32 NT NEWS. Monday, March 18, 2013. www.ntnews.com.au PUB: NT NEWS DATE: 18-MAR-2013 PAGE: 32 COLOR: C M Y K SPORT l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l ntnews.com.au Fergie tells United to remain focused Aston Villa’s Andreas Weimann celebrates scoring against Queens Park Rangers Picture: AFP SOCCER MANCHESTER United man- ager Alex Ferguson has warned his team not to get carried away believing they can romp to a record English Premier League triumph. United are 15 points clear at the top after their 1-0 home win over Reading on Satur- day, which followed defend- ing champions Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat at Everton. But Ferguson refused to be complacent despite United being in a position to win the title by a record margin. The 18 points by which United won the 2000 cham- pionship from Arsenal re- mains the largest winning cushion, not only in the his- tory of Premier League but in top-flight English football. ‘‘They can say what they like – you don’t get points or medals for being complacent and we won’t be,’’ he said. ‘‘It wasn’t a great performance but . . . where we are today is not down to today, it’s down to the previous six months. ‘‘The team has shown great consistency and played a lot of great football and the goal difference over City is big now — 15 points.’’ Match winner Wayne Rooney echoed his manager and refused to get carried away by the commanding gap, a margin that looks cer- tain to bring them a 20th Eng- lish league championship. ‘‘You have to be profess- ional,’’ Rooney said. ‘‘We know we’re in a fantastic pos- ition with nine games to go and 15 points clear but we have to go out and do our job week in, week out.’’ Victory for United against Sunderland in their next game, in two weeks, coupled with a City defeat would build Ferguson’s side an 18-point advantage ahead of the Manchester derby at Old Trafford. A win for United in that fixture, on April 8, would leave City mathematically unable to overhaul United’s point tally in the seven remaining matches. Everton’s win temporarily put them into fifth place, but they slipped back to sixth after Arsenal won 2-0 at Swansea City to move to within two points of fourth- placed Chelsea. January signing Nacho Monreal and Gervinho struck late in the game at the Liberty Stadium as Arsene Wenger’s side responded in positive fashion to their mid- week elimination from the Champions League. Meanwhile, Liverpool lost ground in the race for Euro- pean qualification after los- ing 3-1 at Southampton. Morgan Schneiderlin put Southampton ahead at St Mary’s, before Rickie Lam- bert doubled the hosts’ lead with a deflected free-kick. Philippe Coutinho replied for Liverpool on the stroke of half time, but Rodriguez made sure of victory in the 80th minute as Mauricio Pochettino’s side pulled seven points clear of the rel- egation places. Queens Park Rangers were left seven points adrift of safety at the foot of the table after losing 3-2 to relegation rivals Aston Villa in a thrill- ing encounter at Villa Park. In the day’s other game, Stoke City failed to reverse their rather disappointing recent form, with a scoreless draw at home to West Brom- wich Albion. Juve boss returns fire at critics JUVENTUS coach Antonio Conte hit back at critics af- ter second-half goals from Mirko Vucinic and Claudio Marchisio secured a 2-0 win at Bologna that allowed the Turin giants to move 12 points clear at the top of Serie A. Bologna, beaten only three times this year and coming off the back of a 1-0 win over Inter at the San Siro last week, had hoped to be able to continue their purple patch at a sold-out Stadio dell’Ara. Juventus turned on the class to secure a 20th win of the season that most pundits believe was enough to secure their 29th league title, and they now lead Na- poli in the title race, while Bologna have slipped two places to 12th. Conte later came under criticism for what Bologna believed were over-the-top celebrations on the part of the Juve coach, but Conte hit back, instead criticising the hostile welcome his club received on their ar- rival in Bologna. ‘‘Can’t I even celebrate with the fans after such a victory?’’ he said. ‘‘And let’s discuss more serious matters – people who welcomed us with stones and sticks, people . . . shouting obscenities. ‘‘These people should be ashamed, not me.’’ Cardiff end losing streak at Sheffield CARDIFF got back on track in the race to reach the Prem- ier League as the Champion- ship leaders cruised to a 2-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. Malky Mackay’s team end- ed a three-match winless run that had threatened to derail their automatic promotion hopes thanks to Don Cowie’s first goal since September on the stroke of half-time and Matthew Connolly’s 65th- minute header. It was a vital win for the Bluebirds, who are now seven points clear at the top after second-placed Hull and third-placed Watford lost. Wednesday, managed by former Cardiff boss Dave Jones, are a point above the bottom three after a third loss in their past four matches. Hull lost ground on Cardiff after throwing away a lead in a 2-1 loss against Nottingham Forest at the KC Stadium. Gianfranco Zola’s Watford could not capitalise on Hull’s loss as Bobby Hassell’s 35th minute gave Barnsley a 1-0 win at Oakwell to ease his team’s relegation fears. FA Cup semi-finalists Mill- wall recorded a 2-0 victory at Charlton. Kenny Jackett’s team set up a Wembley show- down with Wigan by beating Blackburn 1-0 in an FA Cup quarter-final replay on Wed- nesday and carried the momentum to The Valley. Celtic snatch injury time win GEORGIOS Samaras scored a wonder winner for Celtic four minutes into stoppage time as they fought from 3-1 down to record a remarkable 4-3 win over Aberdeen The Greek striker, a second half substitute for Beram Kayal, popped up five yards out to send an unstoppable overhead kick past Jamie Langfield to cap a dramatic come- back that keeps Celtic 15 points clear in the Scott- ish Premier League. Kris Commons had got the home side off to a dream start with a goal af- ter only 12 seconds. However, Celtic failed to build on their advan- tage and Scott Vernon lev- elled on half time. Josh Magennis rifled the Dons into the lead in the 53rd minute before his back-flick diverted Gavin Rae’s shot past Fraser Forster on the hour mark. Aberdeen looked to be heading to their first league win at Celtic Park since October 2004 before Charlie Mulgrew’s de- flected shot gave the Hoops some hope in the 68th minute. Gary Hooper nodded the equaliser in the 87th minute before Samaras popped up deep into stop- page time to spark wild celebrations. Celtic manager Neil Lennon praised his side’s fighting spirit. ‘‘It was absolutely bril- liant. People were ac- cusing the players of com- placency and not showing enough desire but I think when the fourth goal went in you could see what it mean to them and the sup- porters,’’ Lennon said. ‘‘We keep giving cheap goals away but our desire to win the game was fan- tastic today.’’ Aberdeen manager Craig Brown was dis- traught in defeat. ‘‘You would have to see it to believe it,’’ he said. ‘‘We didn’t competently withstand the aerial bom- bardment at the end and that’s where we have let ourselves down having got into a good position. ‘‘At 3-1, you would have thought a draw was a bad result so a defeat is a very bad result considering where we were.’’ Ronaldo sparks Madrid to life REAL Madrid trailed twice before fighting back with three goals in seven minutes to beat Mallorca 5-2 on Satur- day and avoid another slip- up to a low-profile Spanish league side. Mallorca led 2-1 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium after goals from Emilio Nsue and Alejandro Alfaro, both set up by Giovani dos Santos, with Gonzalo Higuain scor- ing in between for the hosts. After a sluggish first half, Cristiano Ronaldo sparked Madrid to life with an equal- iser in the 51st. Luka Modric put Madrid ahead three minutes later with a screamer, similar to his Champions League goal against Manchester United, and Higuain added another in the 57th. Karim Benzema scored in stoppage time. Madrid trail leader Barcelona by 10 points.