Championship side Plymouth Argyle have named former England Under-20 manager Ian Foster as their new head coach.

The ex-Liverpool academy player, 47, was working as Steven Gerrard's number two at Al-Ettifaq, in Saudi Arabia.

Foster replaces Steven Schumacher, who left for Stoke last month after getting the Pilgrims promoted in 2022-23.

He led England Under-19s to the European Championship title in 2022 and was assistant to Steve Cooper's Under-17 World Cup winners in 2017.

"He was the perfect candidate to lead our great football club forward as we embark on our next five-year mission," Pilgrims chairman Simon Hallett said.

"Ian showed a passion and knowledge for the club throughout the interview process, and showcased in some detail how he sees the best way to take forward our exciting and dynamic young squad.

"Having worked with some of the best players this country has produced, he has a passion for developing young footballers, as well as playing expansive, attacking football which fits perfectly with how we want the club to progress."

Director of football Neil Dewsnip and assistant coach Kevin Nancekivell, who will remain part of Foster's coaching team, had overseen first-team affairs during the festive period following Schumacher's departure on 19 December.

Plymouth, in their first season in the second tier since 2009-10, are 18th in the table and seven points clear of the relegation zone.

A former striker, Foster's playing career included spells with Hereford, Barrow, Chester and Kidderminster,

His coaching career began in the League of Ireland where he replaced former Southampton and Blackburn defender Jeff Kenna as Galway boss in 2009.

He guided Dundalk to the Europa League in 2010 before returning to England and coaching roles at Coventry and Portsmouth.

In addition to acting as Phil Neville's assistant in the England women's set-up, Foster led England Under-20s in the 2023 World Cup, where England suffered a last-16 exit to Italy last May.

He left the Football Association in July to join Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq, who are mid-table in the Saudi Pro League.

Ian Foster is the sort of appointment most of those close to Argyle felt the club would make.

While not a household name he is well known to director of football Neil Dewsnip from their time together with England's age-group sides, as well as being well-respected within the game.

Success with England at the European Under-19 Championship has seen him coach some of the country's brightest talents, which will be a boost to a squad with a large chunk of talented young players such as Morgan Whittaker, Bali Mumba and Michael Cooper.

He also has coaching experience at Coventry and Portsmouth, alongside his recent stint in Saudi Arabia, so could bring a fresh perspective to Home Park.

While he has not managed a side in the EFL before, neither had his predecessor Steven Schumacher, and the Argyle hierarchy will hope he can be just as successful as the now Stoke City boss was.

League Two's bottom side Sutton United have appointed former Cardiff City boss Steve Morison as their new manager.

The 40-year-old dropped five levels of the English football pyramid after his Cardiff exit in September 2022, as he most recently took charge of non-league side Hornchurch in the Isthmian League.

Morison now takes the helm of a Sutton side that has won just one of their past nine league games.

He replaces Matt Gray, who was sacked on 19 December.

Morison's move to Gander Green Lane followed Sutton's 3-1 FA Cup third-round defeat by Championship side Plymouth Argyle.

At the same time Morison was guiding league-leading Hornchurch to a 1-1 draw with Horsham, after which the club said he announced his departure to fans in the clubhouse.

"I'm disappointed to confirm that Steve will be leaving us after six months, following probably the most impressive first half of a season we have ever seen," Hornchurch chairman Alex Sharp told the club website.

"I am delighted that he has got an exciting opportunity to return to the Football League so quickly and feel proud that Hornchurch has provided the platform for that return."

Morison, a former Millwall, Norwich and Wales striker, was handed his first job in senior management after taking on a caretaker role at Cardiff following Mick McCarthy's departure in October 2021.

He helped steer them to Championship safety, which earned him a contract as boss.

But he survived only 10 games of the 2022-23 season, leaving the Bluebirds when they were 18th and facing another relegation battle.

Morison's first match in charge of Sutton will be at home to high-flying Barrow, with Anthony Fenton to join him from Hornchurch as assistant.

Happy New Year. Great result for the Jambos at Easter Road. Shanklands ‘the man’

Here lies Huddersfield Town, thrice champions of England, the club that made Herbert Chapman, Bill Shankly, Dennis Law and Mark Fotheringham what they were in the footballing world. Proud parent of FA Cup medals and one of the worst defensive records in the top four divisions over the last however many years. They finally succumbed to the might of a footballing goliath.



Obituary aside, this week has been surprisingly positive for the club, forget the new years day pounding at Leicester, we won't be the first to suffer that fate, nor the last and the positive aspect of it all was we apparently didn't roll over and die unlike normal. Then came our first foray into the transfer market, the loan signing of Alex Matos from Chelsea. The 19 year old signed for the pensioners in the summer after leaving David Wagner's Norwich. At the Canaries he was viewed as a winger and as such was used there in the u21 squad, never making his debut for the first team. Upon joining Chelsea he found himself in the u21's yet again, but this time he featured out of position in the center of midfield operating in a slightly more dynamic role. Having impressed the set up at the Blues, Matos found himself promoted to the bench of the first team, making the solitary appearance for the side, coming on as a stoppage time sub in their 2-0 victory away at Fulham. Now converted to a midfielder, Matos has been compared to and identified as the long term replacement to Ngolo Kante who left for Saudi money in the summer. This will be his first real taste of professional football, but it could be promising if he turns out to be more Emile Smith-Rowe and Levi Colwill rather than Luke Mbete.



Then came our second foray into the market as we Finnish-ed the week off with the signing of Bojan Radulovic from Finnish Premier League champions HJK (thats easy to find on a keyboard). The Spanish born Serb has had a fairly adventurous career to date. He began as a youth product with Lleida in Spain before having a successful trial with Brighton, earning a deal to play in their age group sides. Whilst at Brighton Bojan had loan spells back in Spain with the likes of Espanyol B and Alaves B, where his combined 14 appearances yielded just the 1 goal. He departed Brighton having not played for the first team, to move to Swedish side AIK in 2020, here managed to get more games under his belt, but in a two year period, the big Serb only managed 3 goals in 29 appearances and finished his time there out on loan at HJK. His loan spell in Finland saw him score 5 goals in 15 appearances and was enough to convince the side to pay £150k for his services. He rewarded them finishing last season as the leagues top scorer, scoring 18 in 24 with a further 6 goals in 13 European appearances including goals against current Greek Super League leaders PAOK. Unlike Matos, he may be unavailable to feature in the game against Man City due to not having international clearance.



The final positive, is that Mr Nagel has tweeted or posted on X or whatever it is you do now, that further squad improvements are on their way, some thought he meant last night, but I think he's meaning this window, now personally i'd like a left footed center half, maybe a touch pacier than Helik and Lees just to offer more support for them and more in game cover like Colwill offered to Lees and Pearson. I'd also like a versatile forward with a bit of pace, whilst some might say we have that in Koroma and Burgzorg, I think maybe having one that offers something a little bit different would be a good option, as we know, in this sport and others, pace causes issues. Finally, depending on what sort of system Moore elects to use when he has got new players, another striker wouldn't go amiss, again someone that offers something a bit different, whether that be an out and out target man ala Grant Holt (so you're looking at the likes of Keiffer Moore there) or a work horse striker who scores in the mold of say a Dion Charles of Bolton. I'm not sure if someone like Macauly Langstaff or Ali Al-Hamdi (Afc Wimbledon guy) are viable for our situation or system, but i may be wrong.

Anyway, onto tomorrow and the little task of Manchester City who stand in our way of a cup run. This will be the 81st meeting between the two clubs with Town not having the best of records in the fixtures between the two sides. Town have won 22, lost 28 and drawn 30 of the fixtures that have been contested. The first was back in 1920 when Town lost 1-0 down Leeds Road, and then proceeded to lose 3-2 a week later over in Manchester. The first win came on boxing day in 1921 thanks to a 2-0 home win. 5 years would pass until our next victory. The two sides would meet regularly over the decades and even included the famous 10-1 defeat over at Maine Road, former owner Phil Hodgkinson was there or so he said, but then again he was playing squash at the time so may not have been, but we do know that Mr Nagel is set to be there for tomorrows game, whatever the result. The last time town beat Man City was way back in 1999, at the end of that season it would be a further 17 years until the two sides would meet. In the elapsing time, Town would crumble to the verge of collapse and fall into the depths of division 3 and rebuild their way up. Manchester City would find their club purchased by a Sheik, leading to masses of millions being spent on stellar quality like Yaya Toure, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Jack Rodwell. Town would welcome this new stellar powerhouse to the John Smiths Stadium as the sides played out a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup, with David Wagner's side seeing a Phil Billing goal chalked off. The replay saw Town take a surprise lead through Harry Bunn, but that just poked the beast as they beat a Town second string side 5-1. Upon reaching the Premier League, Town managed to get one draw in the 4 meetings between the two sides, that coming after we had secured survival and they had secured the league, we even could have won it had calamity Malone made the right choice. The previous game saw town take the lead through an own goal, but two second half goals saw Man City come from behind, Rajiv Van La Parra also saw red at the end of the game. The next season, we began the campaign at the Etihad, and began with a 6-1 defeat with keeper Ben Hamer acting as no more than a dummy in goal, then again there were a further 10 of those infront of him. The return fixture saw town lose 3-0 as Mark Hudson couldn't lead the side to stop the rot.



In regards to team news, Town will be without Chris Maxwell, Delano Burgzorg, Kian Harratt, Yuta Nakayama, Josh Ruffles, plus many more, which sees Darren Moore have very little options in way of what to put out. It could be that we see a few youngsters thrown in just to merely protect some of the more senior players that have featured over all the festive period. We may also get to see the comedy factor of Man Cities defence having to stand against Kyle Hudlin, which is all that will happen, I'm not expecting much to happen in an attacking sense.

As for Man City, it is expected that Haaland and Bernardo Silva will miss out through injury, but De Bruyne could be given some minutes as he progresses with his return from injury. Argentine Julian Alvarez will be expected to lead the line with the likes of fringe player Kalvin Phillips likely to feature. It could also see Pep throw a few young players into the squad to reward performances in training. It might be prudent to watch these players as Town fans as there could be one of them joining us in the not too distant future on loan.



Their summer window makes me want to cry, so i'm going to keep it brief. They spent £90 million, yes 90, on a centre half in the shape of Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig, and a further £150 million on Nunes from Wolves, Kovacic from Chelsea and Doku from Star Wars Stade Rennais. Meanwhile, they sold Cole Palmer to Chelsea for a meagre £47 million whilst Mahrez and Laporte both went to Saudi for just over £50 million. We could but just dream of that sort of money being spent here. Then again, we would probably just waste it as we've seen when we got promoted to the Premier League.



Not doing a played for both, I can't think of that many past Aaron Mooy, Luke Mbete and Harry Bunn, oh wait the magnificent Donal McDermott, so we can just jump straight into the anagrams


1) misdated hault
2) poolside jaguar
3) Binky revenues
4) Amory oona
5) sneezy titch

OK, but it ends in August ... never much at the end; that I'm interested in, anyway.


January

Australian Tennis - men's champion

Australian Tennis - women's champion


February

Superbowl LVIII winners


March

World Curling Women's Champions (in Canada)

World Curling Men's Champions (in Switzerland)

Boat Race winners


April

The Masters winner

World Championship Snooker Champion


May

Tennis French Open Men's Champion

Tennis French Open Women's Champion

Football League One Champions

FA Cup Men's Winners


June

UEFA Euro 2024 Champions

RL Challenge Cup Champions


July

Wimbledon Men's Champion

Wimbledon Women's Champion


August

US Open Tennis Men's Champion

US Open Tennis Women's Champion



TIE BREAKER - Total of GB medals (gold, silver and bronze) at the OLYMPICS


* DEADLINE 14th JANUARY *

Lincoln City have completed the signing of forward Jack Moylan following the end of his contract with Republic of Ireland top-flight side Shelbourne.

The 22-year-old finished as joint top scorer in the League of Ireland with 15 goals last season.

His winter move to the League One side was initially agreed in September.

"The Irish league was brilliant for me, but I feel ready to take the next step," Moylan told Lincoln's website.

Moylan has been training with Michael Skubala's Lincoln City side since the end of the League of Ireland campaign in November.

Lincoln director of football Jez George has said the forward has the "attributes to adjust to the pace, physicality and demands" of England third tier competition.

"He is a talented young player, with an elite mentality, relentless work ethic and the ability to score goals," George said.

Lincoln are 11th in the table after 26 games, and will be looking to end a four-game losing run when they are next in action at Wycombe on 13 January.

Swansea City have appointed Notts County boss Luke Williams as their new head coach on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Williams succeeds Michael Duff, who was sacked by the Championship club on 4 December.

Williams returns to Swansea having been on the club's staff under Russell Martin during the 2021-22 season.

The 43-year-old leaves Notts County with the club sitting fifth in League Two.

"As I have said previously, we have undertaken a diligent and detailed process to find our next head coach," said Swansea chairman Andy Coleman.

"I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time with Luke recently. I have looked him in the eye and know that we can trust Luke to be a coach and leader who is aligned with our vision for Swansea City.

"He fits right into the mould of other talented and ambitious young managers who have succeeded here. I am confident our supporters will be excited by and proud of this Luke Williams-led Swansea City team."

Williams' assistant Ryan Harley also make the moves from Meadow Lane back to south Wales, having had a brief spell at Swansea during his playing career.

Notts County's first-team coach analyst George Lawtey is also joining Swansea in the same role.

Swansea have agreed a compensation package with Notts County in order to secure the trio's services.

Williams and Harley are to work alongside Alan Sheehan, who has been caretaker boss since Duff departed, but now reverts to senior assistant coach role.

Luke Williams on the touchline at Notts County last season
Luke Williams' Notts County side broke numerous club records last season, including their highest points tally, most wins and most goals scored
Fellow assistant coach Kristian O'Leary and goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson will also remain at the club.

London-born Williams led Notts County to promotion from the National League in his one full season in charge, the Magpies triumphing in the play-offs after losing out to Wrexham in an epic title race.

Williams is regarded as a high-quality coach who, crucially, is committed to playing the sort of possession-based game Swansea are keen to restore having been criticised for their style of play during Duff's unsuccessful reign.

Duff, who won only five of his 19 league games at Swansea, was dismissed less than six months after being named successor to Martin.

Sheehan then steadied the ship, taking 11 points from seven matches at the helm.

Williams took charge at Notts County in the summer of 2022 and signed a new contract with the club in January 2023.

Having seen his hopes of a professional playing career ended by injury as a youngster, Williams spent time working in a warehouse and as a driver before he began coaching at Leyton Orient and then West Ham.

His big coaching break when he became under-21 boss at Brighton, when Gus Poyet was in charge, before he moved into senior coaching at Swindon Town, where his time as manager ended after relegation to League Two in 2017.

Williams then coached Bristol City's under-23s before working alongside Martin, first at MK Dons and then Swansea.

Luke Williams and Russell Martin during their time together at Swansea
Luke Williams (right) worked alongside Russell Martin (left) at Swansea and MK Dons
He left in February 2022 with Swansea citing personal reasons, before returning to football at Notts County.

Williams was on Swansea's list of potential replacements for Duff from the outset, although Tottenham Hotspur's senior assistant coach Chris Davies was initially their top target.

But having looked close to taking over at Swansea, Davies opted to stay at Spurs.

That left the Swans to reassess their options, which in part explains why it has taken 32 days for the club to appoint a new boss.

"We know Luke can coach the style of play we want, in part because he was an integral part of delivering it here in training sessions when he was an assistant," said Swansea sporting director Paul Watson.

"Luke's ability is also backed by the data and results. He is a great fit for Swansea City and our ambitions."

Following their 1-0 New Year's Day win over West Bromwich Albion, Swansea sit 16th in the Championship and are eight points adrift of the top six.

Williams' first game in charge will be Saturday's home FA Cup third-round tie against Morecambe, who his Notts County side thumped 5-0 in League Two last week.

He leaves the Midlands club seven points adrift of an automatic promotion spot in the fourth tier.

Altrincham 2-1 Barnet
Dorking 2-1 Oldham
Ebbsfleet 1-3 Wealdstone
Hartlepool 2-0 Oxford City
Maidenhead United 1-0 Bromley
Rochdale 2-0 Kidderminster
Solihull Moors 2-0 Woking
Southend 3-1 Halifax

League Table After Matchday 27

Spireitematt - 582
SaltergateBorn - 571
Amelia - 483
St Charles - 464
Dancing - 453
Lord Snoots - 436
Devon - 362

Premier League

Blue B 19
Dingle 16
Minizin 12
Derby 12
B.B.B. 12
Zinman 10
Stairs 9
Lady J 2

Decent week in the PL with all bar two players making it into double figures.  BlueBaggies excellent form continues with his first place 19 points this week.  Key to his score was scoring positive points on his balls, including a max on the Bonus and two CSs, this meant only scoring on 5 games still led to the highest spot on the podium!!  Dingle's decent form continues and this week he scored 16 points for 2nd spot.  He scored 3 CSs but missed on the Bonus which prevented him from taking top spot.

Minizin, Derby and BBB all finished with 12 points. All got a CR on the Gamball, BBB was the only one to miss on the Bonus and Minizin was the only one who failed to get any CSs but he scored on all his balls to offset that.  Zinman had an off week with 10 points in 6th spot, although he has a few of these to spare at the moment.

Stairs was 7th with 9 points, he was one of only 2 to miss on the Gamball and did get any CSs either.  LJ's poor form continues with 2 points, she too missed on the Gamball and added a miss on the Bonus to this with little else to show for her efforts.

237 Zinman
218 Blue Baggie
191 Minizin
180 Derby
179 BBB
170 Stairs
155 Dingle
130 Lady Jane

No positional changes this week with the tight scoring we saw.  Blue passed the 200 mark and has brought the gap between him and Zinman down to 19 points but he will need to continue his excellent from for a few more weeks to close the gap.  The middle of the pack stays tight but with Dingle showing some form he is steadily catching up to them.  LJ remains evermore rooted to the bottom spot.

All the balls are now positive in the PL with 199 on the Gamball, 80 on the Scoreball but only 9 on the Bonus!!  Only 3 players have positive totals on the Bonus - Stairs with 18, Zinman and Derby with 6 each, the rest are at zero or below!!  In terms of total points from ball, Zinman is still way in front with 79 points, more than double any other player and 75 points ahead of Lady Jane which makes up 75% of the points difference between them!!  Take care of those balls and they will look after you!!

Cheers
SCO


Championship

Sanjay      18
SCO          18
BaggieOne 14
Snooty      10
Twerton    10
AAA          10
Themaclad  4

It seems I was a bit generous in my match selection this week as the Championship had one of their better weeks. Only 1 player failed to hit double figures, for the first time this season everyone scored on the gamball (though no maximums) and there was also a full house of scoreball points. Correct scores were rare - just 4 - and this kept overall scores down below their best.

Sanjay's resurgence continues! He shares top spot and has now achieved double figure scores for 3 consecutive weeks. That may not sound great but considering his total such scores before this run started was just 2, it represents a considerable achievement. Sanjay got half of this week's correct scores and was one of 4 players to get a full set of balls. He's joined at the top by SCO who scored on 7 games but failed to get a single correct score - another full set of balls helps though. BaggieOne scored on 2 feweer games, no correct scores but was another with full balls to fill 3rd spot.

3 players tied on 10 points. Twerton and Snooty achieved this the same way, 1 correct score, 4 correct results but missing out on the bonus. AAA only scored on 3 games - none of them a maximum- but as the 4th player with all his balls in place (yes, after a 4 week break he played the gamball) he was able to achieve the 10 point mark.

A poor week for Themaclad though. He scored on just 2 games to leave him some way behind, getting the gamball correct but failing on his bonus.

195 SCO
184 Twerton
178Snooty
170 AAA
149 BaggieOne
145 Themaclad
114 Sanjay

SCO stretches his lead at the top to 11 points. Only 1 positional change with BaggieOne and Themaclad swopping places. Sanjay still needs a few more weeks like this one to put pressure on those above him.

Looking at the balls, everyone is now showing a positive gamball score! Not so good with the bonus with just 3 players gaining from it. Twerton is the top ball scorer with a total of 56, 18 more than BaggieOne in 2nd place. Despite his lowly position in the league, Themaclad is actually best at turning correct results into correct scores, 25.9% compared to BaggieOne's 12.5%. It's just a pity that Themaclad gets so few results right - he has just 58 in the season so far, 24 fewer than SCO.

Zin