So now that Andrew MW and Peter Mandleson have been arrested for misconduct in public office, how long before members of the Tory government, the most corrupt government in living memory, start getting their collars felt?

Starting with that floppy haired former foreign secretary and his dealings with the Russians. Well documented dealings as well, may I add.

Group A

Minizin 20
Stairs 20
B.B.B. 12
BaggieOne 12
Zimnan 6
BaggieVicar 5
Twerton 5
A.A.A. -1

Slightly above average week in Group A but the spread of scoring was distinctly not average with the top 4 scoring 81% of this weeks points, and we all know what that can do to the league table!! The points came from three games mainly but that broke no records, what did break a season's record was the Brighton win at Brentford which scored a record low -15 points across the Group, including 5 Bonus balls with negative points!!!

Recently we have seen a resurgence in the middle to bottom half players closing the gap on our season long top two duo of Minizin and Stairs. Well after obviously resting their key players for a few weeks they both appear this week to have changed up a gear to recreate that gap between them and the rest!! Certainly also helps when you nearest chaser has his worst week of the season, but more of that later. Minizin and Stairs both posted 20 points, well clear of the rest and in Minizins case equaling his best score of the season!! Its been 13 weeks since either of them posted this sort of score and it certainly lays down a marker for the rest of the group. Both of them got maximums on the Gamball and while Minzin missed on his Bonus he added two other CSs to ties with Stairs in thee end.

Joint 3rd place goes to BBB and BaggieOne with 12 points. BBB was the third player this week to score a max on the Gamball but he wasn't able to add much else. B1 got CRs on both the Gamball and Bonus, a rare good week for him with his Balls!!

Big drop down to the next 3 - Zinman, BaggieVicar and Twerton. They all got the Gamball wrong, but the Vicar again did not play it so saved himself a point. Zinman and the Vicar both has a CS but Zinman scored on one of his 2 Bonus balls this week, while the Vicar missed on both denying him 6 points!! Twerton's form remains weak, its now 7 weeks since he reached double figures.

In last place is AAA on -1, he has been on fire for a while now so its not unexpected that he is having a week off!! He too had a second Bonus this week due to last weeks postponement but he also failed on both, to end with his lowest score of the season so far, which means he is the last player this season in Group A to score a negative result!!!

283 Minizin
270 Stairs
259 A.A.A.
241 B.B.B.
239 Zinman
239 BaggieOne
226 BaggieVicar
195 Twerton

Ok, so what does all this mean to the table, well for starters Minizin has stretched his lead to 13 points and now Stairs has reclaimed the second place he lost to AAA and now holds that position by 11 points from AAA. Big gap down to BBB in 4th, who is now 2 points ahead of B1 and Zinman, all three of these are chasing the final place in the Playoffs and while still double digits behind SCO there is still a chance 2 of them could make it in!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Salop....yes really...16
Derby 14
Snooty 11
Lady Jane 10
Themaclad 10
4eva 7
SCO 6
Amelia 1

Group B has been failrly consistent over the last few weeks and so it was this week with a total score of 71 points, just above the average score for the 5th consecutive week. Nearly 80% of this weeks points came from just 3 games - the gamball, Albion's defeat and Arsenal's win. That injury time Arsenal 4th goal meant that 3 players missed out on a bonus maximum!

So not a particularly remarkable week but it did see something special, in fact unique. Yes, Salop sits on top of the table for the first time this season! His 16 points - his second highest weekly score - was indebted to a maximum gamball (just his 2nd of the season) and he also scored on more games, 4, than anyone else. By scoring on the gamball he also moved to a positive total gamball score, meaning that every player in Group B has achieved this modest feat.

Just 1 point separates the next 4 players with Snooty just edging the pack. He only got 3 correct predictions, none of them correct scores, but did score on all his balls including the bonus carried over from last week. Lady Jane, Themaclad and Derby all scored 10 points. LJ got 2 correct scores, 50% of the total for Group B, but was one of just 2 players to miss out on the bonus ball. Themaclad and Derby had a similar scoring profile with Themac's additional bonus ball point cancelling out Derby's score ball. Needless to say, Derby ffailed to nail a correct score!

Our 2 pace setters, 4eva and SCO had a less impressive week. 4eva was the 4th palyer with 3 correct results but no correct scores but in common with the 2 players below him, lost out on the gamball. SCO only scored on 2 games but did get 1 correct score.

Amelia had a poor week with just 2 correct predictions and missing out on both the main balls. She did at least pick up the scoreball point to keep her above zero.


270 4eva
253 SCO
228 Lady Jane
216 Themaclad
200 Derby
198 Snooty
193 Amelia
187 Salop

Amelia's bad week sees her drop 2 places in the overall table, elevating Derby and Snooty 1 place. Salop is now only 6 points away from escaping bottom spot! At the top it's very much as you were but SCO will be coming under real pressure to maintain a play-off spot and prevent Group A from sweeping those places.

Zin

Cup scores are also up in this thread https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=14160

THE MATCH

WEDNESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



We were officially relegated as we went down to defeat to the Blunts, but we only lost 2-1 and not the massacre most of us were dreading. We got off to the worst possible start after 2 mins, Ndala playing a suicidal pass which Hamer controlled and passed to Bamford who scored easily. It was 2-0 when Burrows was fed in down the left, cut inside and fired past Dieng. We managed to hold them for the rest of the first half, but never looked like scoring. Onto the 2nd half and the game changed when Phillips caught Ingelsson on his knee and was sent off. A few minutes later and we were back in it when McNeill got the ball on the edge of the box, cut inside and fired it past Cooper. The closest we came to an equaliser was a shot by McNeill but he blazed it over. With our relegation we set a new record for the earliest relegation in football league history with many more records to be broken on the cards.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and we travel down to Norwich. The Canaries started the season disappointingly as they struggled, particularly at home where they lost there first 8 games while away from home they were unbeaten in there first 5 games. They have picked up since Liam Manning was sacked although they still in the bottom half of the table and just 6 points above the relegation zone. They should have enough to avoid the relegation dog fight come the end of the season. Phillipe Clement has been in charge since November 2025, taking over from Liam Manning. There leading scorer is Makama with 10 goals so far this season, but wasn't involved the last game.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 26
NORW 20
DRAW 18

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L L L L L L                                                                

NORW L W W L W W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

RUEBYN RICARDO
Emily Carney and Graham Kane
Fourth Official: Gavin Ward

THE TEAM

Dieng
Palmer McGhee Emery Adaramola
Thornton Ingelsson Heskey
McNeill Yates Ndala

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 McNeill

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 17
Imre 16
Washington 14
SCO 12
Maddix 9

BMPL

Stateside 17
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Millwall v Birmingham
Sheff Utd v Coventry
Stoke v Oxford
Hartlepool v Carlisle
Yeovil v Sutton

HDHAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Wealdstone have sacked manager Sam Cox after eight months in charge following three successive National League defeats.

Cox, 35, who appeared in season three of the Apple TV series Ted Lasso, was in his second spell as manager, having previously served in an interim capacity three seasons ago when he helped the Stones avoid relegation.

First-team coach Danny Payne will take charge for Tuesday's home match against Brackley Town.

"With so many games still left to play this season, our shared feeling was that a new energy and fresh impetus is urgently required to re-focus everyone's minds on both the league and cup challenges ahead of us," Wealdstone chairman Rory Fitzgerald told the club website, external.

"Like all teams, we've had our injury challenges along the way, but we believe our squad can get back to the early-season form that would both secure our National League status and also give us a great chance of reaching Wembley."

Wealdstone travel to Kidderminster on Saturday in the sixth round of the FA Trophy.

The recent slump, which included a 3-0 loss to Sutton on Saturday, dropped the Stones to 17th in the table and within six points of the relegation zone.

Eastleigh manager Scott Bartlett has been sacked following their 4-0 defeat by Morecambe.

Saturday's loss to a potential relegation rival left the Spitfires 18th in the National League, six points above the relegation zone.

Bartlett won five of his 23 league games in charge of Eastleigh following his appointment in September, with eight draws and 10 defeats.

"An interim appointment will be confirmed in due course while the club undertakes a thorough and comprehensive recruitment process," Eastleigh said in a statement., external

"This process will ensure we are well positioned to achieve our objectives next season and competing at the right end of table.

"We understand and share the frustration felt by our supporters regarding how the season has unfolded."

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Badger gives you 2 points

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

Cup games: In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830

Division One table after Matchday 7:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 130 pts
   
2. jjamez = 121 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 114 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 110 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 105 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 103 pts
   

Saturday January 28th:
League One:
Wigan v Town
Town scorers:
Wigan scorers:

Northampton Town v Peterborough United (12:30)
Mansfield Town v AFC Wimbledon
Port Vale v Luton Town
Reading v Bradford City
Rotherham United v Plymouth Argyle
Wycombe Wanderers v Burton Albion

Premier League:
AFC Bournemouth v Sunderland (12:30)
Burnley v Brentford

Scottish Premiership:
Dundee v Hibernian

Championship:
Oxford United v West Bromwich Albion


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

1. themaclad = 140 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 138 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 120 pts
   
4. Devongone = 105 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 96 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 76 pts
   

Saturday January 28th:
League One:
Wigan v Town
Town scorers:
Wigan scorers:

Leyton Orient v Barnsley (12:30)
Doncaster Rovers v Cardiff City
Exeter City v Bolton Wanderers
Lincoln City v Blackpool
Stevenage v Stockport County

Championship:
Preston North End v Millwall
Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton

League Two:
Barnet v Chesterfield

Premier League:
Newcastle United v Everton
Leeds United v Manchester City (17:30)


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Gamball:
Oxford - WBA

Others:
Bournemouth - Sunderland
Burnley - Brentford
Derby - Blackburn
Leicester - Norwich
Portsmouth - Hull
Charlton - Wrexham
Preston - Millwall
QPR - Sheff Utd
Fulham - Spurs

New Leicester City head coach Gary Rowett says he won't let the club's off-field issues distract him from the task of keeping the team in the Championship.

Former Foxes defender Rowett, 51, was appointed on Wednesday, less than 24 hours before Leicester launched an appeal against a six-point deduction that has left them in the relegation zone.

"That's the club's concern, that's out of our hands," Rowett said.

"My remit is very clear – can we go and change our fortunes? That's my focus."

Leicester are third from bottom in the Championship, two points adrift of safety with 14 games remaining and are on a seven-game winless streak in all competitions.

But Rowett, who had two years as a Leicester player after joining from Birmingham City in 2000, is confident of turning the team's fortunes around.

"It's completely achievable," he said.

"It's about looking up, not looking behind you and thinking about what teams around you are doing.

"There's a lot of teams that we can try and reel in and overtake. It's a positive opportunity for the players to show what they're all about for the last 14 games.

"If we keep learning and keep improving then we'll climb the table."



He outlined the skills in his Leicester team that he wanted to exploit and how he intended to improve their results.

"There's a lot of energy, pace and good quality in forward areas so you want to showcase that," Rowett said.

"But it all comes down to that organisation and platform that gives the team confidence to go and attack, and keep attacking.

"Then, you're not constantly having to go and defend, when it becomes a bit of a basketball match.

"For me, it's about trying to calm that down, trying to work on a really strong platform so the players understand exactly what's expected of them and what we're trying to achieve.

"That's the work we've done so far – clear, direct messages with the players about how we move forward."