Westwood an Irish injury scare

WITH Shay Given already ruled out of Ireland’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Macedonia on March 26, there was further bad news for Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni on Saturday when Given’s likely replacement, Coventry’s Keiren Westwood, was taken off injured during his side’s 4-1 defeat to Bristol City.

Coventry were 3-0 down when Westwood failed to reappear for the second-half, with no news coming out of the club on how serious his shoulder injury is.

One man who will rightly hope to be called up for that home game is QPR number one Paddy Kenny.

He was outstanding again for the Championship leaders as they scraped to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Leicester at Loftus Road.

On-loan West Brom striker Ishmael Miller snatched victory for Rangers two minutes from time in an encounter which could have gone either way, with Kenny at his best to keep out the visitors.

Boss Neil Warnock revealed a number of his players went into the game carrying fitness niggles, and he believes that mentality will be crucial to their promotion bid.

Former Shelbourne midfielder Wes Hoolahan found himself in Norwich manager Paul Lambert’s bad books after his missed penalty cost his side two points against struggling Preston on Saturday.

After Grant Holt had equalised Chris Brown’s opener for North End, the Canaries had a chance to secure victory when they were awarded a spot-kick on 72 minutes after Darren Carter handled in the box.

But Hoolahan’s chipped penalty was easily saved by Lilywhites goalkeeper Iain Turner, and Lambert left his player in no doubt that it was an incident not to be repeated.

“I don’t tell players how they should take penalties but I don’t think he’ll be taking one again like that while I am manager,” said Lambert.

Swansea stay second, eight points off the leaders, despite Swans boss Brendan Rodgers suffering the curse of the manager of the month award as his side slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Scunthorpe.

Joe Garner’s penalty condemned Swansea to only their second defeat in nine games.

Swansea’s bitter rivals Cardiff missed the chance to go second as they slipped to a 2-0 loss to Ipswich in the Welsh capital. Jimmy Bullard struck a brace to clinch three impressive points and continue their march up the table. They are currently in 14th place.

Fifth-placed Nottingham Forest saw their remarkable 36-match unbeaten run at the City Ground come to an end with a 1-0 loss against Hull.

Forest had not lost a regular season match on home soil since September 2009, but suffered defeat courtesy of Matty Fryatt’s strike as Hull climbed to eighth.

Leeds joined QPR as the only winners from among the top six as Simon Grayson’s men eased to a 5-2 win over Doncaster, with Max Gradel and Jonny Howson both scoring twice.

Elsewhere, Reading thrashed Middlesbrough 5-2, with Ireland’s in-form striker Shane Long (2) and veteran full-back Ian Harte among the goals.