For daft yellows attained, that one for Marcus Harness tonught must be up there. What a tatie.

For reds, Owen Goodman?

Have you any nominations for the stupidest ones earned?

Group A

BaggieVicar 24
Zimnan 21
Twerton 19
A.A.A. 18
Minizin 14
B.B.B. 11
Stairs 10
BaggieOne 8

Excellent week in Group A with the 3rd highest scoring week of the season!! With the Gamball game being the last game to be played the scores and positions changed multiple times across this FA Cup weekend. We also saw 3 players equal or record their highest score of the season and a new high score on one game with the Spurs v Villa games netting 25 points, one of 6 games to score double figures.

Leading the way for the 3rd time this season and the second time in the last 3 weeks is BaggieVicar with 24 points, a season high for him. He was one of three players to score a max on the Gamball, as well as adding one more CS and scoring on 7 games in total. Just behind him also on a season high of 21 points is Zinman. He too scored a max on the Gamball and scored on 7 games but he was missing any other CSs. Twerton continues to ride the rollercoaster in 3rd spot with 19 points, a season equaling high for him, he managed to score on a weeks leading 8 games but only had one CS and missed on the Gamball to keep his score below the top 2.

AAA keeps his good form going with 18 points in 4th place. He was the other one to get a spot on Gamball but "only" scored on 5 games!! Minizin is 5th with 14 points, consistency is the name of the game for him. BBB is 6th with 11 points and Stairs is just behind him on 10. BaggieOne is last with 8 points, he got a CR on the Gamball but missed on the Bonus and managed very little else!!

231 Minizin
214 Stairs
198 A.A.A.
195 BaggieVicar
187 BaggieOne
173 Twerton
171 Zinman
164 B.B.B.

Not a ton of movement this week with most players doing very well. The Vicar's fine form sees him pass BaggieOne into 4th spot and now he is right on the heels of AAA. The other positional change sees Zinman's excellent week rewarding him by moving him off bottom spot and relegating BBB back down there.

Cheers
SCO


Group B

SCO 25
4eva 22
Salop 20
Themaclad 18
Derby 18
Snooty 11
Amelia 9
Lady Jane 8

So unfortunately the third round of the FA Cup went largely to form (with one obvious exception......WBA not losing away!) and as a result this week's scores were high - by far the best total score for Group B. Happily the gamball selection did buck the trend with 7 players losing a point on it, while the remaining player scored a maximum. This week also saw the highest number of correct scores - 13 - and correct results - 45.

While the gamball did its job, the other balls provided a scoring bonanza. We had 4 players getting a bonus ball spot on (only once before this season have we seen more than 1 maximum on that ball) with only 1 player missing out. With only 1 team in 20 failing to score (thanks, Coventry), the scoreball also equalled its record score.

SCO heads the table with by far his season's high score of 25 points. He was massively helped by last week's postponement which meant he took full advantage of having 2 bonuses to play and they duly secured him 9 points. To be fair he did score on 8 games and had 3 correct scores, both better than anyone else in the group. SCO's high score doesn't help him too much in the overall table as 4eva is just 3 points behind, equalling his highest score. 4eva was the sole player to score on the gamball, one of his 2 correct scores, the other being his bonus! It certainly helps to get those balls right though he was the only player to miss out on the scoreball. Salop takes 3rd place, again with his highest score of the season. He scored on 6 games, 3 of them being correct scores including his bonus.

Themaclad and Derby share 4th place with 18 points. Themaclad matched 4eva's scores/results but missed on the gamball and only (only!?) scored 3 points on his bonus. Derby scored on 7 games but in a theme that is all too familiar, he struggled to turn enough of those results into correct scores, securing just 1.

Not such a good week for the rest. Snooty did reach double figures but in such a high scoring week that wasn't too impressive. Amelia is 2 points behind, 5 correct results but she was the only player to lose points on the bonus, Bottom spot goes to Lady Jane. She was the only player not to get a correct score and had the lowest number of correct results, just 3. Like SCO she did benefit from the extra bonus ball with those 2 games prviding 6 of her points.

215 4eva
189 SCO
170 Lady Jane
158 Themaclad
152 Snooty
146 Derby
141 Amelia
132 Salop

The top 2 extend their lead with Lady Jane now 19 points off SCO. Snooty and Themaclad change places as do Amelia and Derby. Salop remains at the foot of the table but another couple of weeks like this one could soon change that. Congrats to 4eva for passing the 200 mark.

Since the 3rd week of the season, the bonus ball total has been negative but this week's 36 points from it changed that. Now we just have Lady Jane and Amelia who have so far failed to record a correct score on his ball after Derby finally got that monkey off his back. In contrast to LJ and Amelia, SCO has just one failed bonus in the last 9 weeks and unsurprisingly leads the field with that ball.

Zin

Gamball:
Charlton - Sheff Utd

Others:
Chelsea - Brentford
Leeds - Fulham
Watford - Millwall
Oxford - Bristol City
Sheff W - Portsmouth
Southampton - Hull
Swansea - Birmingham
Burton - Huddersfield
Luton - Lincoln

Another away tie at another championship team.

Norwich Vs The Albion.

Wolves get another bye …. Playing Grimsby
Blues at home to Leeds.
Villa Vs Newcastle.

Boston United have "parted company", external with manager Graham Coughlan with the Pilgrims in 17th place in the National League.

The club had gone five games without a win and are just three points clear of the relegation zone, with Coughlan's final game coming in the 0-0 draw at Braintree Town on Saturday.

The Irishman took over as manager in November 2024 and led Boston to safety on the penultimate game of the season thanks to a run of 10 wins from 15 games across March and April.

But a run of one win in their last 11 league games since the end of October has now led to his departure.

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 1:

1. neonfoxinthebox = 33 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 27 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 20 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 17 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 15 pts
   
6. jjamez = 14 pts
   

Friday 16th January:
Championship:
West Bromwich Albion v Middlesbrough (20:00)

Saturday 17th January:
League One:
Burton v Town
Town scorers:
Burton scorers:

Bradford City v Cardiff City (12:30)
AFC Wimbledon v Doncaster Rovers
Barnsley v Blackpool
Mansfield Town v Port Vale
Northampton Town v Wycombe Wanderers
Peterborough United v Plymouth Argyle

Scottish Cup 4th round:
Dunfermline Athletic v Hibernian (12:30)

Premier League:
Manchester United v Manchester City (12:30)
Chelsea v Brentford

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

1. St Charles Owl = 22 pts
   
2. themaclad = 20 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 18 pts
   
4. Devongone = 14 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 10 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 8 pts
   

Saturday 17th January:
League One:
Burton v Town
Town scorers:
Burton scorers:

Wigan Athletic v Bolton Wanderers (12:30)
Exeter City v Stevenage
Leyton Orient v Reading
Luton Town v Lincoln City
Stockport County v Rotherham United

Premier League:
Leeds United v Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United

Championship:
Preston North End v Derby County
Sheffield Wednesday v Portsmouth

League Two:
Chesterfield v Bromley (12:30)

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

The death-by-a-thousand-cuts managerial tenure of Ryan Mason this week reached its unfortunate yet inevitable end, conveniently leaving Albion a few extra days in which to install a replacement before the resumption of our increasingly imperilled league campaign; in the meantime, James Morrison oversees Sunday's cup tie at Swansea fairly safe in the knowledge that he could field the under-13s side with very little pushback or reproach.

Naturally, no one likes seeing the cup sidelined, and an unlikely win in South Wales this weekend would certainly be a boost to the Baggies after a rough Christmas and New Year period, but hot on the heels of defeat there just ten days ago - the ninth of our ten consecutive away losses - and winless in Swansea since March 2020, it's hard to see any outcome other than our usual premature cup exit. All of which combines to give Mozza a pretty free swing at this one: if he can pick a decent side and give the players a lift, we might just get lucky. And if not... whatever will be, will be; another year without Wembley. Give it your best, Mozza, and good luck.

Oxford United have appointed Matt Bloomfield as their new head coach.

The 41-year-old has been out of work since he was sacked as Luton boss in October and replaces Gary Rowett who was dismissed on 23 December following a run of one win in 10 matches.

The U's are currently 23rd in the Championship, three points adrift of safety.

"This felt like the right place at the right time. Oxford United are a club with good foundations, ambition and a playing group with significant potential, and that matches exactly where I am as a coach," Bloomfield said.

Bloomfield will watch Friday's FA Cup third round tie at MK Dons, with interim manager Craig Short remaining in the dugout, before taking the reins next week before the visit of Bristol City on 17 January.

A decision on Bloomfield's coaching staff will be made in due course an Oxford statement said, while the club have not disclosed the length of his deal.

"I want my teams to work hard, attack with purpose and play with a clear identity," Bloomfield added.

"Everyone has to understand their role, be accountable and deliver consistently."

Bloomfield began his managerial career at Colchester United before taking over from Gareth Ainsworth at Wycombe Wanderers in 2023.

After leading the Chairboys to the League One automatic promotion places amid the challenge of big-spending Birmingham City and Wrexham last season, he left the club to take over at Luton in January.

But Bloomfield was unable to prevent the Hatters from suffering back-to-back relegations to the third tier and was dismissed after an underwhelming start to the season, with the club 11th in the table.

The club have already added two new players to their squad in January, with midfielder Jamie Donley, 20, arriving on loan from Tottenham Hotspur for the rest of the season, and Brentford's Myles Peart-Harris also signing a short-term deal.

The U's play four league games - against Bristol City, Queens Park Rangers, Leicester City and Birmingham City - inside 15 days later this month.

"Matt stood out for his attention to detail, work ethic and his strong belief in building success the right way. He is a coach with a very clear idea of how he wants his teams to play," said Oxford's head of football operations Ed Waldron.

"He has a proven track record of developing both teams and individuals through strong leadership and communication, and we believe he is the right person to strengthen the group now and moving forward."

These seem to be the top 8 in the betting at present.

Erik Ramsey - hot favourite at evens. I don’t know much about him!
Lee Carsley - similar to Mason, not enough experience.
Hassenhuttl - interesting candidate
Gary O’Neil - not for me thanks
Russell Martin - not convinced by him, thought he was lucky to get Southampton promoted 
Michael Carrick - ex middlesboro
Slaven Bilic - ex manager of WBA. 
Carlos Corberan - would only happen if he gets sacked by Valencia.

Who would I want.

Hassenhuttl for me. Carrick second, 

but also want to know a bit more about Ramsey! 

Or is there a left field choice, we used to be good at keeping it all under wraps till the last moment. 

Who do you want?