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. St Charles Owl = 94 pts
   
2. neonfoxinthebox = 93 pts
   
3. Baggiebob(BBB) = 82 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 81 pts
   
5. jjamez = 71 pts
   
6. themaclad = 67 pts
   

Friday 15th September:
Hull City v Coventry City
Southampton v Leicester City

Saturday 16th September:
Town v Rotherham
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Blackburn Rovers v Middlesbrough
Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion
Norwich City v Stoke City
Preston North End v Plymouth Argyle
Queens Park Rangers v Sunderland
Sheffield Wednesday v Ipswich Town
Watford v Birmingham City
Cardiff City v Swansea City (19:45)

Sunday 17th September:
Millwall v Leeds United (12:00)

Wednesday 20th September:
Town v Stoke
Town scorers:
Stoke scorers:

Bonus matches:
Champions League:
Tuesday:
Feyenoord v Celtic

Wednesday:
Bayern Munich v Manchester United

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

1. Lord Snooty = 98 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 81 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 81 pts
   
4. Devongone = 74 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 69 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 67 pts
   

Saturday 16th September:
Town v Rotherham
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Tuesday 19th September:
Bristol City v Plymouth Argyle
Cardiff City v Coventry City
Preston North End v Birmingham City
Queens Park Rangers v Swansea City
Southampton v Ipswich Town
Sheffield Wednesday v Middlesbrough

Wednesday 20th September:
Town v Stoke
Town scorers:
Stoke scorers:

Blackburn Rovers v Sunderland
Hull City v Leeds United
Millwall v Rotherham United
Watford v West Bromwich Albion
Norwich City v Leicester City

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Scottish Premiership:
Kilmarnock v Hibernian

National League:
Ebbsfleet United v Chesterfield

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

This is becoming a very weird feeling indeed. I'm in my 50s and scotland have never skooshed a qualifying campaign like this!!!

Scotlands recent record is absolutely outstanding, something like 11 qualifiers we've won on the bounce now. If norway don't win midweek we have already made it to Germany.

Clarke is a terrific coach, he's even made Lyndon Dykes into an international player ffs..... i'm really surprised that some of the lower EPL or championship sides haven't tried for him as boss.

Gamball:
Huddersfield - Rotherham

Others:
Man Utd - Brighton
Blackburn - Middlesbrough
Bristol C - WBA
QPR - Sunderland
Sheff W - Ipswich
Cardiff - Swansea
Watford - Birmingham
Preston - Plymouth
Millwall - Leeds

League One club Charlton Athletic have appointed former Blackpool boss Michael Appleton as their new head coach.

He replaces Dean Holden, who was sacked on 27 August after the Addicks lost four of their first five league games at the start of the season.

The 47-year-old, who has also had stints managing Oxford United and Lincoln City among others, has agreed a two-year contract at The Valley.

Appleton becomes Charlton's fifth different boss in two and a half years.

The south-east London club are 16th in the table, six points off the play-offs and four points above the relegation zone, after six games of the campaign.

His first match in charge will be at Stevenage on Saturday, 16 September.

Charlton's technical director Andy Scott said Appleton has a "winning mentality" and is a coach "who knows what it takes to get a team promoted".

"Michael demonstrated very clearly that he would have the ability to take the current group and mould them into a successful team," Scott told the club website.

"He has worked at the very top level so he understands what high standards are required to win.

"He has had many positive and negative experiences as a manager that have shaped him into the coach that we believe will be the best person for the job.

Appleton had been out of work since being sacked by Blackpool, then in the Championship, in January, having won seven of his 29 games during what was his second spell in charge of the Tangerines.

Jason Pearce had been in charge of Charlton on an interim basis following Holden's departure, overseeing a 2-1 win over Fleetwood and a defeat at Crawley Town in the EFL Trophy.

Appleton looks to build 'winning mentality'
Charlton were taken over by SE7 Partners, a company headed by former Sunderland director Charlie Methven, in July and Appleton said he will "give everything to deliver success" for the club.

"I want us to develop a team that excites us all, that never gives up and that plays on the front foot," he added.

"I want my players to express themselves and feel comfortable in the way we aim to play. We want to build a winning mentality, starting immediately."

After a year with Portsmouth and spells with Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers, Appleton led Oxford United to automatic promotion from League Two in 2015-16, and then guided them to an eighth-placed finish in the third tier the following season.

He left Oxford in June 2017 to become Craig Shakespeare's assistant at Premier League Leicester City, and had a brief caretaker stint in charge of the Foxes in October 2017, winning both games.

Appleton then joined Lincoln City in September 2019, with the Imps losing 2-1 to Blackpool in the League One play-off final in 2020-21.

Charlton have spent six of the past seven seasons in League One, with their most recent campaign in the Championship coming when they finished 22nd in the table in 2019-20.

Anyone else been watching Boot Dreams on BBC? It's about a group of young players who are trying to have one last chance to get a professional contract in football at a club.

In episode 3 they played our youth team and they beat them 3-1 but our youth team were wearing mismatching shirts. The shirts seemed to be youth team shirts with shirts from different seasons.

Halifax 1-1 Southend
Fylde 0-2 Aldershot
Barnet 2-2 Altrincham
Bromley 2-1 Maidenhead United
Chesterfield 5-4 Dag & Red
Eastleigh 2-1 Gateshead
Kidderminster 0-2 Rochdale
Oldham 2-3 Dorking
Oxford City 2-1 Hartlepool
Wealdstone 2-5 Ebbsfleet
Woking 1-2 Solihull Moors
York 2-1 Boreham Wood

League Table After Matchday 7

Amelia - 163
Spireitematt - 154
SaltergateBorn - 126
St Charles - 126
Dancing - 121
Lord Snoots - 118
Devon - 82

York City have appointed former Notts County and AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley as their new manager.

The 51-year-old, who spent 11 playing for Wimbledon, has agreed a three-year deal at the National League side.

He replaces Michael Morton who was sacked by the Minstermen last month after a winless start to the season.

Ardley spent more than six years in charge of AFC Wimbledon, guiding them to League One for the first time after winning the 2016 League Two play-offs.

He joined Notts County in November 2018 but could not stop them from being relegated from the English Football League for the first time.

The following season Notts were third in the National League before the season was curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They did make the re-scheduled play-offs but were beaten by Harrogate Town in the final, with Ardley sacked in March 2021.

His most recent role saw spend the past two seasons on charge at Solihull Moors, guiding the club to third place in the National League in 2022 before losing in the play-off final.

He left by mutual consent in June after a mid-table finish last season.

Blue B 19
Derby 18
Minizin 15
Stairs 12
Lady J 10
Zinman 7
B.B.B. 7
Dingle 0

Bit of a mixed bag this week overall. BlueBaggie finally finds a bit of form and tops the table this week with 19 points, a season's high for him. A max on the Bonus and CR on the Gamball certainly helps your score as he saw!! Derby is 2nd just a point back, like Blue he scored well on his balls including a max on the Bonus, the only difference was he missed ion the Scoreball. Minizin keep up the pace in 3rd with 15 points, like the 2 above him he had no negatives on his balls and added one CS to them.

League leader Stairs is 4th with 12 points, like the top three, no negatives on the balls almost guarantees you a decent enough score. Lady Jane is 5th with 10 points and Zinman in 6th with 7 points both missed on the Gamball, BBB also ended with 7 points, he missed on the Bonus.

Dingle had a week to forget!! He only scored on 2 games and missed on all his balls to leave him with a big fat zero!!

77 Stairs
71 Minizin
68 Derby
54 Zinman
54 Blue Baggie
45 BBB
42 Dingle
42 Lady Jane

Stairs saw his lead cut to 6 points over Minizin with Derby just a further 3 points back. These 3 have put an early 14 point gap between them and the rest, led by Zinman and Blue, who are now not that far ahead of the bottom 3. Blue was the biggest mover, gaining 3 places this week and Dingle was the big loser dropping down 2 places to joint bottom with LJ.

Championship
Snooty 14
SCO 10
BaggieOne 9
Themaclad 6
Sanjay 3
AAA 2
Twerton 0

The lowest total points for the season so far as a lack of correct bonuses dragged the scores down - just 1 correct ball out of 7, largely down to Norwich! Correct scores were also in short supply, just 3 this week. Snooty heads the week's table with his best score so far of 14 points. Of course, he was the correct bonus ball player to complete a full set of balls for him this week. SCO scraped into double figures and his score ball put him one point ahead of BaggieOne in 3rd place. The top 3 had an identical number of correct result and score predictions and were only separated by their balls.

Nobody else gained a correct score. Themaclad, Sanjay and AAA again had the same number of correct predictions with the balls splitting them - Themaclad got 4 points from his gamball with Sanjay's scoreball keeping him ahead of AAA.

Twerton's great start came to a crashing halt as he failed to amass a single point. He only got 2 results correct and missed out on all his balls.

Twerton 62
BaggieOne 47
AAA 45
SCO 42
Snooty 41
Themaclad 39
Sanjay 35

Twerton's week off doesn't really cost him much as he keeps his comfortable early season lead. Some shuffling of the pack beneath him as BaggieOne climbs to 2nd with Snooty and SCO also moving up though there's not a lot between those beneath Twerton.
54 points have been scored off the balls so far with Twerton gathering 33 of those - explains his position at the top of the table!

Enjoy the week off - fixtures for week 6 will follow shortly.

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/foo...d-aged-55/

Scottish Cup First Round Draw - ties to be played on Saturday 23 September at 3pm. Of course, once the TV moguls get their hands on the fixtures, some of these will change. BBC Scotland usually show a Friday night and Monday night match from each round.

Bo'ness United F.C. v Darvel F.C.
Broxburn Athletic F.C. v Nairn County F.C.
Banks O'Dee F.C. v Dalbeattie Star F.C.
Camelon Juniors F.C. v Civil Service Strollers F.C.
Dundonald Bluebell F.C. v Kilwinning Rangers F.C.
Dunipace F.C. v Cumnock Juniors F.C.
Formartine United F.C. v Threave Rovers F.C.
Dalkeith Thistle F.C. v Clydebank F.C.
Musselburgh Athletic F.C. v Gretna 2008 FC
Penicuik Athletic F.C. v Pollok F.C.
St. Andrews United F.C. v Auchinleck Talbot F.C.
Tayport F.C. v Buckie Thistle F.C.
Brechin City F.C. v Rothes F.C.
Brora Rangers F.C. v Berwick Rangers F.C.
Clachnacuddin F.C. (1990) Ltd. v Inverurie Loco Works F.C.
Cowdenbeath F.C. v Linlithgow Rose F.C.
East Stirlingshire F.C. v Huntly F.C.
Edinburgh Univ. Assoc. F.C. v Dunbar United F.C.
Turriff United F.C. v Sauchie Juniors F.C.
Culter F.C. v Deveronvale F.C.
Gala Fairydean Rovers F.C. v Strathspey Thistle F.C.
Golspie Sutherland F.C. v Forres Mechanics F.C.
Keith F.C. v Luncarty F.C.
Lossiemouth F.C. v Beith Juniors F.C.
Wick Academy F.C. v Jeanfield Swifts F.C.
University of Stirling FC v Albion Rovers F.C.
East Kilbride FC v Whitehill Welfare F.C.
Caledonian Braves FC v Fraserburgh F.C.
Broomhill F.C. v Cumbernauld Colts FC
Tranent F.C. v Hutchison Vale F.C.

I'll be paying special attention to the 5 Uniteds in the early rounds - surely at least 1 will progress to the next round! There are also a few Athletics and Juniors and Rangers as well, plus the usual suspects from previous years.