Group A

Stairs 15
Zimnan 14
A.A.A. 13
B.B.B. 13
BaggieVicar 11
Minizin 8
BaggieOne 1
Twerton 0

An average week in Group A this week, and I am not just saying that for effect, the actual average score in Group A so far this season is 75, and this week saw 75 points scored!!! It was also an average week for the Gamball as well with just one player scoring positive points on it, but the Bonus was distinctly above average with a total of 18 points coming from it!!

Stairs leads the scoring this week for the 4th time this season with 15 points. He was the only player to manage 2 CSs, including a max on the Gamball. Right behind him is Zinman with 14 points, he too scored a max on the Bonus and this weeks points sees him as the 2nd highest scorer over the past 5 weeks! The top player over the past 5 weeks is AAA, who is joint 3rd this week with BBB. Both of them scored 13 points, both of them had one CS but AAA scored on 5 games whereas BBB only scored on 4, the difference being the Gamball where BBB was the only player to score points on it.

BaggieVicar is 5th with 11 points, he played his Gamball this week and of course promptly got it wrong!! League leader Minizin had an off week in 6th with 8 points, he had one CS and a CR on the Bonus. BaggieOne's single point sees his mediocre form continue, he has only averaged 6 points per week over the last 10 weeks.

Twerton is obviously posting his scores while riding Nemesis at Alton Towers, over the last 4 weeks he has finished first then last then first and now last again!!!

196 Minizin
181 Stairs
168 A.A.A.
159 BaggieOne
154 Twerton
148 BaggieVicar
139 B.B.B.
135 Zinman

Minizin's lead drops to 15 points from Stairs, who in turn is now only 13 points ahead of our new 3rd place player in AAA. B1 and Twerton are mid-table and being chased by the Vicar. BBB and Zinman stay the bottom 2 but they are closer to the rest after this week.

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Snooty 11
4eva 11
SCO 10
Derby 7
Lady Jane 5
Themaclad 4
Salop 3
Amelia 0

I'm always nervous when most players pick the same result for the gamball as it suggests that I've chosen a very predictable match. This week saw 7 players predict an away win and one a draw.....so the inevitable home win for Bristol City saw a complete wipe out on the gamball, the first time that's happened this season. Fortunately the bonus ball had one of its better weeks, actually producing a positive total to leave the week's performance just slightly below average for Group B. QPR's win against Leicester produced a negative total though at least one player scored on that game - ironically that player didn't get a lot else right.

3 players made double figures - just - with Snooty, back from his week off, and 4eva sharing top spot with 11 points and SCO lagging a point further back. All 3 got 4 correct predictions with 1 correct score (the only 3 correct scores this week). Snooty scored a maximum from his bonus while 4eva was the only 1 of the 3 to pick up the scoreball point.

Derby continued to struggle with correct scores but a rare correct bonus, finally breaking a 6 week run, was enough to secure 4th place. Lady Jane and Themaclad both equalled the leaders' 4 correct results but without a correct score, scoring 5 and 4 points respectively with LJ's scoreball being the difference. Salop's poor run continued - his 5th consecutive week of failing to reach double figures but he's kept off the foot of the table by Amelia who scored on just 2 games and missed out on all the balls to give her nothing for the week's efforts.

183 4eva
141 SCO
129 Snooty
127 Lady Jane
121 Themaclad
118 Amelia
113 Derby
101 Salop

The top 2 managed to stretch their lead with 4eva now 42 points clear at the top. There were a few positional changes below the top 2 with Snooty moving ahead of Lady Jane and Themaclad taking advantage of Amelia's bad week to climb to 5th. Salop remains at the foot of the table but he has managed to climb above the 100 point mark.

A quick note that this week's fixtures include matches on Friday (Boxing Day) so please don't leave your predictions to Saturday morning unless you're in Group A where I need all the help I can get!

Zin


Both Zin and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, see you on Boxing day!!

Gamball:
Millwall - Ipswich

Others:
Man Utd - Newcastle
Norwich - Charlton
Portsmouth - QPR
Stoke - Preston
WBA - Bristol City
Wrexham - Sheff Utd
Brentford - Bournemouth
West Ham - Fulham
Chelsea - Aston Villa

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 21:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 390 pts
   
2. jjamez = 374 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 317 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 288 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 287 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 137 pts
   

Friday 26th December (all 15:00 kick offs):
League One:
Town v Port Vale
Town scorers:
Vale scorers:

AFC Wimbledon v Stevenage
Barnsley v Mansfield Town
Blackpool v Doncaster Rovers
Bolton Wanderers v Rotherham United
Bradford City v Wigan Athletic
Burton Albion v Northampton Town

Saturday 27th December:
Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Hearts (12:30)

Monday 29th December (all 19:45 kick offs):
Championship:
West Bromwich Albion v Queens Park Rangers

League One:
Town v Northampton
Town scorers:
Northampton scorers:

AFC Wimbledon v Exeter City
Barnsley v Lincoln City
Blackpool v Rotherham United
Bolton Wanderers v Mansfield Town
Bradford City v Port Vale
Burton Albion v Wigan Athletic
Cardiff City v Stevenage
Luton Town v Leyton Orient
Peterborough United v Reading
Plymouth Argyle v Wycombe Wanderers
Stockport County v Doncaster Rovers

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

1. theo_luddite = 341 pts
   
2. themaclad = 339 pts
   
3. Devongone = 324 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 302 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 261 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 252 pts
   

Friday 26th December (all 15:00 kick offs):
League One:
Town v Port Vale
Town scorers:
Vale scorers:

Cardiff City v Exeter City
Luton Town v Wycombe Wanderers
Peterborough United v Leyton Orient
Plymouth Argyle v Reading
Stockport County v Lincoln City

Monday 29th December (all 19:45 kick offs):
Championship:
Sheffield Wednesday v Blackburn Rovers
Wrexham v Preston North End

League One:
Town v Northampton
Town scorers:
Northampton scorers:

AFC Wimbledon v Exeter City
Barnsley v Lincoln City
Blackpool v Rotherham United
Bolton Wanderers v Mansfield Town
Bradford City v Port Vale
Burton Albion v Wigan Athletic
Cardiff City v Stevenage
Luton Town v Leyton Orient
Peterborough United v Reading
Plymouth Argyle v Wycombe Wanderers
Stockport County v Doncaster Rovers

League Two:
Chesterfield v Cambridge United

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

For the second week in succession we start at the ungodly time of 12.30pm, suspect any visitors travelling by coach will set their alarms for a truly great time of 3am to give them ample time to crawl out of bed and still realise it's the middle of the night, good news is at 3.03pm on the 21st is the furthest the earth's axis will be from the sun, from then on in it's downhill to summer.
City not having the best summer although seem to be starting to improve under Phil the man from Belgium, certainly won't be in the drop zone by May although by no means an easy task to get away from that line above 22nd.

canaries.co.uk
Norwich City Football Club
The official website of Norwich City Football Club, featuring first team news, club updates, ticketing information and retail products. | Sign up to a One City account to enjoy all that’s available | Norwich City Football Club
canaries.co.uk canaries.co.uk

MANAGER

Philippe Clement (born 22 March 1974) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of EFL Championship club Norwich City.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Clement#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>

He began his professional career at Belgian clubs Beerschot and Genk between 1992 and 1998, thereafter he joined Coventry City in England for one season. Clement then returned to his homeland and spent ten seasons at Club Brugge, between 1999 and 2009, making over 300 appearances. At international level, Clement won 38 caps for the Belgium national team between 1998 and 2007 and scored one goal.

As a manager, Clement led Genk and Club Brugge to Belgian Pro League titles over three consecutive seasons. Abroad, he managed Monaco in Ligue 1 and Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, winning a Scottish League Cup.



Attributed Ellywa

Always like the waY backroom staff always have their initials on their clothing, easy to remember who you are then.

HOT SHOTS AND NEWBIES

Top Scorer
Sargeant 8

Kvistgaarden biggest transfer 8.5 million

FORM GUIDE

PNE 14 NORWICH 9


Team News​

A number of players who have recently returned from injury or who are still on their way back, the likes of Ali McCann, Andrija Vukčević and Will Keane, all took part in a training match earlier this week.

Liam Lindsay will return to contention after serving his one-match suspension, while Brad Potts will be hoping for his first minutes since March on Saturday, after being an unused substitute for the last two matches.

Jamal Lewis, Milutin Osmajić and Robbie Brady remain unavailable.

The Visitors​

Following a summer of change, with Liam Manning being appointed as head coach and a plethora of new faces added to the squad, things didn’t get off to the start that Norwich City would have wanted.

The Canaries went 12 matches between September and November without a victory and found themselves in the bottom three, leading to the dismissal of Manning as boss and the appointment of Philippe Clement.

Norwich have picked up some impressive results under the two-time Belgian Pro League winning manager, including victories over Queens Park Rangers and Southampton, and he’ll be hoping his side can come up with the goods again at Deepdale this weekend.

Match Officials​

Referee: Stephen Martin
Assistant Referees: Hugh Gilroy and Hristo Karaivanov
Fourth Official: Simon Mather

Stephen Martin will take charge of Saturday’s fixture.

Martin officiated North End’s draw against Millwall earlier in the campaign and is vastly experienced in the EFL, having first refereed PNE back in 2013.

So far this season, he has shown 55 yellow cards in 12 matches.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 20TH DECEMBER KO 3PM

v

LAST MATCH



We made it 9 defeats out of 11 home games as Derby won without breaking sweat. Nothing much happened in the game until we gave the ball away and Derby took the lead when the ball was played to Agyemang who finished well. Derby had one or two more chances but didn't add to there tally, while we never looked like scoring. Onto the 2nd half and 2 goals in six minutes put the game to bed. Thompson created a yard of space and steered a low bobbling shot into the bottom-left corner. We lost possession in our own half, Brewster whose low cross was cleared only as far as Agyemang to finish high into the net from close range. Ingesson had our only shot on target on 75 mins but by then most of the home fans had already left.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our final game game before Christmas sees us travel to Ipswich. The Tractor boys mad a slow start to the season but have improved in the last few months and now lie in 5th place in the table. They are still 8 points off 2nd place Middlesboro, but with the lack of quality teams in the Championship I would give Ipswich a fair chance of making one of the automatic spots. They are managed by Kieran McKenna who has been in charge since December 2021, getting them promoted to the Premier League 2 seasons ago. There leading scorer this season is Philogene with 7 goals and 2 assists with George Hirst not far behind on 6.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 21
IPSW 22
DRAW 16

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L D L L L L                                                          

IPSW      L W W D L W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  



THE TEAM

Charles
Palmer Cooper Iorfa M Lowe Amass
Chalobah Ingelsson Bannan
McNeill Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

4-1 McNeill

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 12
Maddix 8
Imre 7
SCO 4
Washington 4

BMPL

Stateside 6
Pei -3
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Brighton v Sunderland
Watford v Stoke
Leyton Orient v Bradford
Oldham v Tranmere
Tamworth v Southend

DHADA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Another afternoon of work disappears into the ether as I go to save the thread as a draft and I get a "Can't connect to this website" message. Tried back and forwarding it, looking through history, but no. All gone again.

Now all of a sudden the site is back up and running again.

I'll put some of it back together tomorrow but I'm losing the will to live let alone write threads on here anymore.

Meanwhile Happy Christmas to all our readers and contributors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyF8RHM1OCg

Take 2

Images are either my own creations or free to download and edited from pixabay and their partner site canva or are credited from WIKI Creative Commons (whatevers) as an example even if I don't need to. Links to pixabay and canva are at the bottom of the thread should you wish to check their credentials. I have then uploaded some of those images I can't directly link to this thread to my freeimage account to be able to post them on here.

The faff you have to go through to keep some precious people happy is ridiculous, given that some have content on their websites they claim copyright for that isn't actually their own copyright in the first place.


Thanks to Chris from Rotherham for this image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...43670).jpg



Pathetic, I know, but work with what you're allowed to eh?


Kick-off 15:00 UK Time
Saturday 20/12/25

Town take the short trip down the M1 to Rotherham on Saturday with both sides having gone 5 games without a win. After the way the fans turned on Teflon Lee Grant last weekend I'm surprised he's still here, I'm probably not the only one. A more attacking approach, he has the players to do it in this division, is needed to get the fans back onside.

How to get there

Pies, pees and pints are all in here. If you fnd yourself outside a ground with big old fashioned floodlights, the new gound is a short walk away round the corner.

Head south down the M1 and turn left at Tinsley Viaduct
Head north up the M1 and turn left at Tinsley Viaduct and go Christmas shopping in Meadowhall instead.

On the tellybox

Not this weekend unless you've an HTTV account or one of them there dodgy sticks

Latest news

Leo Castledine has won the Goal of the Month for his free kick at Luton. He had a couple of other pearlers too and now leads Town's scoring chart on 6 for the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91VIyef5-ms

Pity we managed to lose again.

Conor Hourihane (Barnsley) won the Manager of the Month Award.

Lee Grant (Huddersfield Town)
"Adaptability is essential to good management. A difficult October led Grant to play a second striker up front to capitalise on his side’s attacking talents. The result was seven points and ten goals in four excitement-filled games."
What was I watching then?

The club announced last week they'd installed a new speaker system at the stadium. To be honest I thought they'd installed it before the previous home game, when for the first time this season I could actually hear what the bloke on the pitch was saying. Anyone know who he is yet?

The first team squad have been on the annual Santa Claus run around the kids wards in Huddersfield and Halifax, though the vid only shows Halifax. Cue some spiteful comments below the vid as some folk just don't know when to shut the "f" up. T'interweb is a wonderful invention that some people really shouldn't ever have really been made aware of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urEOwgw8Hbk

Out Injured/Suspended/Isolating

Grant is normally out sharp and early with his pressers to update this section - no sign of him so far mid-afternoon on Friday.

Here we go

Jack Whatmough has had another setback in his recovery from a calf injury and is back out of training. His recovery timeline is now unclear.

Will Alves (foot), Herbie Kane (groin) and Zepiqueno Redmond (knee) are all back in individual training but all three have a way to go before they will be available for selection.

Antony Evans (knee) and Mickel Miller (hamstring) are both expected to be out until roughly around the end of January.

Back training but not oven ready/Back in the frame

Josh Feeney picked up a groin injury against Northampton and returned to Aston Villa to be looked at last week, but is now back at Canalside. He is expected to miss the next 2-4 weeks.

Joe Taylor was left out against Wigan on Saturday but Lee Grant has confirmed that was a selection decision and nothing to do with injury.

Marcus McGuane is hoped to be back available in training in the next couple of weeks after recurrent groin niggles.

There's a lot of 'We are Terriers' and a bit of me in the above.

Last time out

Town stunk the house out by dominating the possession, approx 60:40 but for the most part passing it sideways across the back line, then occasionally passing it forwards to a defensive midfielder who passed it straight back to them. Castledine eventually got as frustrated as the fans with this and ran the ball from the edge of the Town box to Wigan's before losing it as there was nobody to pass it to. For his efforts he was subbed for insubordination. Grant needs to realise that keeping the ball maybe stops the other lot from scoring, but keeping it in our half also stops us from scoring. I won't hold my breath.



Rotherham made the long trip to Plymouth and came back with a defeat to a goal scored just before half-time.




Cardiff were looking at an unexpected 3:3 draw at home to Doncaster waaaay into added time, when they popped up with a winner on 99 mins. That's double Fergie-time if ever I saw it. Sadfud won 2:0 at home to Reading to hop above Lincoln who drew at Blackpool. Bolton moved into 4th with a home win over Exeter. Stevenage won at Stockport, swapping places in 5th and 6th. Luton were held to a draw by bottom club Port Vale as they continued their abysmal home form (until we turned up) and Barnsley secured 8th place with a home win over Orient. Town dropped into mid-table mediocrity again.



Of the bottom clubs (some not mentioned above), I might have mentioned Plymouth won to go 21st, Doncaster dropped onto the trap door on the same points as Pish Posh and Reading.- oh wait ...

Table

Reading's win last night has moved them up to 14th and pushed The Millers down to 16th.
Town are 9th, 4 points adrift of the top 6 and now 7 places and 4 points above Rotherham.

(Still working on my DIY version, see my next thread, maybe).

DIY version (as it stands 15 mins into Saturday's game - 1st test)



The Millers started with a win against current bottom feeders Port Vale, then lost 2, drew 2 and lost another before their next win. 3 defeats and a draw put them in the bottom 4. They won their next 4 and drew the following 3 before they lost the last 2 games. They are currently more or less where they left off last season, in mid-table mediocrity.

Musical Interlude

We only sing when we're winning

The Sack Race

That new chap at Celtic is going down worse than Lee Grant. 4 games, 4 defeats - will either last until Boxing Day? Will Martin O'Neill be back out of his slippers again by the New Year?

Former Rotherham (and L666s) head coach Steve (who ate all the pies) Evans took over at Bristol Rovers this week after Darrell Clarke was handed his pre-Christmas Cards at the weekend. 3 defeats to start followed by a 7 game unbeaten run had them in the play-off spots. They've lost all 10 games since then and are now back in the relegation spots. The only surprising thing is they didn't dump him sooner. To be fair, Steve Evans had shed a lot of timber the last time I saw a photo of him. Good luck to him.

They can't all win

Reading and Luton (7th) kicked off Thursday night's (cough) football spectacular. Reading won 3:2. I might have mentioned that. Northampton play the Wombles on Friday evening. Two fixtures that will surely boost the tellybox ratings. OK, maybe not. Leaders Cardiff go to 3rd placed Lincoln. Sadfud head darn sarf to play at Orient, Bolton aren't too far away at Wycombe. Stevenage are home to Burton in an early kick-off on Saturday and Stockport go to Mansfield who are also looking for a first win in 5. Just above Town, Barnsley are at Exeter.



Down amongst the dead men a couple of scraps amongst bottom dwellers. Port Vale are home to Pish Posh, Blackpool have a Lancastrian derby at Wigan, Exeter you know about, Plymouth go to Doncaster in a battle for the trap door. Reading are mentioned above.

We've played 'em before

Town are well ahead in the League Head2Head with 29 wins v 11 but we've not won in our last 4 most recent visits. D2, L2.

(I'm working on my DIY version of this too).

Next up?

Port Vale at home on Boxing Day. Unless we start playing like we want to win, it might not just be Christmas Day's sprouts that are grumbling again on Friday

Pressers

If only - has he gone into hiding?

Just as you press send he has one.

Grant and Castledine in for this weekend's grilling .... apparently

We are Terriers. Might have to change this later.

If that doesnt work
https://www.htafc.com/news/2025/december...rham-trip/

https://youtu.be/cABvl_ZTsy0




The views from Tinsley Viaduct

Radio silence appears to have spread across Yorkshire.

If I ever find owt I'll post in here too. This division is abysmal when it comes to pressers.

No sooner do you call them out ...

https://www.themillers.co.uk/news/2025/d...tners----/

https://youtu.be/bWdNQjbpg6k

The links I promised up there somewhere

https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/
https://www.canva.com/templates

Won't be surprised if someone still moans though.


You can buy this on Amazon but they want a small fortune for it
It's not me that's selling it.

Bristol Rovers have appointed Steve Evans as their new manager in an attempt to reverse their recent struggles.

The League Two outfit sacked Darrell Clarke after Saturday's 3-0 home loss to Swindon made it 10 straight league defeats and dropped them into the relegation zone.

Evans, 63, has been out of work since March when he was sacked by Rotherham.

Since then, the Scot has spoken extensively about the fitness drive he has been on, shedding seven stone (44.4kg) in weight as a result.

The first match for the former Leeds United, Mansfield Town, Peterborough United, Gillingham and Stevenage boss will be away to Crewe Alexandra on Friday (19:45 GMT).

Evans, who has signed a deal until the end of the season, has managed more than 1,000 games, including more than 700 in the EFL, over a 30-year career.

"It's fantastic to be here at Bristol Rovers," he said.

"Bristol Rovers is a club that is very traditional. Every time I have brought teams here, I have always said it's a really difficult place to come.

"I'm really looking forward to it here. It's a huge club, but I'm very mindful of the immediate challenge and I'm looking forward to getting down to work."

Director of football, Ricky Martin, said Evans would provide "clear leadership and direction".

"Steve brings a wealth of experience at this level, a deep understanding of the demands of EFL football, and a proven ability to get the best out of his players.

"His teams are known for their work ethic, organisation, and commitment, all qualities which are central to what we are building here," added Martin.

Evans' assistant will be Paul Raynor, who had a loan spell with the Gas as a player in 1984.

Group A
Twerton 16
A.A.A. 14
BaggieVicar 13
B.B.B. 12
Minizin 11
BaggieOne 9
Stairs 7
Zimnan 1

Decent week with 5 players in double figures, but prior to that winning goal for Villa it was looking very bad. That goal saw a 30 point swing in the scoring on its own!!! Twerton leads the way this week with 16 points, his second best point of the season and interestingly its the league leading 6th time he has topped the weekly scores!! He was one of only two players to score positive points on the Gamball and managed to score on his other balls as well. AAA continues his decent form in 2nd spot with 14 points. He missed on the Gamball but got a max on the Bonus as well as another CS. BaggieVicar is 3rd with 13 points, he didn't play his Gamball and it saved him a point again.

BBB is 4th, he was the other player to get points on the Gamball as part of his 12 points in total. Minizin ia a point behind him in 5th. he got 5 CRs but was unable to convert any into CSs. BaggieOne is 6th with 9 points, he only scored on 3 games but one was a CS, another was his Bonus and the third was a CR with the Scoreball on it. Stairs was 7th with 7 points, still not great but a huge improvement on last week!!

Zinman fell back to last place for the first time in 8 weeks ending with just 1 point thanks to his Scoreball.

188 Minizin
166 Stairs
158 BaggieOne
155 A.A.A.
154 Twerton
137 BaggieVicar
126 B.B.B.
121 Zinman

Not a lot of change in the table, Minizin stretches his lead to 22 points over Stairs. His poor form means the next 3 players are closing in behind him with B-One just 8 points back, follwed closely by AAA and Twerton. The Vicar stays 6th pretty much on his own and then we see the only change in the table with BBB climbing back above Zinman who lost a lot of blood from the nose bleed he had while in 7th for one week!!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

4eva 22
Amelia 11
Salop 9
Lady Jane 7
SCO 7
Derby 6
Themaclad 1
Snooty 0

Another week which sees a large discrepancy between the top and bottom of the table - not just because of Snooty's no-show. For once, no fixture produced a negative total though both the Sunderland and Millwall games totalled zero. The bonus ball had one of its better weeks with just 2 negative scores (more on this ball to follow) and only one player missed out on the scoreball.

4eva is th wek's stand-out performer scoring a season's best 22 points. He scored on 6 games and got 3 out of the week's total of 4 correct scores - I think he can probably take a few weeks off to give the rest a chance! Amelia secured second place with half of 4eva's score. She predicted the only other correct score but missed out on the gamball, though she did get her third consecutive bonus ball.

The next 4 players all had 3 correct result predictions and are therefore separated by their ball performance. Salop takes 3rd place thanks to scoring on both the gamball and bonus, though he was the only player to miss on the scoreball. Lady Jane and SCO exactly matched, correct bonuses but missing out on the gamball while Derby missed out on his bonus, again (see below).

Themaclad continued his inconsistent run after topping last week's table though he is kept off the bottom thanks to Snooty's disappearance. Themac got 2 correct results and the scoreball but nothing else.

172 4eva
131 SCO
122 Lady Jane
118 Snooty
118 Amelia
117 Themaclad
106 Derby
98 Salop

4eva extends his lead to 41 points with SCO clinging on to the important 2nd place. Lady Jane jumps 2 places to 3rd with both Themaclad and Snooty dropping back after their poor week. Amelia joins Snooty in 4th spot, not bad having missed the first 3 weeks. Derby and Salop both have some catching up to do but are both closer to SCO in 2nd spot than he is to 4eva!

I thought I'd look at the bonus ball in a bit more detail as this week's statto extra. In total this ball has so far produced minus 18 points and that might suggest that we're not very good at picking a banker from the week's fixtures. However that isn't the case - at least not for all players. Overall Group B has correctly predicted the bonus result on 54 occasions - an average success rate of just under 45%. This compares to just 32% for all other games so it seems that we are picking correctly, however this masks some very different individual scores. 3 players, Themaclad, Derby and Amelia actually get the other games correct more often than their chosen bonus - in Derby's case by some distance (25% v 35% for his non bonus scores). The opposite is true of SCO who is running at 63% on his bonus but just 27% on the rest, only just ahead of Salop's figure. SCO is also heading the gamball table so is very reliant on his balls (which gives me an idea for next week).

Zin

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 20:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 372 pts
   
2. jjamez = 368 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 311 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 275 pts
   
5. ritchiebaby = 268 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 137 pts
   

Thursday 18th December:
League One:
Reading v Luton Town (20:00)

Saturday 20th December:
Rotherham v Town
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Wigan Athletic v Blackpool (12:30)
Leyton Orient v Bradford City
Mansfield Town v Stockport County
Port Vale v Peterborough United
Wycombe Wanderers v Bolton Wanderers

Premier League:
AFC Bournemouth v Burnley
Brighton & Hove Albion v Sunderland

Scottish Premiership:
Dundee United v Hibernian

Championship:
Hull City v West Bromwich Albion

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

1. theo_luddite = 325 pts
   
2. themaclad = 321 pts
   
3. Devongone = 310 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 278 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 249 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 242 pts
   

Friday 19th December:
League One:
Northampton Town v AFC Wimbledon

Saturday 20th December:
Rotherham v Town
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Stevenage v Burton Albion (12:30)
Doncaster Rovers v Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City v Barnsley
Lincoln City v Cardiff City

Premier League:
Manchester City v West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brentford

Championship:
Preston North End v Norwich City (12:30)
Ipswich Town v Sheffield Wednesday

League Two:
Shrewsbury Town v Chesterfield

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