MEN’S FOOTBALL: Shelbourne have a mountain to climb in next week’s second leg of their Champions League second-qualifying-round tie after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Qarabag in Dublin on Wednesday evening. 

Qarabag have won the Azerbaijani Premier League in 11 of the past 12 seasons and are currently ranked as Europe’s 65th best team, 18 places higher than Newcastle and a massive 186 places ahead of Shelbourne.

MEN’S DARTS: Luke Littler came from 7-2 down to beat Jermaine Wattimena 13-11 after a tie-break to reach the quarters finals at the World Matchplay Championships in Blackpool. 

Littler will face world number 21 Andrew Gilding in tomorrow’s last eight match following his 11-5 victory over Dirk van Duijvenbode. 

Gerwyn Price meets Josh Rock in tomorrow evening’s other quarter-final. Defending champion Luke Humphries was knocked in the first round.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Ireland have been drawn in the same qualifying group as Israel, Luxembourg and Bosnia-Herzegovina for the Women’s EuroCup 2027 tournament. 

In a bid to pressurise the Irish into fulfilling their fixtures with Israel, the International Basketball Federation will levy fines of approximately £80,000 if they boycott the first game and £100,000 if the second leg is cancelled. 

They will also be disqualified from the next two EuroCup competitions.

MEN’S FOOTBALL: The final Lowland League season before it splits into regional divisions kicks off tomorrow evening with last year’s runners-up Celtic B against Broxburn Athletic, and Tranent visiting Hearts reserves. 

Bonnyrigg Rose, who were relegated from the Scottish League Two, begin their campaign at home to Gretna 2008 tomorrow, while newly promoted phoenix club Clydebank face East Stirlingshire at the Holm Park stadium.