Aston Villa assistant manager Gary McAllister has hailed the positive response of Richard Dunne following their training-ground altercation and the defender being axed from the team.

World number one Tiger Woods has his first title on Australian soil firmly in his sights after establishing a two-shot break over the rest of the field at the halfway stage of the JBWere Masters at Kingston Heath in Melbourne.

Tiger Woods only played the back nine at Kingston Heath this morning and, afterwards, wasn’t letting on whether that was all he needed or all he could cope with in conditions that were “hot as hell”.

Aston Villa defender Luke Young has flown home from his club’s pre-season trip to Spain for treatment on a persistent thigh injury.

The body of a 70-year-old man was recovered from a burnt-out thatched cottage in Co Laois today.

The defence counsel for one of the four men accused of shooting a Limerick bouncer standing trial at the Central Criminal Court has told the chief prosecution witness that he could not have gone to collect a gun from his client at any point on the day of the murder.

Aston Villa are on the verge of finally signing West Ham midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker in an £8m deal.

THE London suburb of Hampstead has an affluent, upbeat air to shame Dublin 4 into submission.

In spite of talk of him leaving for Dublin, Mick O'Dwyer is to remain at the helm of the Laois football team, following marathon talks between the management, the county board and the players last night.

LIKE any great story, this one has had a touch of everything: drama, suspense, plot twists, a catalogue of characters and a touch of comedy thrown in for good measure.

DRUIDS GLEN is unquestionably one of the major success stories of modern Irish golf. Although only opened in 1995, “Gleann na Draoithe”, as its creator and owner Hugo Flinn likes to call it, hosted the Irish Open from 1996 to 1999, the Seve Trophy in 2002 and European Golf Course of the Year in 2001.

Aston Villa have revealed that controversial central defender Alpay was given permission by the club not to report for training on Tuesday – but major doubts still linger over the Turkish international’s future at the club.

West Ham have signed midfielder David Noble from Arsenal on a short-term contract until the end of the season.