Blackburn Rovers last night turned to Republic of Ireland striker Leon Best to fire them back to the Premier League as they signed the striker from Newcastle for more than £3 million.

Dimitar Berbatov returned to the Manchester United starting line-up at Sunderland as Cristiano Ronaldo was left sitting on the bench.

West Ham’s £7m (€10.2m) man Dean Ashton is facing FA Cup final D-day after being struck by an injury, which marred his side’s 1-0 win at West Brom.