Sadly clashes with the Vuelta and even worse actually have to go to work for two days so will miss a fair bit of it, hopefully also it will get to the last stage due tLiz pegging out last year.
Usually ITV cover this one live

The Villa fans will be looking forward to another goal-fest in the Europa Conference 2nd leg and who could blame them? I hope Unai Emery gives us the same respect as last week and selects a strong team. That way Villa might take their foot off the gas and let us off lightly. If, as I suspect, he treats this game as a trial game for many of his second string players, they will be desperate to show him how good they are. Probably at least half of the Villa first team squad are regular internationalists, so even their second string players will be streets ahead of ours.

As for Hibs, it will be a case of expect the worst and hope for the best. I'd like to think we could get on the scoresheet down there and that would almost be a moral victory. I've never been over-excited about gaining a European place, because the "reward" is being shown how far behind we are in a football sense. Fair enough, the extra revenue helps, but our League form and prospects are much more important.

Thankfully I'll be bowling on Thursday and unable to watch the game.

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. neonfoxinthebox = 63 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 62 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 55 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 54 pts
   
5. themaclad = 49 pts
   
6. jjamez = 43 pts
   

Saturday September 2nd:
West Brom v Town
Town scorers:
WBA scorers:

Sunderland v Southampton (12:30)
Swansea City v Bristol City (12:30)
Coventry City v Watford
Ipswich Town v Cardiff City
Leeds United v Sheffield Wednesday
Stoke City v Preston North End

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Sheffield United v Everton (12:30)

Sunday:
Arsenal v Manchester United (16:30)

Scottish Premiership:
Sunday:
Rangers v Celtic (12:00)

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

1. Lord Snooty = 74 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 59 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 57 pts
   
4. WakeyTerrier = 49 pts
   
5. Devongone = 48 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 43 pts
   

Saturday September 2nd:
West Brom v Town
Town scorers:
WBA scorers:

Birmingham City v Millwall (12:30)
Leicester City v Hull City
Middlesbrough v Queens Park Rangers
Plymouth Argyle v Blackburn Rovers
Rotherham United v Norwich City

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Friday:
Luton Town v West Ham United

Sunday:
Liverpool v Aston Villa (14:00)

Scottish Premiership:
Sunday:
Aberdeen v Hibernian (15:00)

National League:
Saturday:
Aldershot Town v Chesterfield

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

This week's results will be late as me and Chaffers are off for a long weekend in the Midlands, taking in the West Bromwich away game and other Black Country attractions.

Quote:Hibernian have sacked manager Lee Johnson after five defeats in nine games this season.

Is this the right call? Who should Hibs select as a replacement?

Back to Easter Road in the Premiership with a better chance of getting a positive result than against Villa. Main man 0762 has retired, so a suitable replacement is needed quickly. Interim stand-in ritchie is manning the fort manfully, but is he the man for the job?

Tomorrow's visitors are Livingston, who are challenging Hibs for the worst team in the league award. No league goals for them so far, so a game against us looks perfect for them. Joel Nouble seems to be highly thought of by greetin'-faced David Martindale and a definite danger to the Hibs defence. The other big danger to the Hibs defence is themselves, so they'd better get their sleeves rolled up and battle for their places (and possibly futures).

It's virtually impossible to work out what Lee Johnson is thinking, but surely Adam le Fondre (ALF) is worth a start to continue his good scoring form in Scottish football, ready for his saviour act down at Villa Park next week. Youan should also be given a full game so that he can learn to recognise the others in green and white and pass the ball to them before he runs down several blind alleys.

Friday

Rochdale 1-1 Bromley
Solihull Moors 2-1 Halifax
Southend 2-3 Eastleigh

Saturday

Aldershot 1-3 Wealdstone
Altrincham 0-2 Chesterfield
Boreham Wood 2-0 Oldham
Dag & Red 0-3 Barnet
Dorking 1-1 York
Ebbsfleet 2-0 Kidderminster
Gateshead 2-1 Woking
Maidenhead United 2-2 Oxford City
Hartlepool 3-1 Fylde

Monday

Fylde 0-2 Altrincham
Barnet 3-2 Ebbsfleet
Bromley 1-0 Southend
Chesterfield 3-1 Hartlepool
Eastleigh 2-1 Aldershot
Halifax 1-2 Gateshead
Kidderminster 1-0 Maidenhead United
Oldham 0-3 Solihull Moors
Oxford City 1-0 Boreham Wood
Wealdstone 2-0 Dag & Red
Woking 1-2 Dorking
York 1-1 Rochdale


League Table After Matchday 4

Amelia - 123
Dancing - 86
Spireitematt - 84
Lord Snoots - 72
SaltergateBorn - 71
St Charles - 64
Devon - 36

Premier League

B.B.B. 17
Stairs 17
Minizin 16
Zinman 6
Dingle 5
Derby 4
L Jane 4
Blue B 0

Bit of a drop in the total scores this week but 3 solid performances at the top. BBB and Stairs lead the way with 17 points. Stairs got a seasons high 3 CSs including a spot on Bonus and BBB had 2 out of his 6 scoring games. Minizin is just a single point behind with 16 points, like Stairs he too got 3 CSs.

Big drop off to the rest, led by Zin with 6 points, with Dingle one back on 4. Derby and LJ finished on 4 and BlueBaggie set the low score for the season with a big fat zero!!

50 Minizin
40 Stairs
37 Zinman
31 Derby
29 BBB
25 Blue Baggie
22 Dingle
20 Lady Jane

Some big movers this week, BBB and Stairs both jumping 3 places. Minizin stays top and now has a 10 point lead over Stairs. Zinman and Derby dropped places and BBB is now on their heels in 5th. Blue dropped 2 places and Dingle and LJ both dropped a place to sit in the bottom two relegation spots.

Early days but already a 30 point gap between top and bottom!!

Championship

Twerton 17
Themaclad 13
Baggie One 11
AAA 11
Sanjay 10
SCO 8
Snooty -1

Two spot on Gamball predictions and not surprisingly it's those 2 who head the week's table. Twerton once again takes the top spot - 100% record so far - with his 3rd double figure score, this one being his highest as he makes a flying start to the season. He added a bonus correct result and on eother correct score to give him a 4 point lead over Themaclad in 2nd place. Like Twerton he got 2 correct scores from his 4 correct predictions but his failure on the bonus was costly.

3 other players, BaggieOne, AAA and Sanjay achieved double figure scores, BaggieOne maxing out his bonus while AAA and Sanjay both scored from the gamball. The only players to get the scoreball point are the 2 at the foot of the table. SCO at least had a reasonable week with 8 points but..... The chances of a negative score are now reduced with the relaxed penalty for getting the gamball wrong, but it's only taken 3 weeks for us to get one and Snooty takes that dubious honour - just 1 correct prediction and the scoreball for him this week.

Twerton 46
AAA 31
Themaclad 24
Sanjay 24
SCO 21
BaggieOne 20
Snooty 16

A great start for Twerton sees him open up a 15 point lead in just 3 weeks - can he keep up this pace? AAA retains 2nd spot with the rest closely grouped as you would expect this early in the season. Snooty's dreadful week takes him from 3rd to bottom and, just like in the Premier, we have a 30 point gap from top to bottom.