helens expect Sean Long to play again this season, but admit that he might need another knee operation that could keep him out of Great Britain’s series against New Zealand.He missed Saints’ defeat by Wigan on Sunday after having minor surgery. Wigan’s Andy Farrell is another Great Britain player likely to be out this weekend after suffering a thigh injury on Sunday.. The International Rugby Board conference on player welfare concluded last night with agreement that the introduction of set periods of prolonged rest is crucial to the future of the game. Mitchell would like his players to enjoy three months’ rest between November and January, switching their autumn internationals to a window in June and July. But with the northern hemisphere season running from September to May, the summer months are their only chance for rest and recuperation.Initial agreements were reached that a player’s off-season must be at least four weeks of “continuous holiday, leave or active rest” per year, with the subsequent pre-season period eight to 10 weeks in duration.

The recommendation added that, once the season begins, “normally there should be no more than one game per week”.The chief conclusion to emerge from the conference was that the demands on players, particularly the ?te, must be carefully managed.The conference agreed on the importance of “first-class global data collection, collation and monitoring” and made four recommendations to be considered by the Medical Advisory Committee before being put, in turn to the IRB Council in November. The recommendations added that ?te players must have their welfare “proactively managed”. This means creating a balance between training, games and travel and adjusting their period of “active rest” to ensure they remain at peak condition.Dr Sid Millar, chairman of the IRB Technical Committee, was delighted with the conclusions reached at a conference. “Nothing is more important to the future of the professional game than the health, welfare and security of our players,” he said. “Rugby has become an increasingly demanding sport, and not just in physical terms. Reconciliation of the needs of the players with the needs of the game is a matter of the greatest importance.”. They think big at the Rugby Football Union these days – so big, in fact, that there seems a serious risk of the Twickenham top brass losing their collective marbles.