To be honest he could have waited a couple of weeks and gone back to Exeter


Bristol Rovers have appointed former Rotherham and Exeter boss Matt Taylor as their new manager on a three-and-half year deal.

Taylor spent 13 months with the Millers before being sacked on 13 November with the club 22nd in the Championship.

The 41-year-old previously led Exeter to promotion to League One in 2021-22.

Taylor replaces Joey Barton who was sacked by Rovers on 26 October after almost three years in charge and with the team 16th in League One.

"We would like to thank our fans for being patient with us throughout this thorough process whilst we identified the correct person to lead us in this new era for Bristol Rovers," chairman Hussain Al-Saeed said.

"Matt shared our visions of growing the club and has bought into our project. I am sure you will all join me in welcoming Matt to the club and wishing him every success."

Interim boss Andy Mangan, who only lost one of his seven league matches in charge to take Rovers up to 11th, will be leaving the club.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Andy Mangan for all of his efforts during his time as interim manager," Al-Saeed added.

"We are confident that he will go on to have a successful career as a football manager and he will always be welcome here."

As a player Taylor spent the majority of his career at St James Park, captaining Exeter to promotion from non-league to League One. He also played for Charlton Athletic and Cheltenham before retiring in 2016 while playing for Bath City.

He returned to Devon to begin his coaching career and took over at the Grecians in 2018.

Taylor left in October 2022 to become Millers boss before departing last month.

'An appointment that makes sense'
Analysis - Richard Hoskin, BBC Radio Bristol sport editor

The time had definitely come for Rovers to name Joey Barton's replacement, 36 days since his departure.

Matt Taylor was still at Rotherham when Barton left the club - but amongst the many, many names linked with the job - this makes sense - and was the probably most realistic appointment.

He did well at Exeter, developing players like Sam Nombe and Jevani Brown - the latter he'll now be reunited with.

Granted Rotherham parted company with him recently, but that was always going to be a challenge with a limited budget.

His immediate mission is to kickstart Rovers season - and justify the faith and patience shown by new co-owner Hussain Al-Saeed.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 2ND DECEMBER KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Jeff Hendricks was the unlikely hero as we grabbed a well deserved point against the league leaders. We should have been 2 up after just 4 minutes, Bannan missing badly and then Pato having a shot blocked. We then go and concede when a cross from the right found Fatawu unmarked and he fired past Dawson. We had a few more chances but couldn't find the back of the net. Onto the 2nd half and we continued to plug away and create a few chances but couldn't find the back of the net. Then into stoppage time and  Hendricks latched onto Paterson's flick and fired in the equaliser. Leicester nearly stole the points but Dawson saved well.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH

Next up and Blackburn make the journey over the Pennine's. Rovers seem to either win or lose there games, winning 9, losing 8 and drawing only 1 of the 18 games. They currently lie in 7th place, just 2 points off the playoffs and should be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. They are managed by Jon Dahl Tomasson who had a decent career as a player and now is trying his hand at management. There main threat is Sammie Szmodics who has 13 goals already this season, which is 4 more than our entire squad     



DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 60
BLACK 57
DRAWS 39 

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                                                 

BLACK             -                                                           

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

DAVID WEBB
Craig Taylor and Matthew McGrath
Fourth Official : Scott Simpson

THE TEAM

352

Vazquez
Palmer Ihiekwe Bernard
Paterson Bannan Vaulks Byers Johnson
Cadamarteri Wndass

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Byers

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

30

ATTENDANCE

24578

BML LEAGUE

Washington 10
Maddix 5
Imre 4
Owlkev 1
SCO 1

BMPL

Stateside 3
Wereham 3
Pei -9

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Burnley v Sheffield United
Leeds v Middlesbrough
Maidstone v Barrow
Eastleigh v Reading
Chelsea v Brighton

HHAAD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Yes, that's right, this is early notification for the 2024 Championships, to be held in Oestersund, Sweden in April. More urgently the Qualification Event is to be held in Dumfries, Scotland from Saturday 2 December to Thursday 7 December. This includes 3 of the Home Nations, namely England, Ireland and Wales.

A total of 26 teams are divided into four groups, where they will play a round-robin format. Round-robin play begins at 17:00 on Saturday 2 December and goes on until 19:30 on Tuesday 5 December. After the round-robin stage, the top two teams in each group will progress to the play-offs, which will determine the four World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship qualifiers.  The qualification games will take place on Wednesday 6 December at 10:00 and 15:00 and the final games will be at 10:00 on Thursday 7 December.

The groups are as follows:
Group A: Germany, India, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Chinese Taipei and Ukraine
Group B: Austria, China, France, Jamacia, Poland, Portugal and Wales
Group C: England, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Mexico and Slovenia
Group D: Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Lithuania, New Zealand and Slovakia

Ireland's team is Alison Fyfe and John Wilson
Wales are represented by Laura Beevers and Garry Coombs
England are once again the daughter and father duo of Lina Opel and Michael Opel

Photos will follow (once I can trace the Irish one - where is their publicity officer hiding?) along with the playing schedule.

Premier League

Dingle 15
Stairs 14
Derby 10
Zinman 6
B.B.B. 5
Blue B 4
Minizin 2
Lady J 2

Another mediocre week for the PL, all seem to be saving their energy for the Xmas rush!! Dingle takes top spot this week for the first time this season with 15 points. His score was a classic case of not screwing up on the balls, he managed a CR on the Gamball and Bonus and picked up the scoreball as well. Stairs had his best score for weeks in 2nd spot with 14 points. Like Dingle, he scored positive points on all his balls. Derby was the only other player in double figures on 10 points, he only scored on 4 games, but crucially he too scored on all his balls!! Pretty rare to find all the top 3 scoring on all their balls!

Bit of a drop to Zinman with 6 points, he got a CR on the Gamball but his score was held back by missing on the Bonus. BBB got 5 points in 5th and Blue was a single point behind, BBB missed on the two main balls, whereas Blue got a CR on the Gamball but little else.

The bottom two were Minizin and Lady Jane, both with only two points. They both got there in identical ways by missing on all their balls and cancelling that out with 3 CRs elsewhere.

150 Zinman
150 Derby
148 Minizin
138 Blue Baggie
135 BBB
127 Stairs
115 Lady Jane
105 Dingle

Four positional changes this week. Derby and Zinman are joint top after both leapfrogged Minizin who drops to third. Stairs moved ahead of LJ after his good week and Dingle finally gets over the 100 point mark, the last player in the PL to achieve this.

Cheers
SCO

Championship

BaggieOne 12pts
Twerton 9
Snooty 7
Sanjay 2
AAA 2
Themaclad 1
SCO -1

Another low scoring week in the Championship - the 2nd worst of the season so far. Just one player in double figures, just 1 positive bonus and the joint lowest total of correct scores - just 2. In such a low scoring week it was strange that the gamball produced a decent return with 5 players forecasting a Baggies win - SCO and Snooty can be forgiven for not having the same faith as most of us!

BaggieOne sits on top, largely thanks to a gamball maximum though he also shared the week's highest number of correct scores and results. Twerton got back to some sort of form securing 2nd place. No correct scores and only 3 correct predictions though he did at least score on his bonus. Snooty wasn't far behind, matching B1's number of CS/CRs but losing out on the gamball and bonus.

After that it wasn't great. Sanjay chose not to play the gamball but would have doubled his points if he'd done so. AAA, Themaclad and SCO all managed to score on just one game - AAA and Themaclad were saved from a negative score thanks to their single correct prediction being the gamball. SCO wasn't so lucky!

Snooty 134
AAA 130
Twerton 128
SCO 125
BaggieOne 119
Themaclad 107
Sanjay 67

Changes at the top again this week with Snooty edging above AAA. Twerton and SCO also swap places with BaggieOne getting closer to the top 4. At the bottom at least Sanjay closed the gap between him and Themaclad - ok, it was only a single point closer but I think he needs some positive thoughts this week!

The Championship's bonus ball problem just keeps growing. We now have only 2 players, AAA and Twerton in positive territory with this ball - overall it's cost 51 points! BaggieOne and Sanjay are also struggling to turn correct results into CSs - both have managed just 6 so far, in B1's case this is just 12% of his correct results.

Zin

When I die I've requested a VAR be run just in case a handball or an offside has been missed.

Cambridge United have sacked head coach Mark Bonner following Tuesday's 3-0 home defeat by Lincoln City.

The U's only escaped relegation on the final day of last season and are currently 18th in League One.

Cambridge-born Bonner, 38, was appointed in January 2020, initially as interim boss, and agreed a new "long-term" contract in September.

The U's are the seventh third-tier team to change managers this season - and 21st in the English Football League.

Owner Paul Barry said Bonner would go down as "one of the most important people in the history of Cambridge United".

"All of us - owners, board, staff, players and fans - know how lucky we have been to have him and how hard this decision has been," Barry added.

"Cambridge United has made huge strides on and off the pitch over the last five years and Mark has been instrumental in building our strong foundations for the future, creating special memories and moments for all of us along the way - most notably promotion during lockdown, Newcastle away in the FA Cup and the great escape last season.

"He has done it through his leadership and energy, his talent as a coach, his natural communication and empathy, and his desire to push the club forward on and off the pitch as someone born and brought up in Cambridge, who genuinely cares about our city and its communities.

"But in football, sometimes you do have to make decisions you believe are right for the long-term future of the club - difficult though they can sometimes be."

Barry Corr and former Crawley boss Kevin Betsy have been put in charge of the first team on an interim basis.

The defeat by Lincoln was Cambridge's third in a row - a run which began with a 5-0 thrashing at Peterborough in the Cambridgeshire derby.

They have only won one of their past 13 league matches.

"We're really disappointed because it's been a bad few days for us," Bonner told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire after the defeat by the Imps.

Listen to Mark Bonner's post-match interview following Lincoln defeat
"It's nothing that can't be fixed if everybody rolls their sleeves up, has a little bit of belief in themselves that they can do it.

"We're definitely a few wins short of where we should be but on the one hand we have to remember who we are, because playing at this level is tough for us, and on the other, do better than we have if we want to make sure we are a team that's having a more comfortable season."

Bonner first joined the staff at Cambridge almost 20 years ago and was assistant head coach under Joe Dunne and Colin Calderwood before taking charge when the latter left the club.

He was confirmed in the head coach role in March 2020 and led the team to promotion the following year by finishing second in League Two.

They also achieved one of the best results in the club's history when they won 1-0 against Newcastle at St James' Park in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2022.


The end of the Mark Bonner era at Cambridge United will be marked with a mixture of pride and regret; pride in the achievements of a local lad who made good, and regret that it ended with string of results that have threatened to turn this campaign into a carbon copy of last season's all too close flirtation with relegation.

Having worked in the Football in the Community scheme and youth development, he knew the club about as well as anyone and 'got it' probably better than any of his predecessors. To take the club back to the third tier for the first time in almost 20 years would have been a great achievement in itself, but to do so in his first full season in charge - and that season being the Covid one - made it something very special.

Bonner used the promotion bounce to settle the club in a comfortable mid-table finish in League One at the first time of asking, but they struggled with second season syndrome and only avoided the drop on the final day thanks, in part, to favourable results elsewhere.

Having survived by the skin of their teeth last season, the hope was for a more comfortable campaign this time around, but a dearth of goals, a poor run of form and a hammering at local rivals Peterborough proved to be a bridge too far.

Having successfully appointed from within last time, the club will initially give a chance to assistant head coach Barry Corr to throw his hat into the ring, alongside Kevin Betsy.

Whilst it might be an audition, the club will be aware that December brings a busy run of fixtures before the January window opens, so there's not a huge margin for error.

Grimsby Town have appointed former Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell as their head coach on a deal until the end of the 2025-26 season.

The 42-year-old replaces Paul Hurst, who was sacked by the Mariners in October after a run of one win in 10 League Two games left them 21st.

It is Artell's first managerial role since leaving Crewe in April 2022.

"It's an exciting time to be part of this football club," Artell told the club's official website.

"I think there's a lot of hard work ahead, both on and off the pitch, but it's a challenge that I'm excited about and that I can certainly get on board with.

"I think it's been well documented now that I've turned down a few jobs in League Two, I turned down one last week, and I turned down assistant coach at Standard Liege in Belgium before that.

"The key thing is that there's a plan. [Owners] Jason [Stockwood] and Andrew [Pettit] have been absolutely explicit in the detail of where they want this club to go and I went 'that'll do'.

"Quite a lot of other clubs think that I'm the plan and I understand that but, at the same time, it's not just that. I've been mightily impressed by Jason and Andrew and what they have said."

Artell, who won seven international caps for Gibraltar during his playing career, was appointed by Crewe in January 2017 following the sacking of Steve Davis and led them to promotion from the fourth tier during the Covid-interrupted 2019-20 season.

He was the eighth longest-serving manager in English league football before he was sacked by the Railwaymen following their relegation to League Two late in the 2021-22 campaign.

"What really stood out to us when we looked at David's record is the impact his coaching had on the performance and quality of football played by his teams," Grimsby chairman Stockwood said.

"We've spoken before about playing attractive football in the 'Grimsby way', and we believe that we have secured a head coach who can work to produce that for our fans."