Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/537300
58 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 JULY 2015 SNOOKER FOOTBALL (+356) 800 737 70 Freephone: cabs t minivans t vip transport t luxury coaches t vintage buses 2138 9575 / 9921 5286 info@cabs.com.mt w w w . c a b s . c o m . m t Sport Higgins comeback sinks Jones John Higgins reached the final of the Australian Goldfields Open final after staging a superb comeback to beat Jamie Jones 6-4 in Bendigo THE former world champion found himself trailing the best- of-11-frames semi-final 4-0 after his Welsh opponent rattled in breaks of 78, 51 and 96 to take a firm stride towards his first ever ranking event final. Jones was playing in his first semi-final at this level follow- ing his dramatic 5-4 victory over Michael White on Friday but saw his lead wiped out by Higgins, who fired a top break of 134 in the sixth frame. With Higgins' confidence now riding high, the Scotsman made it five frames in a row with another superb clearance of 133 before booking his place in the final by taking the next following a break of 92. Higgins, chasing the 27th rank- ing title of his career, will not meet Martin Gould in Sunday's final after the Londoner thrashed Stephen Maguire 6-1 in a surpris- ingly one-sided encounter later in the day. Gould took the opening four frames with breaks of 54, 82 and 87 and although Maguire briefly threatened to do a Higgins by tak- ing the fifth, the comeback never materialised. Instead Gould rattled off the two frames he needed, finishing off with a fine break of 100, to book his place in the final. John Higgins is through to the final in Bendigo Celtic manager Ronny Deila warns Celtic players CELTIC manager Ronny Deila admits his Stjarnan counterpart would have seen much to inter- est him after watching the Scot- tish champions concede five goals against Dukla Prague. But Deila is confident his play- ers can banish the sloppy play that led to their 5-3 friendly defeat be- fore kicking off their Champions League campaign. Dukla were well worth their St Mirren Park win against a strong Celtic team, bolstered by the re- turn of nine players who were on international duty until mid-June. But those players had only re- turned from their two-week sum- mer break at the start of the week, and Israel midfielder Nir Bitton was absent because he only got back to Scotland on Wednesday. Deila knows they will have to banish the rustiness when they play the Icelandic champions in the second qualifying round on July 15. When asked what watching Stjarnan boss Runar Pall Sig- mundsson would have made of the game, Deila said: "I think he saw some possibilities there. "We can't play like this or we will get big problems whoever we play, if it's against Stjarnan or St John- stone or Barcelona." Deila, who left new right-back Saidy Janko on the bench, said: "Defensively we have good play- ers, it's not about the quality, we just have to be sharper. We were always half a second too late. It's frustrating to watch but you just have to swallow and look forward to the next training session and match." Deila started with Dedryck Bo- yata and Charlie Mulgrew in cen- tral defence, which was filled by Efe Ambrose and Virgil van Dijk after the break. But they were behind for most of the game with midfielder Marek Hanousek helping himself to a hat-trick for the visitors, while Leigh Griffiths, Gary Mackay- Steven and van Dijk scored for Celtic. Deila added: "It was a good test for us. They are a good team. I don't think we had a good per- formance but it's early. We have been back four days with 60 per cent of the team. "Of course I want to win every game we play and have good per- formances but that's not how foot- ball is. You have to make yourself ready for good performances. "You can see the players who have trained longer are sharper than the players who have only been here for one week. "Now we have a good week of training and then Real Sociedad (in a friendly). We have no inju- ries, everyone is available, and that's the positive thing." Substitute goalkeeper Leo Fasan struggled with his kicking and Deila confirmed he is still looking for another player as back-up to Craig Gordon. The Norwegian refused to di- vulge any details on Celtic's pur- suit of Nadir Ciftci after having two bids for the striker rejected by Dundee United. "I can't comment on anything before we have anything ready," he said. "We have different players we work with and we'll see what we can get arranged." And Deila revealed it was an easy decision to sell full-back Ad- am Matthews to Sunderland. "One year left on his contract, a good offer, and he wanted to try something else," he said. "It was the right time to do it."