Huddersfield Town v Plymouth Argyle
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday January 13th - 15:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

By 2007, Holloway had them well established in the Championship and were serious contendors for a crack at the Play Offs. But then, as now, they were prone to the bigger clubs coming around poaching their talent. And they don't come more talented than Mr Holloway, do they?!

He went off to become manager of Leicester City in November 2007. They were also a Championship club back then. Plymouth beat them 1-0 in a match that became a war of words, leading to lawyers becoming involved. Inevitably, Holloway proved to be a huge embarrassment for the Foxes and was sacked at the end of the season, having gotten Leicester relegated to League One. Lol!

Sturrock had returned to manage Argyle when Holloway left and was in charge for that 1-0 win over Leicester. He'd resigned from Swindon Town to take up the post, which he held until December 2009 when he moved "upstairs" with former player and England international Paul Mariner taking over.

Head to Head




Town lead the head to head with 25 wins to Plymouth's 15, with 14 draws.

This is the first time we've been in the same Division for 13 seasons and when we met at Home Park on the opening day of this season, we were behind after only six minutes. It was the first of 14 goals so far this season for Morgan Whittaker, but it was equalised by our top striker Michal Helik, just before half time.

Neil Warnock was still our manager for this one, playing against his own local team, shortly after a most successful tour of the West Country in pre season. But that success didn't carry forward into our league season as the Pilgrims went and scored two more in the second half through Bali Mumba and Ryan Hardie.

We were already up by the time Plymouth came north for the last match of the season. Glazzard missed his only game of the campaign, but his stand in Roy Shiner, scored a hat trick, with Broughty Ferry boy Alistair Gunn, getting the other in a 4-0 win.

The next meetings came in 1959/60, again in the Second Division. We did the double over them again, but in the season after that, they got their first win over us, a rather embarrassing 5-1 defeat for new boss Eddie Boot as the Pilgrims finished above us in the league for the first time.

We had a few seasons together in the 2nd Division. One of them, 1963/64, saw us play each other six times! The first was a 4-3 home win in September and that was followed later in the month by a 2-2 draw down at Home Park in the League Cup. They had replays back then and that replay came at Leeds Road a full four weeks later. Again it was drawn, 3-3 this time. Later on in League Cup history, such a game would've been lost on the away goals rule or gone to a penalty shoot out, but back then we had to have a second replay.

It's 316 miles distance between Leeds Road and Home Park, but instead of tossing a coin to decide on the venue for this match, the authorities decided it would be best for everybody to hold the game in a neutral venue, roughly half way between. So a week later the two teams lined up again at Villa Park, a vast expannse of a football ground, with just 3,000 spectators present. Town won it 2-1 though with Les Massie and Kevin McHale scoring.

And then, believe it or not, when the FA Cup draw was made, we got Plymouth away. McHale scored again, the only goal of the game, which set us up for a famous win at Chelsea in the next round.

A week after the FA Cup match, our lads had another trip down to Plymouth in the league. This one ended up goal less.

If the two teams weren't sick of the sight of each other by now, they certainly were when in the next season, we played each other in games number 2 and 4. The first was another 0-0 draw away, but the second ended in a 2-1 defeat at Leeds Road. This is the game where Mr Boot the manager resigned at half time, left the ground and never entered another football stadium for the rest of his life. Had he really got that sick of seeing Plymouth?

Quote:For such a capable player in attacking areas, Billy did not score as many goals as his performances deserved but when it came to assists, he was the main man. A midfielder always probing for opportunities and also happy to get involved in the ugly stuff when required, Billy was a massive favourite with the Green Army.

Quote:A genuine class act, Paul Dalton was a Rolls Royce footballer, who made the game look blissfully easy and treated the Green Army to many memorable performances.

Dalton played in the famed Manchester United youth-team of the era but moved to Hartlepool in 1989 without making a first-team appearance for the Red Devils. After three years with the Pools, he was signed at Home Park for an impressive fee of £275,000.

A broken leg stopped his progress before making an Argyle debut but, when it came in October 1992, the cultured winger settled into three happy years as a Pilgrim. Dalton scored some magnificent goals during his time in Green and his dazzling dribbling skills made him a Home Park hero.

Few Pilgrims can match Dalton when it comes to pure talent and a sad day when this gifted footballer left Home Park for Huddersfield in 1995. He finished his distinguished career with a brief spell at Gateshead in 2000.

Plymouth in popular culture: The most famous people from Plymouth, obviously are old sailors. Sir Francis Drake, a circumnavigator, and keen player of crown green bowls is probably the one most people who did history at school will know.

Another famous sailor was William Bligh, who was captain of the HMS Bounty. Not quite sure, but was he the one who discovered coconuts? Seem to remember some film or other about the Bounty.

Some other Plymouth born people who have excelled in the water are bitter old transphobe, ex Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and gold medal winning diver Tom Daley. Hope he's not been teaching the football team how to dive.

Brilliant dancer and star of last year's Strictly, Angela Rippon was born in Plymouth as well.

Here she is with her partner Kai Widdrington. Did you know his dad is manager of Aldershot Town?




As for pop music. Plymouth seems to have as bad a musical pedigree as Leeds! Can't find anything worth searching YouTube for.

1. Acorn Winkle 
   
2. African Dr Kisser 
   
3. Chilly Ribs 
   
4. Shelton Tripe 
   
5. Ham Poker 
   
6. Shavers In Road 
   
7. April Manure 
   
8. Old Meaty 
   
9. Hot Watermarking 
   
10. Prime Piglet 
    

Premier League

Derby 25
Zinman 24
Blue B 22
Lady J 20
B.B.B. 19
Stairs 18
Dingle 18
Minizin 16

Well after a few mediocre weeks for most we finally all got our act together and this week we see a Season's high total points score in the PL with 162 combined scores. In a FA Cup 3rd Round week with virtually no cup upsets it was inevitable that we were going to see some good consistent scoring, the only thing everyone struggled with was predicting the correct scores. Even more unusual than recording a new high score was the fact that every single players in the PL got points on their Bonus - I don't recall ever having seen that before!!

Four players recorded new or equalled their highest total scores this week with this group led by Derby in first place with 25 points, which incidentally equals the highest score of the season so far!! He scored on 9 games and was the only one to get a spot on Gamball but his score could have been much better had he not failed to register a single CS. Zinman finished second with 24 points, a record for him as well. He too scored on 9 games including the only max on the Bonus but falls short of top spot due to Villa's clean sheet at Boro and therefore missing on his Scoreball!!! BlueBaggie kept up his good form with 22 points in third place, he is the third person to score on 9 games but was also not able to convert any into CSs.

Lady Jane had her best week in a while in 4th spot with 20 points, she scored on all her balls and got a CS to boot. BBB ended with 19 points, closely followed by Stairs and Dingle on 18 points. BBB scored on more games but the other two managed to register a CS each to boost their score.

Bottom this week with a score that would have been first in many weeks is Minizin with 16 points. Not a lot between all the places and as can be seen with Minizin scoring on 7 games but finishing last, its fine margins that lead to success or failure!!

261 Zinman
240 Blue Baggie
207 Minizin
205 Derby
198 BBB
188 Stairs
173 Dingle
150 Lady Jane

Another week of no positional changes, and not really a surprise with all the scoring being so close. Zinman has stretched his lead a bit to 21 points over BlueBaggie but their is a large gap of 33 points between him and Minizin in third spot - have the top two opened up an unassailable gap even at this early stage??

Only 19 points separate the next 4 players and even Dingle can now see Stairs ahead of him. Lady Jane had a better week but is still stranded at the bottom.

Championship.

SCO 16
Sanjay 15
AAA 12
Twerton 12
Themaclad 10
Snooty 10
BaggieOne 10

With relatively few shocks in the cup - just mighty Maidstone's win and Dike getting through 45 minutes unscathed spring to mind - it was always likely to be a week with little between the predictors and so it proved. Everybody managed to reach double figures and only 6 points separated the entire field. Interesting to see that the highest scoring Championship player only matched the Premiership's lowest score! Some interesting stats from the week: we saw a season's high number of correct result predictions - 43, but the season's lowest number of correct scores - just 1. Two matches caused problems this week, nobody predicted the Maidstone win and only 1 person scored from the gamball, thus keeping scores lower than they might have been.

SCO heads the table, scoring on 8 of the games but failing to nail a correct score. Sanjay's run of double figure scores continued for a 4th week, one fewer correct predictions than SCO but he was one of 2 players to get a scoreball point. AAA and Twerton shared 3rd place - AAA was the only scorer from the gamball but failed to capitalise from it by screwing up his bonus. The remaining players all scored 10 points. Themaclad was the only player to get a correct score but lost out on the bonus.

211 SCO
196 Twerton
188 Snooty
182 AAA
159 BaggieOne
155 Themaclad
129 Sanjay

Unsurprisingly with the scores so close, there are no positional changes this week. SCO extends his lead at the top to 15 points and passes the 200 mark (about time!) At the bottom, Sanjay continues to edge closer to those above him though an 82 point gap may be too much for him to claim top spot.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 13TH JANUARY KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



We went through to the next round of the cup with a 4-0 win. The game got off to an explosive start, Windass firing in from 20 yards after 2 mins. Then in the space of 5 mins, Cardiff were awarded 2 penalties, but Dawson came to the rescue saving both Both teams were having chances but we effectively put the game to bed with 2 goals in 3 mins, Sawyers deflecting in a corner then Palmer doing his Paul Scholes impression with a cracking strike from 25 yards. Onto the 2nd half both teams had chances but Cardiff were just having on of those nights where nothing went in. We wrapped up the tie in injury time, Wilks finding the back of the net.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and the long journey south to take on the Saints. The Saints are having a good season and currently lie in 3rd place just 3 points behind Ipswich. They will be looking to go up via the automatic spots and with Ipswich wobbling a bit of late I would expect them to go up with Leicester. They are managed by Russell Martin, who took over in the summer and his first game was against and they won 2-1. There main threat is Adam Armstrong who has 13 goals and 9 assists this season, they also have Che Adams the former blunt who has 7.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 33
SAINTS 28 
DRAWS 24  

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                                                

SAINTS            -                                                                

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

LEWIS SMITH
Blake Antrobus and Robert Hyde
Fourth Official : Robert Madley

THE TEAM

Dawson
Palmer Ihiekwe Bernard Johnson
Musaba M Diaby Vaulks Bannan Windass
Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 Musaba

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Imre 15
Washington 13
Owlkev 11
Maddix 10
SCO 3

BMPL

Wereham 7
Stateside 6
Pei -2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Newcastle v Man City
WBA v Blackburn
Charlton v Peterborough
Wrexham v Wimbledon
Eastleigh v Southend Utd

AHAHD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Gamball:
Birmingham - Swansea

Others:
Newcastle - Man City
Cardiff - Leeds
Huddersfield - Plymouth
Millwall - Middlesbrough
Preston - Bristol City
Ipswich - Sunderland
Rotherham - Stoke
Man Utd - Spurs
QPR - Watford

The 2023/24 Prediction League Cup will kick off next week, it was won by Derby last year who achieved the League and Cup double in the process. The same set of fixtures and scores from each week will count towards each round of the Cup. League points are not affected, they still count towards the league tables as they always do.

After our Board meeting we decided on a change of format this season to make each round a random one on one two legged match just like the real cup competitions.

Last 16 matches will take place over 2 legs during weeks 22 & 24.

Quarter Finals will be over 2 legs using weeks 26 & 28.

The winners of those then meet in 2 legged semi finals in weeks 30 & 32.

The final will be a straight sudden death result using the last weeks league fixtures for scoring.

An online random number sequence generator was used to determine the first round ties and will be random for each round, here are the first set of ties:

Round of 16

Derby v St Charles Owl
BaggieOne v Twerton
Lady Jane v Zinman
Sanjay v BBB
Stairs v Themaclad
AAA v Lord Snooty
Minizin v Blue Baggie
Dingle - Bye to next round

Premier League players are in bold type.

In the event of a tie between players, the number of Correct Scores will determine the winner, followed by total points scored on the Bonus Ball.  After that Zinman and I will toss a coin!!!!

Scores will be updated on this thread as we go through the competition.

Cheers Zinman & SCO

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 Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.

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. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

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.  

End of season Play Offs: The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.

The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

1. jjamez = 32 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 32 pts
   
3. St Charles Owl = 30 pts
   
4. themaclad = 30 pts
   
5. Baggiebob(BBB) = 26 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 24 pts
   

Friday 12th January:
Hull City v Norwich City

Saturday 13th January:
Town v Plymouth
Town scorers:
Plymouth scorers:

Coventry City v Leicester City (12:30)
Birmingham City v Swansea City
Preston North End v Bristol City
Southampton v Sheffield Wednesday
West Bromwich Albion v Blackburn Rovers

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Newcastle United v Manchester City (17:30)

Sunday:
Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

FA Cup 3rd round replays:
Tuesday:
Bolton Wanderers v Luton Town
Eastleigh v Newport County

Wednesday:
Blackpool v Nottingham Forest
Everton v Crystal Palace


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

1. SHEP_HTAFC = 42 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 34 pts
   
3. Devongone = 30 pts
   
4. neonfoxinthebox = 26 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 12 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 8 pts
   

Saturday 13th January:
Town v Plymouth
Town scorers:
Plymouth scorers:

Cardiff City v Leeds United
Millwall v Middlesbrough
Rotherham United v Stoke City
Ipswich Town v Sunderland (17:30)

Sunday 14th January:
Queens Park Rangers v Watford (12:00)

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Chelsea v Fulham (12:30)

Sunday:
Everton v Aston Villa (14:00)

FA Cup 3rd round replays:
Tuesday:
Birmingham City v Hull City
Bristol City v West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brentford

Wednesday:
Bristol Rovers v Norwich City

National League:
Tuesday:
Chesterfield v Altrincham


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

Kidderminster Harriers have sacked manager Russ Penn following a run of four defeats in their last five games.

Penn, 38, had been in charge since February 2020, following a short spell as interim boss the previous year.

He led them to promotion last season but they are currently bottom of the National League table.

Penn's departure comes only three weeks after former Wimbledon and Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth was named as Harriers' first technical director.

"This is a difficult decision to have taken," said Harriers chairman Richard Lane. "But one we feel is necessary in our current circumstances."

At three years and just under four months, Penn, whose departure was officially announced by the club late on Sunday, was the longest-serving Harriers manager since Steve Burr was sacked on exactly the same day - 7 January - after four years in charge exactly a decade ago.

In fact, Harriers have now sacked four of their last eight managers on 7 January - Penn, Neil McFarlane,Dave Hockaday and Burr.

Penn talks to BBC Hereford & Worcester in last interview as boss
After two years on Scunthorpe United's books, Penn made 162 appearances for Harriers from 2005 to 2009 during a playing career which also took him to Burton Albion, Cheltenham Town, York City, Carlisle United, Wrexham and Gateshead.

He returned to Aggborough as player-coach under Neil McFarlane in November 2018 and then served under three other bosses, Mark Yates, John Pemberton and Jimmy Shan, before becoming manager himself in April 2020.

Penn enjoyed a fine run to the fourth round of the FA Cup in 2021-22, when Harriers beat Reading in round three and were then only denied victory over West Ham United by an injury-time Declan Rice equaliser.

Despite finishing 24 points behind second-placed King's Lynn last season, Penn then led Harriers to promotion from National League North, after coming from nowhere to win their last nine matches on the trot.

But they have only won four out of 28 league games this term - and Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Rochdale left them two points below AFC Fylde and seven adrift of safety.

Penn's assistant Jimmy O'Connor will remain in post to provide some kind of transition between Penn and his successor.

Harriers' next two matches are at home, against Altrincham in the FA Trophy on Saturday, followed by Aldershot in the league on 20 January.

Birmingham City have named Tony Mowbray as their new manager on a two-and-a-half year deal, six days after sacking Wayne Rooney.

Mowbray, 60, was himself sacked by Blues' Championship rivals Sunderland on 4 December.

Ex-England captain Rooney managed just two wins from his 15 games in charge.

Mowbray is the club's third boss this season after they controversially parted company with John Eustace in October with Blues sixth in the table.

Since then Birmingham have fallen to 20th in the Championship, six points above the relegation zone.

Mowbray spent five years in charge of Blackburn Rovers before being appointed Sunderland boss last season.

He guided Sunderland to the Championship play-offs, but they were beaten by eventual winners Luton Town in the semi-final and he was sacked after a run of just two wins in nine league games before Christmas.

This is Mowbray's third job in the Midlands, having guided Albion to the Championship title in 2008 before later leading Coventry City for 18 months between March 2015 and September 2016.

Is losing to Watford in the 3rd round a blessing in disguise? If we had got a draw then it would have meant a replay and another extra game. We've got Gateshead at home on Wednesday and then back in cup action at the weekend against Welling in the FA Trophy, where I guess we will send out a mixture of youth players and rotational first teamers.

We had a real chance to get into the 4th round of the cup but I think getting back into the Football League has to be a main priority. We might have lost to Watford in the cup but Bromley could only muster a draw against our bogey team Maidenhead. We are still 6pts clear of Bromley with a few games in hand and if we win them then it would mean the lead over Bromley will be stretched.

The game against Gateshead on Wednesday will be a complete different team because they've lost there keeper, Archie Mair (remember him? Notts saviour in the playoff final) who has been recalled by Norwich to be sent on loan to Morecambe. They also have several players out injured and one of there player's has been recalled from Blyth Spartans to offer cover. There former keeper James Montgomery (Former Spireite as well) is not that far away playing for Spennymoor Town, so wouldn't surprise me if they end up signing him for his 3rd spell.

Tuesday

Fylde 1-2 Hartlepool
Barnet 2-2 Dag & Red

Wednesday

Chesterfield 3-1 Gateshead

League Table After Matchday 28

Spireitematt - 602
SaltergateBorn - 585
Amelia - 513
St Charles - 473
Dancing - 471
Lord Snoots - 453
Devon - 376