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."

The new manager bubble that Liam Manning had appears to have a large Doncaster shaped hole in it, with Town registering two defeats in the space of a week, sandwiching a further defeat to Stevenage. To compound matters zero shots on target in the last two games, with any impetus from the start of Manning's reign seemingly evaporating into oblivion.

A potential solace is how the Town were up for it against Bradford at short notice, with this weekend being against another rival, there's a glimmer of hope that the players will be fired up once again, saying that, it shouldn't take such matters to fire professional players up for playing and it should come naturally.

So Saturday sees another Yorkshire derby as Town welcome Tarn to the Accu stadium. Huddersfield are clinging onto 6th position by a point, but have played two games more than 7th placed Stevenage, Barnsley meanwhile sit in 13th place, with a record not too dissimilar to Town, although they have played 4 games less. The tale of the season for town is stupid losses and an inability to put in a performance against the teams around them, on a consistent basis that is, it's a fact that is probably going to cost us this season, as it did last season. Despite investment in the playing squad, and up top at that, goals seem to be difficult to come by, it was hard for lee grant and his tippy tappy football and it's equally as difficult for Manning and his channel ball. I've said it for a while, it feels like we never play the right system for the players we have. Tippy tappy wasn't right for our defence and midfield, this style isn't right for the size of our forwards and lack of pace out wide. Answers on a post card to the solution, for me it involves two strikers and pushing on a bit more, it worked a few games ago so why change, but hey ho.

For me we have a few too many players who are able to look busy but so little output. Dion Charles hustles around but never does he really cause issues, especially on his own, bobby Wales looks like he'll cause even fewer issues. Elsewhere in the squad for me down the right in Gooch and Sorensen there's two players who have got the ability but fail to show it all the time, to the extent that it feels like they bundle their way through games without really impacting it. In midfield, I don't want to go to town on kasumu, but for all his hustle and bustle and ability to drive at teams, I've not seen many players have as poor ball control or passing capability, to the extent of rather play harness deeper and allow Ashia, another who is hustle and bustle but with a knack of pulling a goal out of nowhere, a chance to get into the game more. I don't think it can be overstated the impact of losing bojan and Joe low has had either, low was much maligned earlier in the season for not being comfortable on the ball, but since the change in style he has been a wall back there, since his injury we've had the dodgy/nervy josh Feeney and not really the same solidity. Bojan meanwhile had just started to show a new side to himself, attempting to bully defenders back and showing strength and I think he has been the biggest miss of the lot as we've had to change system since his injury.

Since the turn of the new year Barnsley's form has been steady, possibly bordering on inconsistent, beginning 2026 with a 1-1 draw away at struggling Wigan, with Barnsley seeing Luca Connell picking up a red card, speaking to a reds fan at work, they seem to have a real dislike of Connell since he tried to force a move away, saying he's more likely to create a goal for the opposition than his own team, maybe he fancies doing that on Saturday. They were then knocked out of the FA cup by Liverpool, but it was a good day out for them I guess. Back into league action and it was a victory against Blackpool, with OAP David Mcgoldrick scoring an injury time winner, they then travelled to Reading and came away with a point thanks to a 2-2 draw, despite not playing well according to manager Conor Hourihane. A trip to Wales followed and the reds followed suit of the rest of the league as they lost to Cardiff, with the bluebirds surging past them 4-0. It was back to winning ways, in surprising fashion as they beat Stevenage 3-1, the departing Davis Keillor-dunn bagging a brace before leaving for Wrexham. They were scheduled to play Stevenage fairly soon after but it got postponed at the last minute due to a waterlogged pitch. February begun with a draw against lowly Northampton, Mcgoldrick once again getting his Zimmer frame in the right place to score again, this was another game where reds fans think they could and should have lost. Bolton were up next and blew Barnsley away in the first half, going in at halftime 3-0 up but unlike the previous game where fans thought they should have lost, the feeling was that the second half performance should have yielded 3 points as they managed to make it a respectable 3-2, but had chances to get more out of the game. Last Saturday saw a real topsy turvy game that probably highlighted their season, taking a 2-0 lead against Wimbledon, thanks to Mcgoldrick and new signing Tom Bradshaw, a strikeforce with a combined age of nearly 70, but it doesn't matter if the ball is going where you want it only for the dons to come back to 3-2, before a late equaliser spared a few blushes. Last time out the Tykes faced Peterborough and whilst the office was tentative about this one, apparently they played quite well after the Peterborough opened the scoring, with Barnsley eventually winning 2-1.

So sticking with the visitors, members of the office are still anti Conor Hourihane, thinking he should be a coach and not the main man, thinking he's too naive and not smart enough to change things up during the game (in dictionary see Lee Grant) they feel he needs an experienced head alongside him to guide him and offer a different outlook on things, some fans are still reeling over the treatment of club stalwart Martin Devaney, believing he should have finally got his chances rather than being pushed out of the club by the arrival of Hourihane last season, originally as a player coach.
The January transfer window saw the Tykes refresh their squad slightly but not as much as fans would have liked. Experienced defender Eoghan O'Connell joined having been without a club for a period of time. Charlie Lennon joined from Middlesbrough having impressed whilst out on loan at Darlington, he has yet to make an appearance for the first team, so I guess he was a development signing. Elsewhere Scott Banks joined on loan from St Pauli, the Scottish winger moved to Germany a few seasons ago from crystal palace and spent the first half of the season on loan at Blackpool before seeing Barnsley taking over the terms of his loan, he's no stranger to Yorkshire having had a spell on loan at Bradford a few seasons back. The Tykes re-signed Tom Bradshaw on loan from Oxford United. The 33 year old had struggled for game time there and made the temporary move back to familiar territory, probably with the aim of getting a permanent deal in the summer. They also signed two former town loanees, Tawanda Chirewa joined on loan from Wolves with the winger yet to make his first start, he spent the second half of last season on loan at Town and flattered to deceive really as Town plummeted away. Their final signing is former goalkeeper Owen Goodman who joined on loan after town agreed to terminate his loan here. He's become their new number one and the same issues have been highlighted once again, distribution is sometimes off and he's prone to some dodgy keeper moments, having caused some problems already, hopefully more on Saturday.
Leaving the club, the biggy was Davis Keillor-dunn, who made the move to championship side Wrexham to help them chase their premier league ambitions, he had been a key player since joining from Mansfield. Neil Farrugia left to join Scottish side Dundee United, Kacper Lopata moved to Walsall on loan whilst former Town midfielder Jon Russell joined Mansfield on loan, to that the reaction at work was "good" and some expletives explaining how poor he was.

In terms of team news, Joe Low and Bojan are both very much out, Jack Whatmough and Antony Evans continued their comebacks in a midweek defeat for the under 21's, a game which also saw Alfie May get some game time as he comes back into contention after his suspension. Mickel Miller missed the midweek game with a knock and could be back for Saturday, Marcus mcguane went off injured on Saturday but isn't expected to be out for too long, but Saturday may be too soon. Ryan hardie made his town debut on Tuesday night, but don't expect him to be featuring from the off on Saturday as he builds his minutes up, the most likely change will see May come in for Alves and probably not much else.
For Barnsley there hasn't been much said at work, so expect them to go with a fairly familiar line up, with the two old heads leading the line, both of whom need to be watched, with both capable in the air and both capable of bullying defenders, it wouldn't surprise me if Roughan becomes prime target if he starts in the back three. Otherwise, a lot of their play will run through Luca Connell and whilst he has been derided by some fans, he remains a key player in the eyes of the manager.

Played for both is a rather extensive list with the recent candidates being the likes of Herbie Kane, the already mentioned new signings for the Tykes and Jon Russell, whilst current coach jon stead has now coached at both clubs. Whilst recently Michal helik and Michael duff have both been part of both clubs set ups. Whilst yesteryear has seen the likes of Robbie williams, Antony kay, Martin cranie, jack hunt, Jacob butterfield and Dominik werling don both kits. Whilst the likes of Andy Ritchie and mark robins have attempted to manage both sides

But here's some others in anagram form

1) weathers tampon
2) majors wild nail
3) mad mama hill
4) canyon hormone
5) ham hog making it bull
6) die organism die
7) sweaty damn it
8) no cackling
9) worn loin walker
10) green road

Two hard-fought draws with clean sheets point to a slight improvement in Albion's fortunes under Ramsay, but that elusive maiden win remains... well, elusive. The good news is that back-to-back home games this week offer us the opportunity to finally remedy that shortcoming. The bad news is that table-topping Coventry are our first opponents, fresh from steadying their promotion charge with victory against Middlesbrough.

Still, winless in their last eight on the road, the Sky Blues may not be the all-conquering force we might fear, even if they're buoyed by the return from suspension of Brandon Thomas-Asante and confident of an inevitable contribution from him on his erstwhile patch. The Albion injury list also gets no better from one week to the next, but if we can keep things tight the way we have in recent weeks, another point here would be golddust.

Charlton are the more realistic target if we're to aim for three points this week, currently sitting just three places above us. Is it must-win on Tuesday night? Perhaps, depending on how other results go. What's certain is that home draws aren't going to keep us up, so one way or another, from one place or another, the victories have to come.

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 22ND FEBRUARY KO 12PM

v

LAST MATCH



Well, we did manage to finally score this year, but we still fell to defeat to high flying Millwall. The visitors had controlled much of the first half, but struggled to turn pressure into clear-cut chances as we defended fairly well and Cooper only had a few saves to make. Onto the 2nd half, and amazingly, we actually scored a goal. The goalie spilled McNeill's shot and Lowe was on hand to fire in from close range. We held the lead for 12 minutes when Millwall levelled, unfortunately it was us who scored it, McGhee diverting a shot into this own net. A couple of mins later and Millwall were ahead, Langstaff turning in a cross from the right. We tried for an equaliser but sadly none came.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and the short trip across the city to take on the Blunts. Overall the Blunts have had a disappointing season, getting rid of Wilder for Selles proved to be one of the dafter moves by the United board, as he lost all of his games (seven) and was replaced by Wilder in September and inevitably won his first game at Oxford. They have recovered since then and now lie in 15th place and are 6 points off the playoffs, so a shot at another playoff collapse is a possibility. They are now managed by Wilder again, his 3rd stint at the club. There leading scorer this season is Callum O'Hare with 8goals and 5 assists this season. Depending on other results, a defeat would send us down to the Pub League.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 48
BLADES 52
DRAW 47

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L L L L L L                                                                

BLADES W L W D W L

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  



THE TEAM

Cooper
Palmer Cooper Otegbayo Adaramola
Thornton Ingelsson Heskey
McNeill Yates Ndala

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 Yates

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 16
Imre 16
Washington 14
SCO 12
Maddix 9

BMPL

Stateside 17
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

West Ham v Bournemouth
Wrexham v Ipswich
Mansfield v Lincoln
Crawley v Chesterfield
Truro v Gateshead

AAAAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE