Struggling League One side Blackpool have appointed former Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt as their manager on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

The 43-year-old returns to management having left Bolton in January after four and a half years at the club.

Evatt, who spent seven years with the Tangerines during his playing career, replaces Steve Bruce who was sacked earlier in October.

Blackpool are bottom of the third tier with nine points from 13 matches.

"It's incredibly emotional to return here and to be given this opportunity," he told the club website., external

"I know first hand what this club and its supporters can achieve together. We all want to see fearless attacking football where Bloomfield Road is a really tough place for any team to play."

His first game in charge of the club he made 254 appearances for as a player will be Saturday's trip to fellow strugglers Peterborough.

Evatt began his managerial career with Barrow in June 2018 after a brief spell in caretaker charge of Chesterfield the previous season.

He guided the Bluebirds to promotion to the English Football League after the Covid-interrupted 2019-20 season and left to take over then League Two Bolton in the summer of 2020.

Despite a poor start to the season he eventually guided them back to League One at the first time of asking with a third-placed finish.

Back-to-back play-off finishes in the third tier followed in 2022-23 and 23-24 but they were unable to secure promotion back to the the Championship.

They lost to Oxford United in the League One play-off final in May 2024 and struggled for form in the first half of last term, leading to his departure in January of this year.

Having finished ninth in League One last season, Blackpool had a poor start to this season under Bruce and by the time of his exit, the club had lost seven out of 11 league games and were second from bottom of the table.

Stephen Dobbie has taken charge of the club on a temporary basis and saw out one win from three games in all competitions, however they have not won in the league since beating Barnsley 1-0 on 20 September.

Dobbie and Steve Banks will remain on the coaching staff, while Evatt will be assisted by former Blackpool team-mate Stephen Crainey.

Second City boys arrive at Deepdale, fresh up after cruising League 1, under American owners although personal view they seem a bunch of classless Yanks, if you remember the Bristol St Motors final, having lost the final 2-1 to Peterborough, the owner decided to give them a pep talk after the game, delaying the presentation of the trophy to United.


https://www.bcfc.com/pages/en/home

MANAGER



Christopher Paul Davies (born 27 March 1985) is a professional football coach and former player who is the manager of EFL Championship club Birmingham City.

Davies was a youth player for Reading and Wales before retiring in 2004, aged 19. He became a football coach, initially coaching youth teams in England and abroad, before becoming assistant to Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City, Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City.

After a season at Tottenham Hotspur as the senior assistant coach to Ange Postecoglou, Davies became manager of Birmingham City in 2024.

THE BOYS



FORM GUIDE



PNE 11 BRUM 6

Team News

Paul Heckingbottom is expected to be able to call upon the same group of players which headed to The Hawthorns at the weekend.

The manager has spoken all season long about the importance of his whole squad being ready when needed and with three games in a week, changes could be necessary to keep things fresh.

Brad Potts, Jordan Thompson, Pol Valentín, Robbie Brady and Will Keane remain unavailable.

The Visitors

Chris Davies’ Birmingham City took League One by storm last season, finishing the campaign with an EFL record 111 points to secure their return to the second tier.

Blues had a busy summer transfer window, bringing in a real mix of youth and experience, with the return of former player Demarai Gray arguably their standout acquisition.

Birmingham have made a steady start to Championship life, accumulating 12 points in ten matches, although they were beaten 3-2 by Hull City at the weekend.

Match Officials

Referee: Lewis Smith
Assistant Referees: Alex James and Mark Stevens
Fourth Official: Robert Madley

Lewis Smith, who was the referee for PNE’s victory over Derby County last month, will take be the main official again on Tuesday night.

So far this season, Smith has refereed six matches, showing 22 yellow cards in that time.

We’ve Met Before

The last time Birmingham City were at Deepdale in September 2023, league leaders PNE secured a sixth straight victory.

THE MATCH

WEDNESDAY 22ND OCTOBER KO 8:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Back after the international break and we went down to the Addicks. Lowe had a header saved but it was Charlton who took the lead in the 17th minute, Horvath couldn't hold a Carey shot and Carey was quickest to put the rebound in. Iorfa went off injured and in the last minute of the half Charlton went 2 up. Bree's free kick was headed in from close range by Burke. 2-0 at halftime. Onto the 2nd half and we had more of the ball, Ingelsson had a header put just over the bar, then we were back in the game when Fusire's shot hit the post and Lowe put in the rebound. Ugbo had the chance to equalise but put his header wide. With the game into into it's last minute, Horvath was sent off for taking out Olaofe.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and a return to Hillsborough as 2nd placed Middlesboro journey south. Boro have made an excellent start to the season, losing just one of there first ten games and are currently 2nd in the table. If they can maintain the form they will certainly be somewhere in the top 6, possibly an automatic spot. They are managed by Rob Edwards, who took over in June this year. Edwards had previously been in charge of Luton who he got to the premier league. There leading scorers this season are Conway and Sene with 2 goals a piece. If they find a regular goal-scorer they could claim that automatic spot for promotion.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 50
MIDD 49
DRAW 20

CURRENT FORM

OWLS   L L D D W L                                                            

MIDD W L D D W D

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

THOMAS KIRK
Johnathon Bickerdike and Darren Williams
Fourth Official : Andrew Kitchen

THE TEAM

Horvath
Palmer Iorfa Weaver M Lowe Amass
Valery Ingelsson Bannan
Brown Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-3 Brown

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

21650

BML LEAGUE

Maddix 6
SCO 3
Owlkev 3
Imre 1
Washington 1

BMPL

Stateside 5
Pei -4
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Real Madrid v Juventus
Swansea v QPR
Watford v WBA
Wrexham v Oxford
Exeter v Plymouth

HHAHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

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 12:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 203 pts
   
2. jjamez = 199 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 180 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 166 pts
   
5. ritchiebaby = 155 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 137 pts
   

Thursday 23rd October:
League One:
Exeter City v Plymouth Argyle (20:00)

Saturday 25th October:
League One:
Wycombe v Town
Town scorers:
Wycombe scorers:

Mansfield Town v Wigan Athletic (12:30)
Barnsley v Rotherham United
Northampton Town v Luton Town
Peterborough United v Blackpool

Sunday 26th October:
Premier League:
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Burnley (14:00)

Monday 27th October:
League One:
Port Vale v Stockport County (20:00)

Tuesday 28th October:
Bradford City v Lincoln City

EFL Cup 4th round:
Wrexham v Cardiff City (20:00)

Wednesday 29th October:
Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion
Liverpool v Crystal Palace

Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Rangers

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

1. themaclad = 204 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 194 pts
   
3. Devongone = 179 pts
   
4. Amelia Chaffinch = 160 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 159 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 155 pts
   

Friday 24th October:
Championship:
Preston North End v Sheffield United (20:00)

Saturday 25th October:
Sheffield Wednesday v Oxford United

League One:
Wycombe v Town
Town scorers:
Wycombe scorers:

Bolton Wanderers v Cardiff City (12:30)
AFC Wimbledon v Burton Albion
Leyton Orient v Lincoln City
Reading v Doncaster Rovers
Stevenage v Bradford City

League Two:
Tranmere Rovers v Chesterfield

Sunday 26th October:
Premier League:
Everton v Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

Tuesday 28th October:
League One:
Mansfield Town v Plymouth Argyle

EFL Cup 4th round:
Grimsby Town v Brentford

Wednesday 29th October:
Swansea City v Manchester City

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

Group A

A.A.A. 22
Minizin 20
B.B.B. 18
BaggieOne 17
Zimnan 16
Stairs 15
BaggieVicar 13
Twerton 7

Excellent week for nearly everyone with a season's second highest total of 128 points including 4 players setting new weekly season high scores, the Brighton win over Newcastle setting a new single game score with 22 points and the group as a whole securing a season high 14 correct scores!!

AAA scored 22 points for his first top spot of the season. He scored on 7 games including 3 CSs with one of these being the Bonus, if only he could have got anything on the Gamball he could have set a season high score!! Minizin continues his consistency with 20 points in 2nd place helped by 2 CSs, one on the Gamball and positive points on all his balls. BBB is 3rd with 18 points, by far his best week since Week 1.

BaggieOne is 4th with 17 points, a bit of a return to the sort of form he was showing earlier in the season, he scored on 7 games but unlike others he failed to turn any of them into Correct Scores to keep his score down a bit. Zinman is 5th, not used to typing his name this early in the write up but this week he set a new high score for himself of 16 points, so a definite improvement for him!! Like his superior Zin family member he did manage a CS on the Gamball along with 2 other CSs but missed on his Bonus.

Stairs is 6th with 15 points and BaggieVicar had a season high 13 points in 7th spot. Both of them scored maximums on the Bonus but not much else overall. Bottom spot this week belongs to Twerton with 7 points, secured with a CR on the Gamball and one CS.

116 BaggieOne
105 Minizin
99 Stairs
80 Twerton
78 A.A.A.
71 B.B.B.
70 BaggieVicar
45 Zinman

BaggieOne's lead at the top of the table is now down to just 11 over Minizin, the closest anyone has been to him since week 4!! Both him and Minizin raced past the 100 points mark this week as well. Stairs is still 3rd and only a point off his century and the top 3 have now opened a 19 point gap on the rest!!

Twerton is top of the rest with 80 points, closely followed by AAA in 5th, BBB in 6th and BaggieVicar in 7th. BaggieVicar is riding a bit of a rollercoaster, up one week, down the next, this week he dropped 2 places after gaining those a couple of week ago!!

Zinman must be slightly frustrated, he put in a season high score for himself yet still finished in the bottom half of the weekly table and has seen the gap above him stretch to 25 points despite his season best effort!!!!

Cheers
SCO


Group B

Lady Jane 28 (twenty eight) - yes, I'm old enough to remember the BBC teleprinter.
Amelia 15
Snooty 14
Derby 13
SCO 11
Salop 10
4eva 6
Themaclad 3

A record setting week for Group B. For the first time this season we saw a three figure total points haul, with the highest number of correct results, 41 - 11 higher than the previous best. We saw a rare positive return for the gamball and, possibly for the first time ever, one player got every single result correct. 10 out of 10 for Lady Jane!

Not surprisingly Lady Jane sits on top of the table with a season's high score of 28 points. As well as 10 correct results, she also got 2 correct scores plus the scoreball. She was also the only player to score on the gamball. 15 points would have been enough to secure top spot most weeks but Amelia has to settle for 2nd place with 6 correct results, half of them spot on but missing out on both of the main balls. Snooty takes 3rd, one fewer correct result and scores than Amelia but scoring on his bonus.

Derby, SCO and Salop all reached double figures, Derby and SCO scoring on 5 games though SCO was the only player this week not to predict a correct score. Salop is a point behind SCO with all 3 players scoring on their gamballs.

Not such a good week for 4eva and Themaclad. 4eva matched Salop's number of correct scores and results but was the only player to miss out on all his balls. Themaclad trailed by some distance with only 2 correct predictions though at least he managed to avoid a negative score!

83 SCO
77 Lady Jane
73 4eva
68 Snooty
66 Themaclad
61 Derby
54 Amelia
45 Salop

SCO retains his lead but Lady Jane's amazing week sees her jump from 5th to 2nd place. Early pacesetter Themaclad drops to 5th having secured just 7 points from the last 3 weeks - Zinman like scoring!

Zin

Gamball:
Portsmouth - Stoke

Others:
Man Utd - Brighton
Ipswich - WBA
Blackburn - Southampton
Bristol C - Birmingham
Derby - QPR
Millwall - Leicester
Sheff Wed - Oxford
Wolves - Burnley
Everton - Spurs

Notts County defender Lewis Macari has been given a suspended three-month ban for breaching betting rules over the course of almost three years.

The 23-year-old has also been fined £750 by an independent regulatory commission and warned about his conduct after he pleaded guilty to placing 354 bets on matches between 25 February, 2020 and 4 December, 2022.

However, he will not serve a suspension as long he does not break the Football Association's rules on betting again in the next 12 months.

None of the bets Macari made came during his time with League Two side Notts County.

The Scottish defender, who is the grandson of former Manchester United midfielder and ex-Stoke City boss Lou Macari, was on the books at Stoke when he placed the bets.

Of the 354 bets made across four different seasons, 44 were placed on Stoke during his time there.

Among the bets was an £5 accumulator that included Stoke's Under-23 side beating Kidsgrove Athletic in the English County Cup.

While he was part of that team, it was not a match he was involved in. And, while Stoke won, other results went against him meaning the bet was unsuccessful.

In total, he placed just over £3,000 worth of bets and made a net loss of about £470.

With the bets placed when Macari was aged between 18 and 20, it was stated in the regulatory commission's written reasons, external that he "demonstrated a level of wilful ignorance as to the FA betting rules".

During the time that Macari placed bets, he also had a loan spell with Dundalk in the League of Ireland.

It was there, and his his exposure to first-team football, that the player argued that he "realised that he could not be betting when he was a 'proper' professional".

In an interview during the investigation into his bets, Macari said he was aware of betting rules but added he was "not quite switched on into thinking it really mattered to me" as he had not been around first teams.

In July, just a week after Macari had been charged, Notts boss Martin Paterson said the club would "support and protect" their player.

The defender has remained part of the squad throughout, featured in pre-season matches on the club's trip to Germany soon after he was charged and has since gone on to feature five times for the Magpies this season.