Bristol City slip into the Championship relegation zone as they are held to a goalless draw by fellow strugglers Burton.

Marko Arnautovic's double helps Stoke to victory as Middlesbrough slip into the Premier League relegation zone.

After three decades, the devoted group reach landmark.

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 on Monday, but keep an eye out here for more updates this evening. 

Sian Grzeszczyk
Staffordshire Reporter, BBC Midlands Today

A shortage of key workers in operating theatres is being faced by the NHS in Staffordshire.

Operating department practitioners are the people who make sure the operating room is safe as well as delivering aftercare to patients. 

Staffordshire University says it can't get enough students trained to meet local demand. 

A trust running hospitals in Staffordshire says it's been forced to pay £200,000 to fund 12 students through university to try and meet demand. 

Matt Sandoz
Stoke City commentator, BBC Radio Stoke

Stoke City have just one injury concern ahead of this weekend's game with Middlesbrough.

Xherdan Shaqiri (pictured) is back in training, but unlikely to play following six weeks out with a calf injury.  

Image source, Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Jon Walters and Glen Johnson are fit again and in contention, while Saido Berahino is pushing for a first start.  

Stoke go into the match off the back of a third successive 4-0 beating by Tottenham Hotspur, which came off the back of a return from "warm weather" training.

Rebecca Wood
BBC Weather

Outbreaks of rain will continue for many this evening and for a time overnight, but there will be some drier interludes too . 

Rain will clear during the early hours. 

Cloudy skies will keep temperatures up overnight, preventing an overnight frost.  Lows of 6C (43F).

Express and Star

A litter of newborn puppies - thought to have been exposed to carbon monoxide - have been found dumped in a box in a car park., external

Nick Owen
Presenter, BBC Midlands Today

On Midlands Today this evening - why a partially-sighted man in the region says he's repeatedly been refused taxis operated by Uber. 

Plus we'll be hearing about the woman who was seen on CCTV picking up a businessman's wallet containing £1,600. 

We'll also look ahead to a busy weekend of sport and have your crucial weather update, all on BBC One from 18:30.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

More than 84,000 illegal cigarettes, worth more than £28,000 in duty and VAT, have been seized by customs officers in Burton. 

Image source, HMRC

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) say they checked 43 retailers in the town and Derby this week and made seizures from 18 of them. 

As well as the cigarettes, they also found 6.3kg of tobacco and 150g of shisha in Burton, worth almost £2,000.

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

A team of devoted charity pub-crawlers have reached their 20,000th ale house in Stafford, after three decades of touring pubs. 

The West Bromwich-based Black Country Ale Tairsters - Black Country dialect for tasters - began visiting establishments listed on a map, issued by Wolverhampton brewer Banks's, in 1984.

Image source, Peter Hill

They arrived to complete their latest milestone in a minibus at the Knot and Plough in Stafford. 

Several veterans of the group, including co-founder Peter Hill, went to the event where they were given free beer.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

A man has  died after being found lying next to a moped and a wall. , external

West Midlands Ambulance Service say they were called to Main Street, Clifton Campville in Tamworth, this morning . 

They say they found a moped stuck between a lamppost and a wall. 

Paramedics found the man lying on the other side of the wall, trapped, but he died at the scene.

BBC Sport

British Basketball returns to BBC Sport this evening for the BBL league fixture between Cheshire Phoenix and Leeds Force. 

Both sides languish in the bottom four, with only two points separating them. 

Coverage is live from 19:30 across the BBC Sport website, app and selected Connected TVs. To watch online   click here   and to learn more about the BBC's coverage of the BBL and WBBL  click here.

Image source, BBC Sport

Cheeky chips, celebrations and managerial sackings - watch 10 magic moments from the first round of the  FA People's Cup...... 

You'll be able to watch a highlights programme from the first round of the  nationwide five-a-side competition  on the  iPlayer from 06:00 Saturday, 4 March  and on the red button from 14:10 on Saturday and throughout the weekend.    

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

A former pottery factory site in Stoke-on-Trent is going to be turned into 193 new homes., external

Image source, Google

The city council has approved Barratt Homes' plan for the 10-acre old Churchill pottery site, off Waterloo Road, Cobridge. 

The land's one of the city's Housing Zone areas which means government loans are available to speed up building homes on large developments.

Chris King
Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Just under three years since it was laid, slabs on pavements and roads in the centre of Stoke-on-Trent have started to sink and crack again. 

The scheme, which is being funded by the council and the European Regional Development Fund and started in 2012, aimed to improve streets and squares in Hanley. 

But in 2015, the authority admitted some of the new paving on Stafford Street had "moved", leading to cracks, blaming it on "soil conditions".

Two years later, more of the paving in a similar area looks to have started sinking.

The city council says it is looking into this latest problem.

Jack Dowling
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke

A referee who officiates in Staffordshire has told BBC Radio Stoke he's been verbally abused and head-butted while taking charge of a game. 

Neil Proctor was speaking as thousands of amateur referees are planning a strike in protest over the treatment they receive on the pitch.

Ryan Hampson (pictured, far right), who has organised the walk-out, says "more than 2,000 people up and down the country" will be taking part on 4 and 5 March. 

The FA said it has "been in dialogue" and "spoken at length with Ryan" about the strikes. 

Mr Proctor, from Congleton, officiates in the Leek and District Sunday League and says one coach told him "I hope you die of cancer". 

The Staffordshire FA says it has a development officer in position for any referee who has issues or needs extra support.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

Police officers investigating after a lorry was rammed into a Stoke-on-Trent house seven times say it was "sheer luck" no-one was hurt. 

The incident, in November 2015, caved in the ground floor of the house on Broadfield Road and several parked cars were also damaged.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

At the time, a family and three children were asleep in the home - Staffordshire Police say they were deliberately targeted as part of an , external "ongoing feud". 

Three men were jailed yesterday for their part in the attack while another man and a woman were given suspended sentences at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. 

Today a sixth man was sentenced to a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.

Russell Truran
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke

Motorists are using a Stoke-on-Trent housing estate as a rat run, according to campaigners who want the city council to install traffic-calming measures.   

People living on the Norton Heights estate submitted a petition to the council six months ago, complaining of speeding. , external

They're being backed by local councillor, Candi Chetwynd (featured in video), who says it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed. 

The city council says it has carried out three separate surveys and the results didn't show any excessive speeding.  

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

A man's had a "lucky escape" say paramedics after he fell around 50ft (15m) from a tree into the garden of a house in Cannock.  , external

West Midlands Ambulance Service say it happened this morning on Watling Street, near the OK Diner. 

Image source, Google

They say the man, thought in his 30s, suffered injuries to his left arm, lower back and head and was taken to hospital.

Paramedics say he was wearing a helmet and protective equipment without which he could have been more seriously hurt.