Middlesbrough have appointed Kim Hellberg as their new head coach.

The 37-year-old who had been in charge of Swedish side Hammarby, replaces Rob Edwards, who left for Premier League strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier this month.

This is a first job for Hellberg outside his native Sweden, although he had been in talks with Championship rivals Swansea City earlier this month.

Hellberg will take over officially later in the week, with Adi Viveash remaining in interim charge for the home game against Championship leaders Coventry City on Tuesday.

Boro remain in second, seven points behind the Sky Blues after only losing two of their 16 league games this season.


Hellberg is Boro's second managerial appointment in five months, with Edwards departing for Wolves just 14 games into his tenure at the Riverside.

Having been in charge at Hammarby for the past two seasons, Hellberg led the Stockholm-based club to successive second-placed finishes in Sweden's top-flight Allsvenskan.

Hellberg, who spent his playing career in the Swedish lower leagues, had a year to run on his deal with Hammarby.

He began his coaching career in the Swedish lower divisions with Kuddby IF and later IF Sylvia before joining the staff at top-tier club IFK Norkopping in 2020.

His first head coach role in the Allsvenskan came at IFK Varnamo, where two impressive seasons led to his move to Hammarby.

"A lot of things make Boro the perfect choice for me," said Hellberg. "The way they play and want to play, together with the crowd, suits me and how I want to work."

He will be accompanied to Teesside by his assistant David Selini, with Viveash remaining part of the backroom staff.

While unknown to the vast majority of English audiences, Boro's director of football Kieran Scott had Hellberg's progress at Hammarby on the radar, and he believes the the club have recruited a head coach whose stock is on the rise.

"Kim is someone I've been monitoring for a while," Scott told the club's website., external

"He's well known in the circles of European football as an up-and-coming head coach that was catching a lot of people's eye and was doing really well at Hammarby.

"We met a few candidates, but Kim was high on my list of people I wanted to speak to."

Ex-Wolves first-team coach Ian Burchnall is in the running to replace Hellberg at Hammarby.

Burchnall, a former Forest Green and Notts County manager, has previously managed in Scandinavia having taken charge of Viking in Norway and Ostersunds in Sweden, when he succeeded Graham Potter in 2018.

Burchnall had been working with Jamaica under Steve McClaren for their last six World Cup qualifiers before McClaren stood down last week following the Reggae Boyz's failure to seal automatic qualification.

Swansea City have appointed Vitor Matos as their head coach on a four-year contract.

The former Liverpool elite development coach joins from Portuguese second-tier club Maritimo, where he only took his first senior managerial role in June.

Swansea sacked Alan Sheehan earlier this month and, after missing out on Middlesbrough-bound Kim Hellberg, the Championship strugglers turned to Matos.

The 37-year-old was at Ashton Gate on Saturday to watch the Swans' 3-0 defeat against Bristol City, leaving them 20th in the table.

"We spoke to a range of candidates and Vitor was the clear stand-out with a cohesive plan of how to take our squad forward," said Swansea chief executive Tom Gorringe.

"Vitor has spent over a decade working at elite clubs, and has been a trusted figure for some of the best coaches operating in the modern game.

"He is committed to playing an attacking brand of football, and to developing players technically and tactically, and we are sure supporters are going to enjoy watching his Swansea City team in action."

Sheehan's former assistant boss Darren O'Dea, who was in temporary charge last weekend, along with fellow coach Richard Stearman, will leave Swansea following Matos' appointment.

In a statment the club said they are working with Matos on finalising a backroom staff that "provides the support and expertise to give him the best chance of being successful".

Club legend Leon Britton has joined the coaching team on a short-term basis, while Joe Allen will also assist with the transition.

Fresh from Friday nights defeat, we are on the road to Watford, will Elton be there, one thing for sure the destroyer of the Hornet's twice last season, Osmajic won't, also captain Whiteman is suspended. Who is going to win the ball in midField, I hear you say, well er probably no one. Bit stretched squad wise at the moment but that's the way the croissant crumbles anyway.(10cc lyrics)

https://www.watfordfc.com/

MANAGER

Javier "Javi" Gracia Carlos (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxaβiˈɣɾaθja];[a] born 1 May 1970) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently the head coach of EFL Championship club Watford.

He totalled 430 matches across both major levels of Spanish football, in a 15-year professional career. After retiring he began working as a manager, going on to coach several clubs in Spain, Greece and Russia before being appointed at Watford in January 2018.[2]

Gracia led Watford to their second FA Cup final in their history in 2019, but was sacked later the same year.[3] From June 2020 to May 2021 he worked with Valencia, and a year later he won the Qatar Stars League during a brief spell at Al Sadd before managing Leeds United for three months in 2023.



FORM GUIDE

Last 4 games
Derby A 2-3 W
Bristol City H 1-1
Ipswich A 1-1
Boro H 3-0 W

MYSTICS MACS FORM RATING

HORNETS 11 PNE 13

Hornets good attacking side although they appear to be a bit suspect at the back, especially at dead balls, let in 10, moral, don't let your balls die

Hot shots and newbies

Irankunda
Petris
They paid fees for these two

Louza 6
Kjeerumgard 5

OTHER CHAMPO FIXTURES

Hull v Tractors
Boro v Coventry
Stoke v Charlton
Swansea v Direby
Canaries v Oxford

PNE play the first part of an away double-header on Tuesday as they face Watford at Vicarage Road.

Team News

Harrison Armstrong, who missed Friday’s Lancashire derby with a groin issue, is progressing well but manager Paul Heckingbottom is not prepared to risk the midfielder unless he is 100% ready.

Pol Valentín and Will Keane both returned to the matchday squad last time out after spells on the sidelines and they’ll be hoping to get some game time in this one.

North End are still without Ali McCann, Andrija Vukčević, Brad Potts, Lewis Gibson, Robbie Brady and Theo Carroll.

The Hosts

Watford head into Tuesday following a terrific away victory over Derby County at the weekend, as they scored three goals in the final half-hour to overturn a two-goal deficit.

The Hornets have seen an upturn in form since a change of management, with Tom Cleverley being replaced by Javi Gracia, who had a previous spell at Vicarage Road between 2018 and 2019.

They’re unbeaten in their last four and sit just two points outside of the top six heading into this round of fixtures.

Match Officials

Referee: James Bell
Assistant Referees: Matthew Smith and Shaun Hudson
Fourth Official: James Linington

James Bell will referee this fixture. Incidentally, the last time he was the main official for a PNE match was for the Gentry Day fixture at Vicarage Road in April 2024.

So far this season, Bell has shown 30 yellow cards in eight matches.

We’ve Met Before
Milutin Osmajić’s brace earned Preston North End a 2-1 victory at Vicarage Road back in January.

WATFORD BUILDINGS

St Mary's Watford is a Church of England church in Watford, Hertfordshire, in England. It is an active church situated in the town centre on Watford High Street, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) outside London. St Mary's is the parish church of Watford and is part of the Anglican Diocese of St Albans. Thought to be at least 800 years old, the church contains burials of a number of local nobility and some noteworthy monumental sculpture of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.

THE MATCH

WEDNESDAY 26TH NOVEMBER KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH

The first Steel City Derby didn't go well as the Blunts cruised to an easy win. We conceded early again as Valery was robbed of possession and the ball was played to Campbell who slotted it into the corner of the net. We nearly conceded again when Iorfa played an awful pass and Ings was denied by Horvath. Onto the 2nd half and deja vu as we conceded early again. Peck intercepted a pass which went straight to Campbell who again found the corner. We huffed and puffed but never really looked like scoring. United rubbed it in when in stoppage time Cannon's shot was deflected past Horvath as we went down to our biggest margin of defeat in a home derby.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and a midweek trip to take on Millwall. Millwall are having a surprisingly good season and currently reside in 7th place in the table. I would be surprised if they could stay in that lofty position, but with the Championship being weak this year they might have a chance of making the playoffs. They are managed by Alex Neil who took charge in December of last year and took them to 8th in the table, just missing out on the playoffs. There leading scorer is Femi Azeez who has 4 goals and 1 assist.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 20
MILL 18
DRAW 17

CURRENT FORM

OWLS    L L D D L L                                                             

MILL L D L D W W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

JACOB MILES
George Byrne and Carl Fitch-Jackson
Fourth Official: Josh Smith

THE TEAM

Horvath
Fusire Palmer Iorfa M Lowe Amass
Valery Ingelsson Bannan
McNeill Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Cadamarteri

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 10
Maddix 8
Imre 4
SCO 4
Washington 3

BMPL

Stateside 6
Pei -4
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Arsenal v Bayern Munich
Blackburn v QPR
Sheff Utd v Portsmouth
Wrexham v Bristol City
WBA V Birmingham

AHHDD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

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
   

Saturday November 29th:
League One:
Town v AFC Wimbledon
Town scorers:
AFCW scorers:

Blackpool v Reading (12:30)
Lincoln City v Port Vale
Luton Town v Bolton Wanderers
Plymouth Argyle v Northampton Town
Rotherham United v Wycombe Wanderers
Wigan Athletic v Stevenage

Championship:
West Bromwich Albion v Swansea City

Sunday 30th November:
Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Celtic (12:00)

Tuesday 2nd December:
EFL Trophy 2nd round:
Lincoln v Town (19:00)
Town scorers:
Lincoln scorers:

League One:
Wigan Athletic v Burton Albion

Premier League:
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur (20:15)

*** 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
   

Saturday November 29th:
League One:
Town v AFC Wimbledon
Town scorers:
AFCW scorers:

Stockport County v Barnsley (12:30)
Bradford City v Exeter City
Burton Albion v Leyton Orient
Cardiff City v Mansfield Town
Doncaster Rovers v Peterborough United

Championship:
Sheffield Wednesday v Preston North End

League Two:
Chesterfield v Swindon Town

Sunday 30th November:
Premier League:
West Ham United v Liverpool (14:05)
Chelsea v Arsenal (16:30)

Tuesday 2nd December:
EFL Trophy 2nd round:
Lincoln v Town
Town scorers:
Lincoln scorers:

League One:
Wigan Athletic v Burton Albion

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

Here's the Christmas predictions thread .

Last season we had a fantastic Christmas picking up 4 wins 2 Draws and only 1 loss at Home to Blackburn. If I had any hope left for this season then this is the period that could bring us out with a fighting chance in the new year if we do as well but I don't and we will be lucky to win 4 games all season being realistic

I usually give my take on the easy and hard picks of the fixtures but this is a complete waste of time at the moment we will play Boring North End each side of the festive period and Blackburn twice inside the Christmas fixtures o how our fans suffer having to go over to that shithole they call Lancashire

I'll end the thread on a happy note though we have finally gotten rid of Chansiri and there is everything to look forward too next year apart from our Relegation back to the pub leagues offcourse but hopefully this time the following Christmas we are sat on the top of pub league 1 looking at certain promotion

Fixtures

A. Blackburn Dec 6th Sat 3pm .

A. Watford Dec 9th Tues 745pm .

H. Derby Dec 15th Mon 8pm.

A. Ipswich Dec 20th Sat 3pm .

H. Hull City Dec 26th Fri 3pm Boxing day.

H. Blackburn Dec 29th Mon 745pm.



Rules

1.Total number of points from all the matches we will get

2.Total GD we will get using plus and minus like a normal league table would be

3.Total amount of cards picked up as a team Red 3points Yellow 1point

4.Top goal scorer :

5. Predictions for all seven matches Home Draw Away Unlike our match thread the highest amount wins even if drawn out as low as 3 results

6. First Wednesday goal scorer GT added up

Predict as follows please
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Predictions must be in by Wednesday December 3rd.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year

Gamball
Portsmouth - Bristol City

Others
Sunderland - Bournemouth
Everton - Newcastle
Millwall - Southampton
Norwich - QPR
Sheff W - Preston
Wrexham - Blackburn
Crystal Palace - Man Utd
Forest - Brighton
Chelsea - Arsenal

The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships return to Finland for the second consecutive year, with competition beginning on Saturday 22 November, ending on Saturday 29 November. The A-Division teams will return to the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, while the B-Division teams will play at the Pajulahti Sports Centre in Lahti, approximately two hours away.

The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships A-Division is a qualifier for the World Championships. Among the women’s teams, the top seven placed teams from this competition will qualify for the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship in Calgary, Alberta from 14–22 March 2026. Among the men’s teams, the top eight placed teams from this competition will earn their spot at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship, in Ogden City, Utah, from 27 March – 4 April 2026.

A-Division
The women’s teams are: Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye.
The men’s teams are: Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland.

B-Division
The women’s B-Division will feature ten teams: Austria, England, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The men’s B-Division will see 16 teams compete: Belgium, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Türkiye, Ukraine and Wales.

This will be the 50th edition of the European Championships, once again supported by long-term sponsor Le Gruyère AOP (that's three mentions already, free advertising for them!), for the 23rd time.

No photographs so far, but usually either I find them from the the curling nations' own websites with no copyright issues as far as I can see OR from the World Curling website when I would normally credit the source. The latter credit is possibly not enough as far as legality is concerned, but I will certainly be extra cautious when posting any photographs. To me, any use of photographs is publicity for the sport and should be encouraged, but we're moving so far and so fast to the American standpoint of legal action first, common sense later, that I wonder whether or not the curling authorities want promotion of the sport. Just my opinion, not justification for any abuse of copyright.

Having bought some much-needed breathing space with the comeback win against Oxford, and enjoyed a fortnight's respite to plan for the battles to come, it's back to the unforgiving grind for Ryan Mason and the beleaguered Baggies. Though still only four points off the playoffs, I think most of us have accepted that they're an unrealistic target this season; yet with that acceptance of mid-table mediocrity comes a far greater weight on local bragging rights, and this week will go a long way to determining who can claim the mantle of Pride of the Midlands in 2025. (For administrative purposes, this house no longer recognises the existence of the Premier League or its deluded denizens.)

First up is a trip to Coventry tomorrow, where Frank Lampard has truly brought back the glory days of Steve Ogrizovic and away kits manufactured by Cadbury's. Having finally retrieved their stadium from the exiled Nigerian prince they donated it to, and planted the magic beans they got in return, the wind is well and truly in the sails of the Sky Blues as they set a course at full steam for promotion. (Look, it's my metaphor, and I'll mix my means of nautical propulsion if I want to.) Unbeaten on home soil so far, while Albion have spent the last six weeks looking like absolute pot plants on the road, it would frankly be an upset if we were to come away from the Arena Formerly Known As Ricoh with so much as a point, and if we can simply keep Brandon Thomas-Asante from scoring a hat-trick then I'd take it.

However, assuming that the Coventry jaunt is a write-off places infinitely more weight on Wednesday night's follow-up when we play host to Birmingham City. Resurgent under the ownership of Toms Wagner and Brady, and fresh from unveiling the concept art for their planned new stadium (which could best be described as a Christmas cake gone dreadfully awry), they'll be hoping for a derby win to help win over some of those shy 62,000 Blues fans who've been conspicuous in their absence from St Andrew's for the last 150 years. Anything can happen when local pride is at stake, and Albion will be leaning heavily on our ever-so-slightly-better home form, but two defeats on the trot would be enough to land Mason right back in hot water by the end of the month, so by hook or by crook, we need to come out of this week with something to show for our efforts.

Former Leicester City defender Christian Fuchs has been appointed manager of Newport County on a "long-term contract".

The 39-year-old was part of the Leicester team which won the Premier League in 2016, and has most recently been working as assistant coach of Major League Soccer side Charlotte FC.

County sacked David Hughes after their 1-0 defeat at Shrewsbury Town last Saturday with the Exiles bottom of League Two.

"We see Christian as the sort of man to lead our club forward. I believe he matches our ambition and goals for Newport County," said chairman Huw Jenkins.

"I do feel we can now look forward with a great deal of optimism. We'll look to improve our current situation in League Two and take things from there.

"Christian is ambitious and wants, one day, to manage in the Premier League. We believe he shares our strong belief in what Newport County can eventually become."


What information do we collect from this quiz?
Under Hughes, who took charge in the summer, Newport won only three of 16 League Two games.

The loss to Shrewsbury saw the slip to four points adrift of safety, prompting Hughes' exit.

Fuchs, who won 78 caps for Austria, will begin his first managerial role with a trip to Oldham Athletic on Saturday.

The former left-back announced his retirement from playing in January 2023, having finished his career with Charlotte FC.


ARTICLE COURTESY FROM THE BBC