Not a massive amount of games played against either of these two clubs, but amongst them are two massive meetings in the EFL Play Offs, from both of which we emerged victorious.

The Terriers came up against the Stags in the 4th tier Play Off Final in 2004 and in true Town tradition, it ended 0-0 after 120 minutes. Well this started the tradition actually, to be followed by similar wins against Sheffield United and Reading, both at Wembley. This one though was played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium as Wembely was being rebuilt.

Town had come close a few times, but not close enough, before Mansfield's Colin Larkin did actually get the ball in the net just before the end of the 90 minutes. Thankfully, an eagle eyed linesman had his flag up. Not for offside, but for the airborne ball slightly drifting over the touchline before a Mansfield player passed it back into play, which led to the disallowed goal. Cheers. liner.

Without that decision, the name of Lee Fowler wouldn't have been written in Hudersfield Town legend. Also Danny Schofield, Tony Carss, Rob Edwards and of course Paul Rachubka.

And don't forget Liam Lawrence......







The Luton Play Off was more recent, the last time to date that we reached the Play Offs. By contrast to the Mansfield game, this was a semi final over two legs and the prize for winning the end of season lottery would be a place in the Premier League.

We drew the first leg 1-1 at Kenilworth Road, keeping up a superb record of never losing a first leg in all ten of our Play Off semi finals. But we did break with tradition in the 2nd leg by actually winning a home leg for the first time. Danel Sinani fired home early on for us at Luton and it just had to be Jordan Rhodes getting the winner at the John Smith's Stadium, before we were robbed at Wembley.

1. Jean Sprocket
   
2. Janet Hanson
   
3. Illuminant Dummies
   
4. Lara Hubcap UK
   
5. Raccoon Barrels
   
6. Wrinkle a Hotrod
   
7. The Luckier
   
8. Insane Linda
   
9. Bathroom Ass
   
10. Renewal Claim
    

Norwich City have appointed former Rangers manager Philippe Clement as their head coach on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

The Belgian, 51, replaces Liam Manning, who was sacked after just 17 games in charge following a 2-1 home defeat by Leicester City on 8 November.

The Canaries are second from bottom of the Championship with nine points from 15 games and have lost all eight home matches in the league and cup this season.

"I've known of this club for a long time and, whilst we are not in a good moment at this time, we are excited to work together with the players and staff to turn things around," Clement told the club website., external

"Meeting with the owners and hearing some of their ambitions for the club, it really convinced me that this is the best move.

"They have big plans for the future but, of course, our job in the short term is to turn around the current situation and get everyone believing again."

Coach Stephan van der Heyden will be part of Clement's backroom team, with further appointments to follow.

Van der Heyden, also a former Belgium international, worked alongside Clement at Rangers, having previously been assistant manager for North Macedonia's Vardar Skopje, the Jordan national team and Kerala Blasters in India.

Clement was sacked by Rangers in February after 16 months in charge at Ibrox, during which they won the Scottish League Cup in 2024 and twice reached the last 16 of the Europa League.

He achieved a 64% win record and afterwards posted on X: "It has taken me a few days to fully process and accept the end of my time with this exceptional club.

"I leave with a heavy heart, frustrated and disappointed that I couldn't consistently bring the team to the level we all expected. I understand your frustrations, and I share them."

He later told BBC Radio Scotland's Sacked In The Morning podcast "total chaos" in the boardroom, including the departures of the chief executive and chairman, had hampered his efforts to take on Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Clement was previously in charge of Beveren, Genk and Club Brugge in Belgium, winning the Pro League title on three occasions, before spending a season-and-a-half in French football as head coach of Monaco.

He won 38 international caps for Belgium during a playing career that also took in 12 Premier League appearances for Coventry City during the 1998-99 season.

Former Sweden boss Jon Dahl Tomasson, ex-Bournemouth and Wolves manager Gary O'Neil and one of Clement's successors at Rangers, Russell Martin, were all linked with the Carrow Road vacancy over the past few days.

But the Canaries recruitment team, led by sporting director Ben Knapper - himself a target for criticism from supporters following the club's poor start to the season - have instead given Clement the job of ensuring they do not drop into League One for the first time since the 2009-10 season.

"Philippe is an incredibly experienced and prominent head coach, with clear values and beliefs that align with ours," Knapper said.

"He will bring a strong leadership presence and an impressive background having coached some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

"Throughout the recruitment process, his methodical approach and detailed analysis of where we currently are, as well as his desire to move things forward, were clear for us all to see.

"We now have an incredible amount of work ahead of us to ensure we improve performances and results, and we will do everything possible to ensure Philippe has our full backing and support."

Clement is the third head coach appointed since Knapper replaced Stuart Webber as sporting director and the fifth since Daniel Farke - now in charge at Leeds United - left in November 2021, having twice led the Canaries to promotion to the Premier League.

It is likely funds will be made available by owners Norfolk FB Holdings to strengthen the squad in January following what some fans believe was an underwhelming summer transfer window when 12 players were brought in.

Norwich took just three points from the final 11 league matches of Manning's reign and are badly in need of a positive result when they return to action on Saturday following the international break by taking on Birmingham City at St Andrew's.


Philippe Clement has come from left field. His name didn't ever feature near the top of the bookmakers' favourites for the job.

Norwich City have recent history of pulling off surprises when it comes to appointing new head coaches. Alex Neil and Daniel Farke both came from nowhere to lead the Canaries into the Premier League.

Clement is taking on an entirely different task. It's one of firefighting rather than chasing glory. City are in the Championship's drop zone, four points adrift of safety having lost all eight home games this season.

The Belgian will need to draw on all of his experience managing at clubs like Monaco and Rangers to turn the tide. Early fan reaction ranges from 'gamble' to 'coup'.

After Birmingham away on Saturday, successive home games against Oxford and QPR might offer an opportunity to get a disgruntled fan base on-side quickly.

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 16:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 287 pts
   
2. jjamez = 287 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 250 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 221 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 219 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 137 pts
   

Thursday November 20th:
League One:
Peterborough United v Stockport County (20:00)

Saturday November 22nd:
Mansfield v Town
Town scorers:
Mansfield scorers:

Port Vale v Plymouth Argyle (12:30)
AFC Wimbledon v Wigan Athletic
Barnsley v Luton Town
Bolton Wanderers v Bradford City
Leyton Orient v Blackpool
Stevenage v Doncaster Rovers

Championship:
Coventry City v West Bromwich Albion (12:30)

Sunday November 23rd:
Premier League:
Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

Tuesday 25th November:
League One:
Luton v Town
Town scorers:
Luton scorers:

Scottish Premiership:
Motherwell v Hibernian

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

1. themaclad = 278 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 276 pts
   
3. Devongone = 246 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 215 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 209 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 200 pts
   

Friday November 21st:
Championship:
Preston North End v Blackburn Rovers (20:00)

Saturday November 22nd:
League One:
Mansfield v Town
Town scorers:
Mansfield scorers:

Exeter City v Burton Albion (12:30) POSTPONED
Barnsley v Luton Town
Northampton Town v Cardiff City
Reading v Rotherham United
Wycombe Wanderers v Lincoln City

League Two:
Crewe Alexandra v Chesterfield

Sunday November 23rd:
Championship:
Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United (12:00)

Monday November 24th:
Premier League:
Manchester United v Everton (20:00)

Tuesday 25th November:
League One:
Luton v Town
Town scorers:
Luton scorers:

Peterborough United v Stevenage


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

While the tumbleweed is blowing through domestic football because of the international stuff, I'd just like to say how much I, personally, appreciate this forum.
I sometimes read other forums, and just having come from one - a rugby one at that - it suddenly hit me how good this one is!
Everyone on here respects other views; they are positive, and constructive, and basically (appear to be!) intelligent! On other forums I'm hit by others just being borish, and seemingly world experts - highly and aggressively critical of selections, tactics etc. but even if there are differences on here it's handled really nicely.
Thanks everyone!

Left the club and joined Aldershot Town on a permanent basis.

Been drawn away to Doncaster Rovers in the last 32 of the EFL Trophy. Which will be played week commencing December 1st. Which I guess will be played on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Then on the Saturday evening we have them in the FA Cup at home.

Gamball:
Leicester - Stoke

Others:
Fulham - Sunderland
Newcastle - Man City
Wolves - Palace
Charlton - Southampton
Derby - Watford
Portsmouth - Millwall
QPR - Hull
Leeds - Aston Villa
Sheff Wednesday - Sheff Utd

Group A

BaggieVicar 19
Zimnan 17
B.B.B. 16
A.A.A. 14
Minizin 13
Twerton 10
Stairs 9
BaggieOne -2

A good week in Group with the 3rd best weekly total of the season so far. 7 players ended in double figures with 2 of them scoring season high totals and Stairs being just a point out of double figures, interestingly the table was turned upside down for the overall results with the bottom 4 in the table occupying the top 4 spots this week and the Top 4 occupying the bottom 4 places!!

BaggieVicar leads the way this week with a season's high 19 points in his season's first table topping performance. He scored on 7 games including a CR on the Bonus and two CSs. He has so far this season not played the Gamball on 5 weeks which previously had saved him points but this week it cost him 2 points as he would have score 4 for a CR. Zinman also posted his best score of the season with 17 points in 2nd spot. This week was all about his skillful ball playing, he got a max on the Bonus, a CR on the Gamball and added the Scoreball as well!! BBB was 3rd with 16 points with a very rare feat for him by scoring postive points on all his balls!!

AAA, Minizin, Twerton and Stairs were separated by just 5 points in the end. AAA managed a CR on the Gamball and 2 CSs, Minizin managed to score on 6 games but had only one CS, Twerton didn't manage any CSs to keep his score lower and Stairs just had a "meh" week in the end.

And then there is BaggieOne in last place for the second week in a row, and to boot he stuck in a -2 for the second week in a row as well!! He missed all his balls and only scored points on one game in the end - BaggieOne, you might want to stop reading at this point!!!

139 Minizin
134 Stairs
118 Twerton
116 BaggieOne
109 BaggieVicar
104 A.A.A.
93 B.B.B.
78 Zinman

Often you see players near the top struggle for a week or two but the scores are generally close to their rivals. BaggieOne has blown this out of the water and over the past two weeks alone has lost 27 points to Twerton, 26 to Minizin and 16 to Stairs, his main 3 rivals!! This now means that Minizin has extended his lead to 5 points over Stairs with Twerton now taking over 3rd place. BaggieOne is now 4th and only 7 points ahead of 5th place BaggieVicar. AAA broke the century and BBB could well do it next week. Zinman is definitely improving and now is only 15 points adrift of BBB but as we have seen at the top of the table things can change quickly if you put a good run together!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

4eva 13
Themaclad 12
SCO 12
Salop 11
Snooty 10
Derby 9
Lady Jane 7
Amelia 0

A better than average week for Group B and a close run thing for this week's bragging rights with just 3 points separating the top 5. Two games produced a negative return and the scoreball proved elusive with just one player picking up this extra point - it could have been worse but nobody chose the Sheff U - QPR game.

After the matches 4eva posted about having a bad week - so bad that he sits on top of the table with 13 points from 6 correct predictions and 2 correct scores. He's on top by virtue of that extra scoreball with Themaclad otherwise matching 4eva's success. While two of the top 3 were getting 6 correct predictions, it was SCO who showed the importance of those balls. While 4eva and Themaclad both missed out on the main balls, SCO only scored on 3 games but matched SCO's 12 points by scorinon the gamball and maxing out his bonus. Salop sits a point further back, the other player to pick up 6 points on his bonus. Snooty rounds out the double figure scoring - he got 5 correct results but drew a blank on the correct scores.

Derby matched Snooty's 5 correct predictions but a positive gamball was largely offset by missing out on the bonus to leave him one point back. Lady Jane scored on one fewer game leaving Amelia at the foot of the table with just 2 correct predictions, neither of them her balls, to leave her on zero points for the week.

117 4eva
105 SCO
101 Snooty
87 Themaclad
86 Lady Jane
78 Salop
77 Derby
67 Amelia


4eva extends his lead at the top though SCO and Snooty both break the 100 point barrier. Some gaps are developing below the top 3 with this week seeing a few positional changes - Themaclad climbs back above Lady Jane, Salop and Derby switch places leaving Amelia at the foot of the table. My stat of the week looks at the proportion of correct results turned into correct scores. Themaclad stands out in this regard with 1 in 3 of his correct results being turned into maximums. Amelia and 4eva come in at just better than 1 in 4 while this is an area that SCO needs to improve on - he has the second most correct results but the second lowest number of correct scores. The worst performer in this reagrd is Derby - he has managed just 4 correct scores all season, that's just 1 in 10 of his correct results and just 3.3% of all the games predicted!

Zin

Burnley midfielder Hannibal Mejbri has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association for allegedly spitting towards Leeds United fans last month.

Mejbri, 22, came on as a substitute in the 83rd minute of the Premier League match between the sides at Turf Moor on 18 October, which the Clarets won 2-0.

But the alleged incident is said to have happened 16 minutes before his introduction, while the former Manchester United player was warming up.

Lancashire Police looked into the matter after a complaint was made by a Leeds fan in the away section of the ground.

An FA statement said: "It is alleged the player acted in breach of the laws of the game and/or in an improper manner and/or used abusive and/or indecent behaviour by spitting at or in the direction of Leeds United supporters around the 67th minute.

"Hannibal Mejbri has until Friday 28 November to provide a response."

BBC Sport has contacted both Burnley and Leeds for comment.

Tunisia international Mejbri joined Burnley from Manchester United in August 2024 in a deal which could eventually be worth £9.4m.

He has made 50 appearances in all competitions for the Clarets, scoring one goal.