An Irishman who saved all his money for three years, quit his job and climbed Mount Everest, has said that he is glad of the normal things in life after reaching his goal.

Premier League footballer Joey Barton is on his way to Portugal for a holiday today after being released from police custody last night following his arrest for affray.

QPR midfielder Joey Barton was arrested today on suspicion of affray after an altercation outside a nightclub in Liverpool, sources said.

QPR are set to launch their own internal investigation after captain Joey Barton was handed a 12-match ban by the Football Association for “tarnishing the image of football” in the wake of his sending-off at Manchester City.

Irish striker Kevin Doyle has completed a remarkable year by being named in the 2006 Professional Footballers’ Association Football League Championship Team of the Year.

Derby manager George Burley has released four players in the wake of his side’s play-off failure.

Derby 0 Preston 0

Derby manager George Burley went for broke from the outset in his attempt to overturn Preston’s 2-0 advantage from the first leg of the Coca-Cola Championship semi-final play-off by handing shock starting roles to Grzegorz Rasiak and Inigo Idiakez.

Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell will have no qualms about spending his transfer budget, if and when new chairman Ken Bates provides him with one.

Derby 2 Leeds 0

West Ham 1 Derby 2

Derby 0 Sunderland 2

Leaders Wigan crashed to their first defeat of the season as visitors Plymouth enjoyed a 2-0 victory in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Sunderland moved up to fourth in Nationwide Division One tonight as they completed the double over struggling Gillingham with a 2-1 win at The Stadium of Light.

Peter Reid’s future as Leeds boss looks increasingly bleak following the demoralising 6-1 rout at Portsmouth – although he will not quit.

Thousands of Harry Potter fans are reading the latest adventures of the boy wizard for free by downloading pirated copies of the book from the internet, it emerged today.

Former Aston Villa midfielder Ian Taylor has joined First Division Derby.

Oleg Luznhy has been released by Arsenal, it was announced today.

Graham Taylor has admitted he failed in his second spell at Villa – but laid some of the blame at chairman Doug Ellis’ door.

Aston Villa have handed free transfers to Alan Wright and Ian Taylor.

Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor has issued a “points make prizes” message to his players as he challenged them to show the level of consistency that has been lacking in the final third of the Premiership campaign.

Aston Villa’s long-serving midfielder Ian Taylor is still in the dark as to whether he has a future at the club after this season.

Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 1

Aston Villa 1 Blackburn 4

Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor will again have to ring the changes when his injury-ravaged side take on visiting Bolton on New Year’s Day.

Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor will let chairman Doug Ellis and the board of directors decide whether they are prepared to “bite the bullet” and allow out-of-favour big money signings – such as Alpay and Bosko Balaban – to leave on free transfers.

GERARD HOULLIER has absolute confidence that the mental strength of his players will drive Liverpool out of their dreadful slump.

Michael Boulding is refusing to write off his Aston Villa career despite being loaned out to Sheffield United.

Aston Villa have two injury doubts ahead of the derby clash with Birmingham at St Andrew's.

Ian Taylor is to see a specialist to try and find a remedy for his calf problem.

Juan Pablo Angel returns for Aston Villa against Tottenham as they go in search of their first points and goals of the season.

Aston Villa are facing up to a season without European football after crashing out of the Intertoto Cup at the semi-final stage to Lille.

Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor is adamant there is all to play for still in their Intertoto Cup semi-final tie with Lille.

Lille 1, Aston Villa 1,

Lille 1-1 Villa

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 1 FT

Bolton chalked up their second successive victory today thanks to a moment of magic from Kevin Nolan.

FA Barclaycard Premiership

Aston Villa manager John Gregory believes Juan Pablo Angel has more than justified his club record £9.5m (€15.4m) price tag as the striker celebrated his first anniversary since moving from River Plate.

Alex Ferguson admitted he only reluctantly sent on substitute Ruud van Nistelrooy to rewrite the Manchester United record books in yet another amazing FA Cup comeback.

Sunderland 1 Aston Villa 1

Aston Villa are in danger of being without midfielder Lee Hendrie for tomorrow’s clash with Tottenham.

Aston Villa midfielder Hassan Kachloul has been ruled out of tomorrow’s clash with Derby County at Pride Park.

Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer celebrated his 400th league game with a brilliant volley to help see off Premiership leaders Aston Villa.