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Soccer: England narrowly defeat Malta in Valdetta

England keeper Richard Wright saved a last-minute penalty on his debut to spare the blushes of Kevin Keegan's side as they scrambled to a 2-1 win over Malta in Valletta. Wright, who in the first half scored an unfortunate own goal - also from a penalty which he gave away - brought down Maltese substitute Nenad Veselji to hand the home side the chance of earning a shock draw. But the Ipswich player completed a memorable week by saving the spot-kick from David Carabott.

On Monday Wright had helped his club to reach the Premiership via their play-off final win over Barnsley. Then in injury time Wright again pulled out all the stops to deny Veselji after he had broken clear of the England defence.

A goal from Emile Heskey - his first for England - ensured Keegan's side had a winning send-off before Euro 2000, in what was really a poor spectacle, and will leave Kevin Keegan with more dilemmas than he needs.

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