It’s always the case that there are winners and losers at cup finals, but perhaps there was just an extra edge to both the highs and lows from this year’s Scottish women’s soccer cup final.The women’s soccer league season in Scotland came to a last-minute rollercoaster en...

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Kieran Trippier could have been trading the Champions League for the Championship. When his Newcastle career had the falsest of false starts, his debut a dispiriting defeat to Cambridge, the temptation was to wonder quite what he had swapped Atletico Madrid for. Sixteen months later, the answer is becoming clearer: with one more win, Trippier will be back in the Champions League. For Dan Burn, Newcastle’s takeover and the concurrent injections of ambitions and funds initially brought a different sense. By his own admission, it seemed his chance of playing for Newcastle, the club he supported in his boyhood in Blyth, was over. Now an unconventional journey from non-league to Champions League will be completed with one more victory. Burn represents the feelgood story in Newcastle’s rise, the ungainly, endearing local who, at 31, scored a first league goal for United to enable them to imagine dates with Barcelona or Bayern Munich. Trippier has proved still more of a catalyst. Two swings of a set-piece specialist’s right book brought two goals – one headed in by an opponent, one a teammate – though only one qualified as an assist. But, even as Callum Wilson added to his rich vein of form with a goal and an assist in an emphatic end, full-backs powered Newcastle forward. Money has helped but when Trippier agreed to be the first signing of the new regime, he brought credibility, offering others reasons to join. Bruno Guimaraes, who followed him to St James’ Park in January 2022, illustrated his impact again with the injury-time fourth against Brighton; without Trippier, would he have signed? A trailblazer has been a leader in other respects: the armband resides with Trippier and he is on course to become the first player since Alan Shearer two decades ago to captain Newcastle in the Champions League. Shortlisted for the Premier League player of the year award earlier in the day, he helped restore Newcastle to winning ways. After a solitary point from their previous two games, albeit from fine performances, Newcastle have momentum again. Monday’s game against a Leicester side seemingly in freefall could end their exile from Europe. They have the insurance policy of a final-day trip to Chelsea. They would not need either result if Liverpool were to lose on Saturday; the chances, though, are that Newcastle will do it in front of their own public. Given their home form – this was a fifth win in six on their own turf – it might feel fitting. Brighton had seemed to provide the greatest obstacle in the final fortnight of a season of overachievement but the conquerors of Arsenal could not produce a repeat performance in the North East. Newcastle prevailed after the almost statutory ferocious start at St James’ Park, the latest demonstration of this side’s running power, but because of two late goals and the platform laid by the class of Trippier’s dead-ball delivery. It is a way of adding another dimension as a corner and a free kick sufficed instead. He received inadvertent assistance from Deniz Undav; the cliché of a game of two halves had a certain truth in his case. In a disastrous first, Brighton’s German striker scored an own goal and conceded the free kick for Newcastle’s second. In a more auspicious second, he added to his strike against Arsenal by scoring against another of the top three, beating Nick Pope after racing on to Billy Gilmour’s pass. It means Newcastle only have a solitary clean sheet in their last 16 league games. They built from the back in the first half of the season. Defenders had to show a solidity in a nervy second half but proved the best form of attack before the break. When Trippier whipped in a corner, Undav only succeeded in glancing his header beyond Steele. When Trippier curled in a free kick, Burn, all 6ft 7in of him, rose highest to plant in a header; it was one way of repaying Brighton for allowing him to get his dream move last January. Brighton had performed a demolition job on Arsenal four days earlier; this, however, was a weaker Albion with Alexis Mac Allister, Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso benched. Roberto de Zerbi sent for the cavalry when he brought them on in a triple substitution. And then, when they threatened to procure a point, the dam burst. Steele had made stunning saves from Miguel Almiron and Alexander Isak. Wilson had missed a sitter. But then his golden run continued. Wilson’s seventh goal in five games was slotted past Steele after Almiron carried the ball from deep in his half and released him; that, in turn, stemmed from Trippier winning possession by his own corner flag. Wilson then had the selflessness to tee up Guimaraes for a tap-in. His alliance with Eddie Howe began nine years ago, when Bournemouth signed the striker from League One Coventry. And now a very different league beckons for both. Read More Eddie Howe: Football must learn from my confrontation with fan Eddie Howe responds after angry fan enters Newcastle technical area during Leeds draw

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered a stark warning for anyone thinking of using steroids. The actor and former bodybuilder reflected on his history with drug use and pointed out the dangers of taking the banned substance. Speaking in an interview with Men’s Health, the 75-year-old said that he used to take both testosterone and dianabol, a popular steroid drug. “One hundred milligrams a week,” he said about his testosterone usage. “And then three dianabol a day, so that was 15 milligrams a day.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He also clarified that taking steroids weren’t illegal until 1990, when Congress passed The Anabolic Steroid Control Act, and things were different then to how they are today. “Bodybuilding always, always was considered a safe sport. But now it’s not. Now people are dying—they’re dying because of overdoses of drugs and they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” Schwarzenegger said. “They’re listening to charlatans. If I want to get medical advice from a doctor, I go to UCLA or I go to the Cleveland Clinic.” Warning against using steroids, he added: “Don’t go there. Yes, we are at a time now where we always look for the easy way to make money, the fast way to get rich, the easy way to be an influencer." “Anytime you abuse the body, you’re going to regret it. So I just want young people to know that I have seen people getting kidney transplants and suffering tremendously from it.” He also said that he understands if bodybuilders don’t want to take his advice. “I recognise the fact that, who am I to say this? This is the guy who climbed without a rope,” he added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Former Chelsea forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink believes aspiring black managers are not taking their coaching badges because they do not believe they are given ‘a fair chance’. The ex-Netherlands international has reunited with former Middlesbrough team-mate Gareth Southgate earlier this year when he joined the England boss’ staff in March ahead of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign. Burnley’s promotion to the Premier League ensured the top flight would have one black manager this season – Vincent Kompany – but once again highlighted the disparity between the number of black players and bosses, a problem that extends beyond the pitch. Asked on the latest episode of the Matt Haycox Show podcast, to be released on Wednesday, if football was moving in the right direction, Hasselbaink said: “The only thing that I can say is I have applied for a lot of jobs, and the majority I didn’t get an interview. “Why? I don’t know. I can only tell you I didn’t get an interview, and I only want to get a job because they think that I’m the right person for the job. “And I do know that a lot of black ex-players don’t want to go and take their coaching badges because they think that we don’t get a fair chance. “I can only give you an answer of my experience, and my experience is that I don’t get interviewed.” I do know that a lot of black ex-players don't want to go and take their coaching badges because they think that we don't get a fair chance Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink Hasselbaink’s managerial career started at League Two Burton in 2014 and also took in Championship QPR and League One Northampton, before his second stint with the Brewers ended with his resignation last year. He continued: “I was always told, ‘Jimmy, start in League Two, and start small, do well, and then you will get an opportunity’. “However, other players who are white, who have more or less a name like mine, they don’t have to do that. So, that is my fact. “Patrick Vieira would say the same. Thierry Henry would say the same. Sol Campbell would say the same. Those are the facts, you know.” Last season saw Vieira sacked at Crystal Palace and Hope Powell dismissed by Women’s Super League Brighton, leaving both the English men’s and women’s top flights without a black manager until Kompany steered the Clarets to promotion. And a January 2023 paper commissioned by the Black Footballers Partnership revealed that while black athletes comprised 43% of players in the Premier League and 34% in the EFL in 2021, black employees accounted for just 4.4 per cent of those occupying management-related positions in football clubs the following year. Hasselbaink told entrepreneur and investor Haycox: “I know there’s a lot of black managers that want to be coaches, but they have to put bread on the table as well. “They need to make a living and they’re thinking ‘I need to do something that is going to feed my kids, and if I’m not going to get a chance, why pursue this?’ While Hasselbaink believes some prominent football figures could be stronger allies for black players hoping to pursue leadership roles, he has nothing but praise for Southgate, his former captain at Middlesbrough, who brought the 51-year-old into the England fold after a chance meeting. He added: “He believes in me, and he gives me the chance to be with him and to help the team. “Black or white, Gareth doesn’t look at me like that. And I know that, because I’ve played with him for two years. “Gareth was always around everybody. He was with the white guys, he was with the black guys. He was joking with all of us, and he was tough on all of us as a captain when he needed to be, regardless of our backgrounds. “Working with the best talent in the country, seeing them flying over the pitch, and seeing that group together is magnificent.” Read More ECB boss admits challenges remain for cricket after positive impact report England’s Zach Mercer installs oxygen chamber at home to combat ankle injury Top two tiers of women’s football poised to break away from Football Association Tom Daley targets Paris 2024 in return to British Swimming’s World Class Programme Former Sheffield United and Everton defender Phil Jagielka announces retirement Bruno Fernandes excited for ‘amazing’ atmosphere at Galatasaray