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Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has set out his side’s aspirations for the rest of the season as the Lilywhites remain in the running for a top four finish.

The Lowdown: Top four on the cards?

Although things can change, it feels safe to assume that the top two teams are cemented out in front, with second place Liverpool ten points ahead of third place Chelsea.

After that, third place and more prominently fourth are both up for grabs. On Sunday, Arsenal clinched three points against Watford, moving themselves up to fourth in the table having overtaken Manchester United.

Tottenham sit in seventh place with 45 points, just two points behind Ralf Rangnick’s side – with a further two games-in-hand. Thus, Spurs could very easily move past West Ham and Man United, if they pick up the six points available. This would leave a top four battle with Arsenal, who have played one game less than the Lilywhites.

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The Latest: Conte’s ambitions

Following Spurs’ demolition of Everton, Conte took to his press conference to relay his ambitions for the remainder of the season. He claimed that the ‘important’ goal is to secure a top four finish and Champions League qualification, even though he ‘doesn’t like’ setting the bar so low.

As quoted by football.london, he said:

“You know I don’t like to speak about ambition and reaching a place in the Champions League because I like to play to win the league and win trophies, but in this situation this could be our Champions League, our Premier League title if we are able to reach fourth place.”

The Verdict: Tough fight

Whilst Spurs have been very impressive in their previous two Premier League games, having scored nine goals in total, they certainly have experienced mixed fortunes with Conte in charge.

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If the Lilywhites are serious about a top four finish, they need to maintain a level of consistency, rather than winning against a top team like Manchester City and then losing to Burnley four days later.

With Arsenal making a strong push lately, it will definitely be a challenge for the Italian, whose side are set to face Man United at the weekend. However, it is surely a challenge that he will relish.

In other news: Tottenham Hotspur: Conte shares Sessegnon injury ‘problem’

	Andrew Symonds brings down the streaker © AFP

Andrew Symonds’ eventful season has continued with him shoulder charging a streaker while batting in the second final in Brisbane. Symonds, who was at the centre of the Sydney Test controversy, was standing at the non-striker’s end when a man entered the field and began dodging security guards and players.When the spectator ran near Symonds, the batsman moved across and bumped into him in a shepherding action more familiar to the Brisbane Lions Australian rules team when it plays at the Gabba. The force of Symonds’ shoulder sent the man to the ground and security and police swarmed before taking him from the field.Symonds, who sometimes trains with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team, remained unflustered and went to talk to his partner Matthew Hayden. The ICC’s Level 4.2 regulation covers “physical assault on another player, umpire, referee, official or spectator”, but it is highly unlikely Symonds will be punished. The streaker faces a maximum fine of A$3000 for the ground invasion and police also intend to charge him with willful exposure.”I’d just got out, so I was sooking,” Ricky Ponting said. “I haven’t seen it yet, there’s been a bit of talk and laughter around the dressing room, but I haven’t spoken to Symmo about it.”Another naked man ran towards Harbhajan Singh later in the innings but turned away before reaching the offspinner. This time the players let the security guards take care of the offender.Symonds is not the first Australian to have had an altercation with a spectator. Greg Chappell once whacked a streaker on the backside with his bat after the man ran on to the field and shook the batsman’s hand. Terry Alderman, the former Australia swing bowler, was less fortunate than Symonds when he tackled an English fan during the 1982-83 Ashes series, dislocating his shoulder and not playing a Test for 18 months.

Jimmy Maher is unhappy with Cricket Australia’s decision to force his star players out of Sunday’s one-day final © Getty Images

Jimmy Maher has slammed John Buchanan and Cricket Australia for ruling that World Cup squad members must not play in the domestic one-day final on Sunday. Maher, who will captain Queensland against Victoria, has been denied Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, two men who could have made a significant difference in the final.He said Buchanan, who once coached Maher at Queensland, had changed his stance now that he was in charge of the Australia team. “When he was coach of Queensland he wanted Australian players to play as much as possible for their states, wherever possible,” Maher said on . “So where’s the standard? I think he’s contradicted himself because it doesn’t suit him now.”Maher said the decision, which also rules Brad Hodge out of the Victoria line-up, smacked of contempt for the domestic competition. “I think it’s outrageous, not just from our point of view, but from everyone’s point of view,” he said. “It just shouldn’t be happening. Even if we ran fifth and weren’t involved in the final, I just don’t think it’s the right message to be sent to the sponsors of the Ford Ranger Cup, anyone involved in the Ford Ranger Cup, domestic cricket full-stop.”At the end of the day, I’ve got no problem with guys like Ponting or Gilchrist, if they’ve got a game in five days, but mate, the Australian cricket team does not play cricket for three weeks. This is a final, it’s not just round three of the Ford Ranger Cup, this is a final, it’s 100 overs of cricket.”Queensland had already named Watson, Johnson and Matthew Hayden, before he broke his toe, in their squad for the final. Maher said if the players were fit it would do them good to get some more practice ahead of the World Cup.”It just does not make any sense whatsoever,” he said. “Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson have played hardly any cricket in the last six months and they’re told they can’t play for fear they may get injured. I hope they didn’t cook last night, they might have burnt themselves. I just can’t believe it, it is just a disgrace in my opinion.”Queensland have recalled Scott Brant, the fast bowler, and Nathan Reardon, the allrounder, to replace Watson and Johnson. Cameron White, who will not be on the Caribbean tour, has returned to lead Victoria. Gerard Denton has also been included in their 13-man outfit at the expense of Peter Siddle.Victoria squad Michael Klinger, Jon Moss, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Rob Quiney, Aiden Blizzard, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Grant Lindsay, Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton, Mick Lewis, Darren Pattinson.Queensland squad Jimmy Maher (capt), James Hopes, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Aaron Nye, Nathan Reardon, Chris Simpson, Michael Buchanan, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Scott Brant.

Smith’s own form in the VB Series in Australia has also been of concern © Getty Images

Despite Australia convincingly beating them in the recent Test and one-day series, South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, is confident of turning round their fortunes on home soil. South Africa host Australia for a three-Test series and a clutch of ODIs, the first of which is at Centurion on February 26.”We know that we can really turn around and play better cricket at home,” he said. “We’re all looking forward to getting home and performing there and that’s our goal at the moment.”The South Africans have been on the road for three months: they arrived in Australia in early December after a trip to India, where they drew 2-2 with the hosts in a limited overs series. Their performances weren’t assisted by a number of injuries to key bowlers, including Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini and allrounder Jacques Kallis.But Smith believes things will start to turn in their favour after they take a two-week break in the lead-up to the home series, and refused to blame fatigue for the team’s results so far.”Our excuse is that we’ve just really been terrible at our basics so far,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys playing the best team in the world in their own backyard and they probably realise now that they’ve got to do a lot of improving at their levels to match up at this level.”Coming out of the Test series a lot of the guys that were here believed we could beat Australia. We didn’t take our chances, we had them under pressure in a number of cases and we just didn’t drive it home,” he said. “I think if we can really get together, perform well, get the same things right and take our chances we certainly have the opportunity back home of beating Australia.”Smith also pinpointed the home crowd as a distinct advantage. South Africa have been at the receiving end of a vociferously partisan Australian crowd on their tour.”It’s always a huge asset to play before your home crowd. It definitely adds another 10, 20 per cent to your game,” he said. “We’re looking forward to that more than anything else.”When asked how he hoped the home crowd would treat the Australians following the racial abuse of South Africans during the tri-series, Smith joked: “Hopefully pretty harshly. I hope the South African people will be better behaved than some of the things that we’ve been through on this tour.”

ScorecardUseful middle-order contributions from Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson boosted Queensland as they made 8 for 302 when bad light brought an early end to play on the opening day of their Pura Cup match against Western Australia at Brisbane. Symonds made 62 and Watson got 60, while James Hopes (41) and Wade Seccombe (35 not out) chipped in handily as well.For Western Australia, Brett Dorey was the most successful bowler, nailing Jimmy Maher and Clinton Perren, the openers, and Watson. He took 3 for 28 before breaking down with a side strain to become the second bowling casualty for the Warriors – Brad Williams had earlier left the field due to stomach cramps, but he returned late in the last session. Dorey, though, has been ruled out of taking further bowling duties in the match, and will only bat if required by the team.Maher, the Queensland captain, was fairly satisfied with the day’s play – his team only needs to secure first-innings points to get the opportunity to host the final, while Western Australia need an outright victory. “Hopefully we can bat for a fair bit longer tomorrow first, score a few more runs and bowl them out reasonably quickly,” Maher said, looking ahead to the action tomorrow. “It’s a pretty even ball game really.”He did, however, express his surprise at Western Australia’s line-up, and the exclusion of Brad Hogg. “I can’t believe that a bloke who plays one-day cricket for Australia can’t play for his state. That’s just amazing.”

Sri Lanka’s fastest bowler, Dilhara Fernando, has fully recovered from aserious back injury and is raring to have a go at the Englishmen. He couldplay in Kandy if conditions favour an extra pace bowler.

©CricInfo

Fernando went six months without international cricket after suffering astress fracture of his spine. He last played for Sri Lanka at Sharjah inApril, before the pain became so unbearable that he had to undergotreatment.Sri Lanka Cricket fast bowling coach, Champaka Ramanayke, reveals thatFernando first complained about his back during the 2003 World Cup. Theinjury apparently contributed to him bowling so many no balls.Ramanayake, with whom Fernando has been working with for the past fivemonths, helped identify a technical fault in his action, which is coined`counter rotation’ by bio-mechanic analysts."He was twisting his spine and putting too much pressure on it. The endresult was a fracture. We have identified the fault and changed hisalignment so that he’s bowling more upright now," said Ramanayake.During Dilhara’s absence the likes of Prabath Nissanka (now recuperatingafter knee surgery), Dinush Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekera have all pushedtheir claims for a regular berth. Nuwan Zoysa is also fighting his way backinto contention, bowling with greater zip and purpose.But despite the growing competition for places, Dilhara is confident that hewill soon regain his berth and unafraid of competition."When I first joined SSC, there were about five Sri Lankan bowlers in theside. Quite a number of people advised me to change club, arguing that Iwould not get a chance. But I stuck it out. There presence gave me anincentive to bowl better and improve my performances. I finally managed toconvince SSC to pick me," said Fernando."I am facing a similar situation today in making a comeback into thenational team and I am confident I can do it. As they [the other pacebowlers] keep on improving their performances it offers me a challenge toperform better to regain my place," said Fernando.The 24-year-old said he obtains the majority of his wickets with the slowball and the bouncer. "In the one-day game I bowl the yorker at tailenders.But I know I need to pitch the ball up further for success at the Testlevel."Fernando has been timed at 91.9 mph against South Africa at Durban where hereturned his best figures of five for 42 in 2000. He has natural pace buthas paid for and inconsistent line and often for bowling too short.Fernando said the best ball he bowled was to England opener Michael Vaughanin the Manchester Test in 2002."I did not play a single practice match and came straight into the Testmatch. I bowled a slow ball to Vaughan, which he failed to read and put upan easy catch. That has been the best ball I’ve bowled at internationallevel," said Fernando, who has 33 wickets from 13 Tests and 73 wickets from55 one-day internationals.There was a time Fernando was plagued with no balls, but since changing hisaction the problem as eased. "I bowled no balls whenever I tried to bowlfast and when I had problems with my run up," said Fernando. "There has beena considerable improvement in the number of no-balls I bowl after I changedmy run up. It has been very evident during the current season."Fernando said that he had not modelled his bowling action on anyone inparticular, but has been a keen follower of South African fast bowler AllanDonald. Sri Lanka hope he will have and equally distinguished career, no onedoubts that he has the raw ingredients.

Speculation that South Africa might lose the right to host the 2003 World Cup as a result of the country siding with India in the Mike Denness affair is groundless, a top United Cricket Board official said on Friday.South Africa and India have defied the International Cricket Council by appointing their own match referee for what has now become an unofficial "Test" match between the two countries at SuperSport Park, but the UCB believes that few, if any, sanctions will be taken against the home country.In fact, said United Cricket Board Communications Director Bronwyn Wilkinson, South Africa will be awarded the third Test match with India deemed to have forfeited the game. "This means that South Africa will have won the series 2-0 as for as the Test championship table is concerned," said Wilkinson.Wilkinson said that the UCB had been in constant touch with the ICC as the controversy unfolded. "We asked the ICC what the consequences of our staging an unofficial match would be and the reply was that India would be deemed to have forfeited the match," she said. "There has been no mention of any sanctions against South Africa and the World Cup is not in danger. We have spoken to (ICC president) Malcolm Gray and (ICC chief executive) Malcolm Speed on numerous occasions over the past two days and we would not have decided on our course of action if there was any threat to an event like the World Cup."Because the match will not be official, the statistics from the game will not be reflected in the players’ career records.

The news just keeps on coming for Newcastle fans in the Transfer Tavern this summer. 

Rafael Benitez is on the hunt for some key signings to improve on his side’s tenth-placed finish last year. The club had been linked with a move (as per the Sun) for Josh King last month, which would see fan favourite Matt Ritchie return to the south coast club. While the quick winger would provide Newcastle with some added dynamism going forward, Benitez should be looking at Middlesbrough’s Adama Traore to push the club on.

The Breakdown

The former Barcelona academy man has an £18 million release clause according to the Sun and has been linked with a move to Wolves and Huddersfield. Tony Pulis will apparently allow the winger to leave the Championship club, as he needs the funds to be able to facilitate his promotion push next season.

Blessed with incredible pace, Traore has only ever shown flashes of his potential during his time in England.  On his day, the Spain under-21 international has the ability to cause any fullback problems. The only thing is that it doesn’t seem to happen enough. In Pulis’ side last year, Traore could at times bee incredibly frustrating as his end product was never entirely consistent. However, if Benitez can drill in some routine and consistency into the winger, he could have a talent that is capable of winning a game on his own.

Traore scored five goals to go with 10 assists last season according to Transfermarkt. It’d be a gamble but if Benitez can tap into his quality, the Newcastle fans could have a potential club favourite.

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Newcastle fans – is this an outrageous move?

Speaking live on talkSPORT, reporter Alex Crook has made a claim involving Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte amid the club’s recent up-and-down run.

The Lowdown: Spurs need for consistency…

Over these last few weeks, Tottenham and Conte have been unable to find any sort of rhythm in all competitions with the side seemingly on topsy-turvy run of form.

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The Lilywhites battled to an impressive 3-2 win away to Premier League champions Man City near the end of last month, but that stellar performance was followed by a tame loss to Burnley after which Conte even hinted he could resign.

Spurs then got back on track with an imperious 4-0 victory against Leeds, yet just a few days later, Conte’s men were sent crashing out of the FA Cup by Middlesbrough  following Josh Coburn’s extra time winner.

These performances also came after disappointing losses to the Wolves and Southampton (tottenhamhotspur.com).

The Latest: Crook makes Conte claim…

Speaking live on talkSPORT, Crook has wondered why Tottenham’s inconsistent run hasn’t landed the manager in more hot water with supporters.

“Antonio Conte seems to feel a lot of love from the Tottenham fans for a manager who’s now been dumped out of the FA Cup by a Championship side,” he explained

“They’ve lost to Burnley, they’ve lost at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, and to Southampton as well, surely if Conte is this elite manager we’re lead to believe, those types of results should not be happening on his watch.

“I think he gets far too much of a free pass from the Tottenham fans.”

The Verdict: Correct verdict?

While Crook makes a point on Tottenham’s recently unacceptable run overall, we believe the lack of backing in January has also played a huge role.

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Conte certainly wasn’t helped by the club’s inability to land key transfer targets and the lack of investment in Tottenham’s team has been questioned since near the end of Mauricio Pochettino’s time at the club.

Much could depend on whether the Italian gets backed in the summer to see if he can truly make a success of Spurs.

In other news: Conte green-lights move for new top target as Spurs hierarchy pressured to strike agreement, find out more here.

	Master and apprentice: Adam Gilchrist and Brad Haddin will continue to trade information over the CB Series © Getty Images

Brad Haddin is using his last weeks touring with Adam Gilchrist wisely as he prepares to take over the gloves full-time in March. While Gilchrist waves goodbye during the CB Series, Haddin has the opportunity to pick up more useful tips from Australia’s world-record holder.”It is good to have another wicketkeeper to talk shop with along the way, and to have Adam at the other end of the phone line – he has always been willing to give me advice,” Haddin told AAP. “With a bit of luck, that won’t change when he retires. I am hoping he will always be on the other end of the phone.”Haddin has played two games in the CB Series as a batsman, pushing his career tally to 28 appearances, and he is currently waiting to discover the venue of what will almost certainly be his first Test series. Next month’s Pakistan tour is in doubt and if it is cancelled he will have to wait until the West Indies trip in May.Despite the promotion being so close, Haddin said the situation had not altered his focus. “My position hasn’t changed … there’s a position [in the team] at the end of the tour,” he said. “You have to make sure you’re consistent and your performance warrants the selectors having a look at you when the opportunity comes when Adam goes.”I’ve been in this situation now for a long time. It’s not something now I’m going to think too much about or it could detract from my performance.”Haddin, 30, first replaced Gilchrist in 2001 and has become his regular understudy since 2004. However, he is likely to spend his remaining playing time in the CB Series as a batsman and is in contention for a spot against Sri Lanka at the WACA on Friday.”It is obviously something I am not used to … and I would be lying if I said it is not uncomfortable,” he said of his glove-free role. “But it has been enjoyable as well because I don’t think many keepers have the opportunity to field in front of crowds like we had at the MCG.”I have always been a wicketkeeper because I was a bit too short to be a fast bowler or anything else. I have enjoyed the time in the field but I tell you what, I can’t wait to get the gloves back on. I will always be a wicketkeeper first.”