THE MATCH

SATURDAY 17TH FEBRUARY KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



No surprises as we went down to the league leaders. The game was all but over after 4 minutes, Beadle playing a suicidal pass and Leicester got possession and Fatawu scored with an open net. Leicester continued to dominate and it was only a matter of time until the second came along, Owls fan Vardy slotting past Beadle. Onto the 2nd half and we showed a bit more going forward, more due to Leicester taking the foot off the pedal imo. We had several chances, there keeper making a couple of saves but Leicester saw the game out as they continued there march back to the PL.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and a tip to Millwall. Another must win for us as we look to try and escape the relegation zone. Millwall have been struggling of late, no wins in there last 5 and are just 4 points above the relegation zone. Joe Edwards is there head coach, who took over in November and promptly won his first game, 0-4 at Hillsborough. There leading scorer is Zian Fleming who has 6 goals and 5 assists so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 19
MILL 17
DRAWS 16 

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                                                    

MILL                -                                                                    

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

GEOFF ELTRINGHAM
Shaun Hudson & Graham Kane
Fourth Official: Daniel Middleton

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Ihiekwe Bernard Johnson
Musaba M Diaby Vaulks Bannan Gassama
Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Gassama

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Imre 19
Washington 17
Maddix 13
Owlkev 12
SCO 6

BMPL

Wereham 7
Stateside 6
Pei -2
Southey -15

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Fulham v Aston Villa
Stoke v Coventry
Derby v Stevenage
Wrexham v Notts Co
Bromley v Chesterfield

AADHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

PEIOWL




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Gamball:
Birmingham - Sunderland

Fulham - Aston Villa
Nottingham Forest - West Ham
Plymouth - Leeds
Huddersfield - Hull
Rotherham - Watford
Stoke - Coventry
Swansea - Ipswich
Cheltenham - Big Dave's Port Vale
Luton - Man Utd

Love is in the air as Huddersfield welcome Sunderland to the John Smiths Stadium. Although, will that love spread between the fans and will Sunderland show how much they care for us by gifting us 3 points? nah I somewhat doubt they will be feeling that charitable, the ref meanwhile may decide to sent a few anonymous cards to players, especially a lovely red one.

Town come into the game after letting a 2-0 lead slip away at much fancied Southampton, it was a shock to the system to me, let alone anyone else when i saw not only had we scored, but twice. The shock wasn't as apparent when the Saints pulled it back after halftime, but it soon came back when we grabbed a third of the game, by the time it got to 5-3, I had run out of shock and was just accepting that we had actually given it a good go, something that we seem to have struggled in doing all season on the road. But hey ho, plenty of positives moving forward for Worthington or whoever takes the hot seat, and plenty of things to build on too. Will the new man be in place by Wednesday, highly unlikely, the club seem to be peddling Worthington in charge, the odds list is underwhelming and the prices don't seem to be moving any more. Michael Duff is still unfortunately the favourite, whilst Paul Heckingbottom is still on the list. Paolo Bianco is also still on the list, despite a fan admitting that they randomly made it up, journalist Alan Nixon is also still running with it despite being given that information, I suppose you hardly want to lose face in these matters. Other merry go round managers are also on the list, but the longer this goes on the more it seems like it is someone who wont be on the betting list and someone we have had to do more due diligence and put hard yards in to get them into the dugout. Lets hope it is worth it in the end.

Having caught up on the highlights through the new Unrestricted series that Town are doing on Youtube, I am actually looking forward to Wednesdays game, now one swallow doesn't make a summer, but as mentioned the positive aspects of play will soon bring feet through the turnstiles and bums back on seats, although you'd hope there would be more jumping off them than under Moore.



As for opponents, there has been a bit of change since we last met on a Wednesday night back in November. As Town registered one of their few wins under Moore with goals coming from Michal Helik and Delano Burgzorg, it also saw the end of Tony Mowbrays reign as Sunderland boss. He wouldn't be out of the game for too long, with many Town fans being open to him replacing Moore on many occasions, however, it is back to the Midlands he went and rocked up at Birmingham. Replacing him at the Stadium of Light is Michael Beale, who joined fresh off of a ill fated stint in Bonny Scotland at the Ranger of Glasgow. Its fair to say his current job is going a tad bit better as they currently sit just outside of the play off places and have registered wins against the likes of Leeds, Hull and West Brom. The former QPR boss as won two, lost two and drawn one in his last five games, which puts them fairly stable in the form charts. Looking at the form charts, Millwall, Stoke, Swansea and Birmingham are the ones to look out for as they continue to sink down the league, one would say that Rotherham are as good as gone, but those four teams will be looking perilously over their shoulders, especially if they continue in similar vein over the next few weeks. At the other end, outside of the top three, Coventry, Sunderland and Norwich are possibly the ones to look out for, whilst Coventry currently hold a play off place, the other two will be hoping to continue and come round the outside to finish in the the shootout, and we all know one American/German manager who has fond experiences of the playoffs!



Going back to Sunderland and the one to really look out for is former Leeds man Jack Clarke. The winger joined Sunderland originally on loan from Tottingham Hotspurs before making the permanent switch to the North East. He had endured a torturous few years where form abandoned him and he really did look like dropping down the leagues, but he found his feet as a Black Cat and this season has so far scored 14 goals and notched 4 assists, even having to be deployed as an auxiliary striker at times, this has lead to a number of Premier League teams and Italian side Lazio casting envious glances in his direction. Also acting as a bright star for the Black Cats is young Jobe Bellingham, who's elder brother, Jude, had his shirt retired at Brum after moving to German side Borussia Dortmund, Jude now plays his football in Spain for minnows Madrid. Jobe, is tipped to go to a similar level as his brother and it came as a real shock when Birmingham allowed him to leave. After a bit of a settling period in the North East, he has since started to look the part, grabbing 5 goals and 1 assist. It is thought that one of the brothers' parents lives with each of them to make sure that their feet stay firmly grounded away from the football pitch. Oh how some other footballers could have done with that eh?



Moving on to team news, Town will be without Rhys Healey, his groin injury picked up against Sheffield Wednesday is worse than first thought and he will be out for a longer time frame. Michal Helik should be back with the squad, although a start may be too soon for him, the same could be said about Danny Ward and Delano Burgzorg who have both returned to the training pitch. Jaheim Headley remains out along with the other long term absentees. Brodie Spencer should be fit to start having come off at the weekend with cramp.

Sunderland have a relatively fit squad to pick from and it wouldn't surprise if there is few changes made to their starting xi with maybe Bellingham coming back into the side after scoring at the weekend, he's likely to operate behind lone striker Nazarii Rusyn. He joined the club in the Summer from Zorya of Ukraine and has taken a while to fully settle into English football, having only played 16 games this season so far. January was a rather quiet transfer window for the new manager, with only a handful of new signings coming through the door. Hungarian international Callum Styles joined on loan from Barnsley, whilst defender Leo Hjelde joined from fellow Yorkshire side Leeds, Romaine Mundle was the final signing as he joined the club from Belgian side Standard Liege, the young winger began his career in London at Spurs before moving to the continent, he came in to replace the outgoing Alex Pritchard who downed tools in order to force through a move to Birmingham. Elsewhere, Jewison Bennette moved on loan to Greek side Aris, whilst Jay Matete moved on loan to Oxford.



When it comes to head to heads, I was surprised at how often the two sides had actually met over the years, although a lot of those were before I was born, with only 10 coming after JJ. Town have 25 of the meetings with 27 draws and 38 Sunderland wins. Last season Town lost at the John Smiths 2-0, whilst they managed to nab a point with a 1-1 draw in the return fixture. Prior to that, the last meeting between the two sides was back in 2003 when Town traveled to the North East and won 4-2 in the league cup, a number of home grown players scored that night, including future Black Cat Jon Stead. Stead spent 2 years at Sunderland and only managed 2 goals for the club as his scoring touch deserted him, before he moved back to Yorkshire to play for Neil Warnocks Sheffield United.



Other players to have shared the love of the shirt of both clubs, include luminaries such as the poison dwarf, keeper Steve Harper, striker Fraizer Campbell, former captain Dean Whitehead, ex Town stopper and goalkeeping coach Nick Colgan and Tommy Miller. Danny Simpson also played for both clubs as did fellow full back Dan Smith, he had a loan spell at the start of his career at Town, just like Kevin Kyle, both came to Town for short spells from Sunderland. We seem to have a fair few keepers in common, as Joe Murphy also enjoyed spells at both clubs, I say that, he only made 9 appearances combined, all 9 at Town... As for the dug out, well Lee Clark famously played for Sunderland and managed Town, whilst Steve Bruce lists Sunderland as one of his many clubs, as does Simon Grayson.

Port Vale have appointed Darren Moore as their new manager.

The 49-year-old former West Bromwich Albion, Doncaster Rovers Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday boss has signed a five-and-a-half-year contract.

Moore succeeds Andy Crosby, who was sacked last week after a run of just one win in eight games.

"We identified Darren as out primary target to come in and galvanise and energise the club," said Vale director of football David Flitcroft.

"Following extensive conversations, it's clear to the board that he has a plan of how he wants to lead the club from the very front.

Moore added: "Our immediate aim is securing the club's League One status between now and the end of this season whilst putting the foundations in place to create a clear footballing identity.

"The contract is a long-term commitment, a testament to the long-term vision of the club."

Following Saturday's 2-2 home draw with Stevenage, Vale remain in the relegation zone in 20th place, but level on points with the side above them, Charlton Athletic.

Danny Searle has been given the Ebbsfleet United manager's job.

Searle was handed the job on an interim basis after the sacking of Dennis Kutrieb a fortnight ago.

With assistant Anwar Uddin also appointed, Searle has overseen draws against leaders Chesterfield and promotion hopefuls Oldham.

A club statement said "performances against Oldham Athletic and Chesterfield are an excellent platform" to build from.

Searle is a former assistant head coach at Czech club Banik Ostrava and has worked at Waterford, Witham Town and Aldershot after receiving a degree in football management from Liverpool University.

Kutrieb was sacked on January 29 after a run of two wins in nine league games had left The Fleet in the relegation zone.

The club statement added: "The Uefa pro-licensed coach is fully up to speed with the Fleet squad and has already made great strides at the Kuflink Stadium as the team head into the final third of the league season".

Ebbsfleet are currently 23rd in the National League table, five points above bottom-placed Oxford City.

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. ritchiebaby = 160 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 148 pts
   
3. jjamez = 146 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 146 pts
   
5. Baggiebob(BBB) = 144 pts
   
6. themaclad = 120 pts
   

Saturday 17th February:
Town v Hull
Town scorers:
Hull scorers:

Leicester City v Middlesbrough
Millwall v Sheffield Wednesday
Norwich City v Cardiff City
Preston North End v Blackburn Rovers
Rotherham United v Watford
Swansea City v Ipswich Town

Tuesday 20th February:
Plymouth Argyle v West Bromwich Albion
Southampton v Hull City

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Brentford v Liverpool (12:30)
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City v Chelsea (17:30)

Sunday:
Luton Town v Manchester United (16:30)

Monday:
Everton v Crystal Palace

Scottish Premiership:
Saturday:
Aberdeen v Hibernian



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

1. theo_luddite = 142 pts
   
2. Devongone = 129 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 128 pts
   
4. SHEP_HTAFC = 126 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 98 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 75 pts
   

Friday 16th February:
West Bromwich Albion v Southampton

Saturday 17th February:
Town v Hull
Town scorers:
Hull scorers:

Plymouth Argyle v Leeds United (12:30)
Birmingham City v Sunderland
Bristol City v Queens Park Rangers
Stoke City v Coventry City

Tuesday 20th February:
Cardiff City v Blackburn Rovers
Ipswich Town v Rotherham United
Southampton v Hull City

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Fulham v Aston Villa
Newcastle United v AFC Bournemouth

Sunday:
Sheffield United v Brighton & Hove Albion (14:00)

Wednesday:
Liverpool v Luton Town

National League:
Saturday:
Bromley v Chesterfield

Champions League round of 16 1st leg:
Wednesday:
FC Porto v Arsenal


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

Thought I'd do this to save Matt having to rush.

7.45pm kick offs

Aldershot 1-3 AFC Fylde
FC Halifax 2-0 Maidenhead Utd
Oldham Athletic 1-0 Boreham Wood
Solihull Moors 3-2 Kidderminster Harriers
York City 2-1 Dorking Wanderers

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 13TH FEBRUARY KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



We got back to winning ways as we battled to a 2-0 win over Brum. Brum made the better start but we took the lead when Poveda cut back for Ugbo to score. Brum continued to have chances and Beadle had to make a couple of saves but we went in 1 up. Onto the 2nd half and we started brightly and were rewarded when Johnson crossed to the back post and Ugbo headed in from close range. Brum were still creating chances but weren't testing Beadle  and we managed to see out the rest of the game

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and a daunting trip to runaway leaders Leicester. Barring a ridiculous collapse the Foxes will be back in the EPL next season. They are managed by Enzo Maresca who was appointed in the summer of 2023. They have 3 different scorers who have scored 10 goals this season, Dewsbury-Hall, Mavididi and some bloke called Vardy, Dewsbury Hall also has 10 assists to go along with his 10 goals. Some would call this a free hit, personally I would take a 1-0 defeat right now.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 42
LEIC 40
DRAWS 29 

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                                                   

LEIC                -                                                                     

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

TOM NIELD
James Wilson and Andrew Dallison
Fourth Official : James Linington

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Ihiekwe Bernard Johnson
Musaba M Diaby Vaulks Bannan Gassama
Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

4-1 Gassama

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

66

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Imre 19
Washington 17
Maddix 13
Owlkev 12
SCO 5

BMPL

Wereham 7
Stateside 6
Pei -2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Norwich City v Watford
Rotherham United v Hull City
Oxford v Wigan
Newport v Notts Co
York City v Dorking

HDADH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Looks like we may have a question to answer, whether to proceed with the midfielder signing or look for a striker now we are back to square one on the striker front, with Dike looking to be out again and Josh Maja out for a couple of months with a fractured ankle.

On Dike you have to feel for the lad and give him every opportunity, but realistically you also have to question whether he will ever play anywhere near his promise again. Obviously there is something going on with him physically which is making him more prone to serious injury than the norm, you also have to question whether he will now ever recover mentally from these setbacks, by that I mean the majority of his injuries seam to be caused by impact on landing or extension (stretching), will he ever be able to function properly or in the back of his mind will he be thinking, "I am not jumping/reaching for that, I might do something bad", even if that thought is in the sub-conscious?

Not just thinking of just Dike here, but I dread to think how much of our wage bill has gone up in smoke in the treatment room this season.